Quiz: Might you possess the perspicacity to understand just how seductive (biologically significant and profitable) grasslands are? Or might you consider grasslands a cow’s lunch waiting to happen?
I live in British Columbia, Canada’s most biodiverse province, and though grasslands make up less than one percent of its land mass, more than a third of endangered and at-risk species call grasslands home (!).
So how do we make a compelling case for flourishing grasslands, when they are so inviting for livestock grazing, agriculture and development?
I sat down with Sallie Calhoun, Holistic Management International Board Member and former Chair, to learn how Holistic Management can help us restore native grasslands, sequester more soil carbon, while also (for example) growing more forage and raising more healthy cattle.
The Holistic Management methodology empowers us to get out of an “either/or” mindset and into a “this as well as that (and that, and that)” one. HM focuses on how to use a supportive combination of natural ecological processes along with human inputs to both generate sustainable livelihoods and improve ecological health.
With limited time, energy and money, synergies and feeding many birds with one hand is not only attractive; it’s smart. Necessary even.
Perhaps even more valuable, Holistic Management is a tool that helps keep us curious and open-minded, moving beyond the quest for answers to the quest for better questions. That’s a fun way to approach work and life and the bottom line.
And reveals the fascination of grass.
This video is the first in a series of interview clips with 7k-acre Paicine Ranch co-owner and business woman Sallie Calhoun.
Holistic Management founder Allan Savory speaks at TED about reversing desertification of our planet’s grasslands here.
Watch this three-minute video with Calhoun for more on how sustainable grazing management a lá Holistic Management sequesters carbon.
Enjoy this 4.5-minute video, as Calhoun explains how Holistic Management works for us, other people, the planet and profits whether we live on the land or work in an office, or switch from one to the other.
In this intriguing 3.5-minute video, we discuss what humans can do as a keystone species to improve ecological resilience.
In this final 5-minute clip we get excited at the prospects of how each of us can help mitigate climate change.
Our retreat center, Clear Sky, is hosting an Introduction to Holistic Management workshop with consensus-builder and HM teacher Jeff Goebel on 26-28 Feb., 2015 outside Cranbrook, B.C. Register here.