The Back Forty

" It's all about building resilience. It's also about a land ethic - which is why we decided to include three essays here that were delivered at our Annual Conference in 2009, which celebrated Aldo Leopold. It's all part of the new agrarianism
— the why and the how. Let us know what you think." -Courtney White, Excerpt

• Contents:
• The Carbon Ranch: Fighting Climate Change...One Acre at a Time - Courtney White
• The Back Forty: Kneeling in Mud: the conundrums of a tree hugging, cattle ranching human - Julie Sullivan
• Navigating Beauty and Utility: an Apprentice's Journey - Amber Reed
• Alone in a World of Beautiful Wounds - Craig Sponholtz

The Back Forty

" In this issue of our Journal, we try to correct this imbalance a little bit by offering stories of actual progress from the Back Forty. I hope you will find them as encouraging and hopeful as we have." -Courtney White, Excerpt

• Contents:
• The Back Forty and the Big Picture -Grady Grissom
• The Back Forty Down Under: Adapting Farming to Climate Variability -Christine Jones
• Resilience on the Prairie Edge: the 777 Buffalo Ranch -Kirk Gadzia
• Restoring Hózhó: A View from the Back Forty Thousand -Tammy Herrera
• Ranching to Produce Tacos Sin Carbon -Gary Nabhan, Duncan Blair, and Dennis Moroney

New Agrarianism

"With this issue of our Journal, we reach a culmination of much of what The Quivira Coalition has been trying to accomplish since our founding in 1997." -Courtney White, Excerpt

Contents:

• A Durable Scale -Eric Freyfogle
• The Agrarian Standard -Wendell Berry
• Abiquiu, New Mexico: Chapter 5 -Lisa Hamilton
• Finding Agraria, Part 1 -Courtney White
• Amish Farm Economics -Randall E. James, PhD
• Horsing Around - Photos by Courtney White

Building Resilience (Part 2)

"Welcome to Part II of our look at Building Resilience - the theme of our 7th Annual Conference, held last January in Albuquerque, NM." -Courtney White, Excerpt

• Expecting the Unexpected: Why Resilience Matters to People and the Planet -Lance Gunderson
• Two Thousand Years of Human Adaptation to Climate Change in the Southwest: A Cautionary Tale -Eric Blinman
• Reflections on a Resilient Heritage Ranch -Tuda Libby Crews
• On Normality -Courtney White
• Local Beef: An Opportunity to Seize, part 2 -Sarah Laeng-Gilliatt
• Little Normals
• Our Land and Water Fund

Building Resilience (Part 1)

"The theme of this issue of our Journal - and the next one as well - is based on our successful Seventh Annual Conference, titled 'Building Resilience: Creating Hope in an Age of onsequences.'" -Courtney White, Excerpt

• Preserving Lifeway Traditions and Heritage Breeds for a Resilient Future -Gay Chanler
• Shepherds' Know-How Faced with Globalization and Nature Cosnervation: a French Experience -Michel Meuret and Mick Gascoin
• Resilience and Reciprocity -Rebecca Watters
• $7 Gas and the New West -Courtney White
• Local Beef: An Opportunity to Seize, Part 1 -Sarah Laeng-Gilliat, with contributions by Ken Meter

Fresh Eyes

"This issue of our Journal is inspired by the theme of our successful Sixth Annual Conference: 'Fresh Eyes On The Land: Innovation and the Next Generation.' -Courtney White, Excerpt

• Sembrando Semillas: Planting Seeds of Traditional Agriculture for Future Generations -Miguel Santistevan and young farmers
• Querencia: The Soul of the Paisano -Estevan Arellano
• A Young Cowhand on the Rio Grande -Vanessa Prileson
• The Next Generation of Conservation: a Rough Draft -Courtney White
• Rancher Demographics, Socioeconomic Pressures, and the Challenge of Meeting Conservation Goals -Dr. Mark Brunson and Dr. Lynn Huntsinger
• Letter to the Editor -Wendell Berry

Crossing Divides

"We are all familiar with poet Robert Frost's famous line that 'good fences make good neighbors.' But in 'Mending Wall', the line is spoken not by the narrator but by his neighbor, a farmer, and it is the only thing his neighbor says in the entire poem. It's left to the narrator to muse over its meaning, as well as over the stone wall that separates them, noting 'Something there is that doesn't love a wall.'" -Courtney White, Excerpt

• Crossing the Great Divide -Curt Meine
• The New Western Range -Nathan Sayre
• Crossing the Generational Divide: the Trigg Experience -Linda Decker
• Shopping in Walsenberg -Linda Hasslestrom
• A View from Malta -Courtney White
• Private Ranchlands and Public-land Grazing in the Southern Rocky Mountains -Colin Talbert and Richard Knight

A New Land Movement

"Welcome to our new Journal... Our goal, as before, is to inspire and educate. After Nine years, however, we decided it was time to use 'fresh eyes' on the publication. I hope what you see and read meets your expectations..." -Courtney White, Excerpt

• A New Land Movement: Beyond Saving Places to Saving Relationships -Peter Forbes
• In Praise, and in Appraisal of, the Working Landscapes of the West -Gary Paul Nabhan with Ken Meter
• A West that Works: A Corner Turned - the Chico Basin Ranch -Courtney White
• A View from the Field: An Ecotone, Not a Divide -Julie Sullivan
• The Break of Day: PrePostindustrialism - or Getting from Here to There -Courtney White
• Restoration Working Paper No. 1: Seeing the Forest and the Trees - a Review of a Collaborative Restoration Project on Rowe Mesa, San Miguel County, New Mexico -Courtney White