Lowry Ranch Field Day – SOLD OUT!

This field day is sold out!

When challenges like drought hit here in Colorado, a rancher might feel the weight of the world on their shoulders in making the next best decision. Nick Trainor, rancher and lessee of Colorado State Land Board’s Lowry Ranch knows this feeling all too well, but luckily he can utilize relationships and resources that help him in crafting, implementing, then revising a drought plan. In this workshop, Nick will give a tour of the ranch, describing how he uses Holistic Management to improve ecosystem health and navigate through implementing his drought protocol. We’ll hear from William Burnidge, Director at The Nature Conservancy’s Grasslands Program about his work with Nick and other producers on this topic. Then, Anna Clare Monlezun, doctoral student in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University will outline her fascinating social and ecological research at Lowry. We hope to create resilience in our ranching communities by connecting people, sharing ideas, and openly discussing the struggles and successes of regenerative ranching in Colorado. Cost is $30.

About the Ranch:

We’ll spend the day on a tour of the Lowry Ranch, a multi-use site owned by the Colorado State Land Board. Its current lessee Nick Trainor will explain the Holistic Management of his cattle to benefit this threatened Piedmont foothills prairie ecosystem. Nick successfully implemented his drought grazing plan in 2020, so we’ll hear about navigating the drastic annual climate variations and how he thinks about drought planning while using cattle to improve ecosystem health.

William Burnidge, Director at The Nature Conservancy’s Grasslands Program will outline what it took to come up with an effective drought plan and how he has constructed a soil health monitoring protocol for Lowry Ranch.

Anna Clare Monlezun is a doctoral student in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University, currently utilizing the Lowry Ranch to answer the question: Can strategic grazing partnerships on multi-use public landscapes achieve the dual goals of assisting land management agencies with natural resource conservation, and ranchers with maintaining sustainable beef production? She will share her approach to designing her experiments, her successes and struggles, and some ideas for how grazers can collaborate with public entities.

Contact Taylor Muglia, taylor@quiviracoalition.org, with any questions.