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77 Ranch: Diversifying with Water As A Crop

By Lorie Woodward Cantu | Photos courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife and NCBA

77 RanchGary and Sue Price have established the 77 Ranch near Blooming Grove as a model of diversity and sustainability.

“Each new endeavor must fit our long-term plan of economic and ecological sustainability,” said Gary. “Their impact must improve the condition of the land, be sustainable and mesh with our quality of life goals. A land ethic is not easily taught or learned but rather it is acquired over time through years spent on the land observing successes and failures trying to live ‘with’ the land and all its components.”

Their newest crop is water.

The Prices and some of their neighbors in the Texas Mill Creek Watershed, part of the 18,000-square mile-Trinity River Basin chose to participate in Water As A Crop®.

“One of the things that intrigued us about Water As A Crop® is that we both see opportunity when we say that everybody’s drinking water comes across somebody’s ranch somewhere—that means we play a vital role in a pretty big product,” Gary said.

Forty percent of the people in Texas depend on the Trinity River Basin as their main water source.

“What does a gallon of silt cost you in terms of water quality and storage-capacity reduction when it winds up in a lake?” asked Gary.

Water As A Crop®, founded in 2009 by the Sand County Foundation, is built on the idea that a majority of the rain falls on private lands, so the quantity and quality of the water supply is directly correlated to the land’s condition and management.

“Water that comes across our land either goes to Tarrant County or to the western edge of Dallas County through the Tarrant Regional Water District, or down into Lake Livingston, and is part of Houston’s drinking water,” Price said. “The overall idea from Sand County was to show the urban areas downstream the value of keeping water clean and keeping silt out of the Richland-Chambers Reservoir.” The Richland-Chambers Reservoir is the main water source for Tarrant Regional Water District, which supplies Fort Worth and 11 counties.

77 RanchIn exchange for implementing conservation practices rural landowners receive financial incentives to reimburse their costs. Urban investors are encouraged to reinvest in their water supply by providing financial incentives to help landowners mitigate the cost of their conservation activities such as planting riparian buffer zones, reseeding native grasses or installing cross fences to enhance rotational grazing.

“This is a new way to see agriculture as a public benefit,” said Blair Fitzsimons, TALT CEO. “It allows landowners to see how they’re really affecting the general public and it allows the general public to see the connection between the land and their water.”

Water As A Crop® bridges gaps between rural and urban, private and federal, corporate and individuals. The program brings together landowners, local partners and stakeholders in funding water conservation in water-stressed areas.

Initial investment from the Sand County Foundation attracted additional funding from the Dixon Water Foundation, the Meadows Foundation, the Knobloch Family Foundation as well as the USDA-NRCS National Water Quality Initiative and the Tarrant Regional Water District. Even brewer MillerCoors, located in Fort Worth, provides funding to the Navarro Soil and Water Conservation District for conservation projects.

“Miller uses a lot of water to make beer, so they’re interested in how we clean up and conserve the water,” Gary said.

Research comparing the effectiveness of different land management strategies in conserving water is ongoing. There are three monitoring stations, each in a different ecosystem, on the 77 Ranch. In addition to providing science-based information for land managers who are making conservation decisions, the research findings reassure conservation investors they are getting a return on their money.

“We’re all in this together. If we manage [our natural resources] a certain way, we could benefit financially from that. To us, sustainability means we’re here next year.”

The Rest of the Conservation Story

Gary and Sue Price put the 77 Ranch together piece by piece over three decades. As opportunities arose and finances allowed, the Prices purchased adjacent land. As neighboring landowners retired with no one in their families to manage the land, they called and offered it to the Prices.

“Our acquisition of adjoining land seemed to be a natural fit,” Sue said. “Through the years, the timing was right…not always perfect, but right. When we were tempted to decline or put it off, we would visualize the land being broken up and trailer houses moving in. We knew we wanted to be part of building something, not tearing it apart, so we kept going. It was a lot of hard work, but it worked out.”

77RanchMany of the farms were worn out from years of cotton production, a common occurrence in Navarro County and across the Blackland Prairie. Working with a wide array of agencies and organizations including NRCS, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and Ducks Unlimited, the Prices applied management techniques such as planned grazing and adequate rest, native reseeding, prescribed burning, wetlands enhancement, and strategic brush removal with the goal of transforming tired farmland to vibrant, diverse prairie capable of supporting both cattle and wildlife.

The original property that the Prices purchased from Gary’s mentor, Lee Low, had a remnant of the tall grass prairie that once covered the Blacklands. It had never been plowed and served as the model for the couple’s restoration efforts.

“In my opinion, Gary is a master at restoration,” Sue said. “There were days when I’d come home worn out from teaching, so I’d change clothes, become a student and let him teach me. He’s like an encyclopedia, and not a day goes by that I don’t learn something from him.” Sue retired from after 28 years as an elementary school teacher in 2007.

In 2013, the Prices and 77 Ranch were recognized as the national winner of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Environmental Stewardship Award Program. Six years earlier, the Prices received the Leopold Conservation Award for Texas from the Sand County Foundation and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). The award raised the profile of their operation even higher within the conservation community—and put them in direct contact with the Sand County Foundation and its Water As A Crop® Program.

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