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COUNTRY WORLD NEWS
BY STAFF WRITER
STUART TENDLER
When Jim and Judy Reed assumed management of Reed Wildlife Ranch a few years ago, responsible land stewardship was high on the list of priorities. Following through on that goal has led to a nomination for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Lone Star Stewardship Award
"The whole matter of stewardship has to do with managing things in a way that protect resources and you try to manage resources without exploiting the resources," shared Jim. "Resources include water and wildlife and wetlands. About half of this ranch is in wetlands. It's in the Trinity River floodplain. So there are things that can be done in terms of wetlands, how you manage that."
"And forest management. This is a pretty heavily wooded ranch also, so we try to manage the forest. We just planted 15,000 oak trees down in the bottoms and that's an attempt to try and rejuvenate and regenerate a lot of the older mature forest that's up and down the Trinity River," he added.
For Jim and Judy, being good stewards of the land meant, above all else, diversifying a ranch that had historically been strictly a cow/calf operation. They still have a cow/calf operation, but managing wildlife has become a much more immediate concern.
Currently, the Reed Ranch has wild boar, deer, and duck hunting operations, and work is being done to more develop a fishing operation.
Good stewardship also meant switching to a grazing system which goes hand-in-hand with a pasture and grass seed type development program to increase the amount of forage on the ranch.
But perhaps the biggest change in the ranch has been the Reed's successful attempt to better share their resource with the public; especially children.
"If I were to compare the way (the ranch) is now to back the way it was 20 years ago, it would have to be with the number of individuals that are enjoying the resource. We thought this was a beautiful resource and we were interested with sharing it with people. We think it's worthwhile for people to learn about nature. In order to do that, they need places that they can come out and visit," said Jim.
"Women are more welcome out here now. Not that they were not welcome before, but we didn't have the resources here, just in terms of bathrooms," Judy added. "We have a bathroom now; just a big step towards making people feel comfortable. We've seen a whole lot more women out, plus women hunters who enjoy this kind of thing and want to be with their husbands."
"I think it's a neat thing. And children, too, are very welcome," she continued.
The more kids the better, the Reeds feel, and they are working with at least two other schools to organize field trips to the ranch and develop a curriculum for when students come and visit.
"A lot of times, the mindset of an individual that is raised in the country is, frankly, very different,...than the mindset of an individual raised in teh suburbs." Jim offered. "We think there's a lot to be said for country living, there's a lot that can be learned from country living and a lot of the kids will never have the opportunity to get out to a place like this."
One of the things the Reeds have begun it an annual youth deer hunt. This year marked the third such hunt. The hunts are for youth 16-years-old and younger. The year 11 youth took seven deer. The Reeds also hope to expand the program and begin having a youth duck hunt.
"It's kind of neat because we have both girls and boys. Last year, we even had month come and hunt with her daughter. So, it really has some diversity. And it gives the game warden an opportunity to talk to these kids", said Judy.
A final aspect of the ranch management involves setting aside some pasture as a reserve for wildflowers and wildlife.
"We have wonderful wildflowers out here and with the rotational grazing the cows can destroy the habitat for wildflowers. So Jim has graciously allowed two of the paddocks to be wildlife paddocks. It doesn't mean that cows are in there, but they're there for a shorter period of time and they're not in there at all in the spring." Judy explained.
"Also, we've set up an observation area. Some of the wives of the hunters and some other people that are interested are setting up some feeders for bird watching and that sort of thing".
Also, Jim complimented the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for their efforts in helping the Reeds with their goals. The agency "has really been good to work with the past several years or so." When the Reeds began their deer management plan in 1993, they had asked TPWD biologists to come our and help design and write the plan.
"Since that time, we've worked with the TPWD to try, specifically, to improve wildlife habitat on the ranch", he explained.
"We feel like the diversification on this ranch is the way to go. Nature has a tendency toward diversificatiion. Normally, you don't see many monocultures in nature. You see a lot of different wildlife and a lot of different uses of a particular piece of property. A lot of times we, as farmers and ranchers, get in trouble when we only try to use a particular piece of property for one particular thing when nature wants it to be used by a lot of different things," Jim concluded.
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