2017 Conference Photo Gallery
Ranching and Farming at the Radical Center
November 15 – 17, 2017
The annual Quivira Conference is internationally renowned for bringing together leaders, innovators, and stewards of the land for three days of provocative plenary presentations, roundtable discussions, and networking with diverse attendees from across the southwest, the country, and globe. The conference creates a unique environment where ideas are sown, exchanged, and grown. Quivira’s outstanding speakers and attendees contribute expertise in ranching, farming, conservation, community, and all things soil, which is the key to it all. Every attendee brings something unique to the table, and each departs with inspiration, new connections, broader perspectives, and the tools necessary to effect change.
Quivira celebrates 20 years in 2017!
In two decades of collaboration, we have grown a web of knowledge and a network of human relationships focused on soil, water, and neighbors. Our original tagline—working to achieve harmony between humans and nature—has changed and our methods have evolved, but the essence of our work has not. We continue to cultivate innovation, education, collaboration, and hope as the nexus from which soil is restored and relationships are grown. This year our gathering will take a particularly people-oriented approach, bringing the community together in conversations about how to focus on what really matters… ranching and farming at the Radical Center.
Working in the Radical Center allows us to concentrate on land health and community building. It blocks noise and distraction and keeps us focused on action in the places where we make the biggest difference. In the past two decades, we’ve developed a deeper understanding of ecosystem complexity and a growing toolkit for healing land, restoring watersheds, and strengthening community. The 2017 Quivira Conference will focus on how to foster the human relationships that allow us get this work done.
Together at this year’s conference we’ll explore the myriad work and social relationships that make for healthy people and a resilient planet, with particular attention to the role that ranchers and farmers play in cultivating them. From watershed restoration and rangeland monitoring that bring ranchers and conservationists together—to growing crops that encourage balance between bacteria and fungus for carbon sequestration—to matching aspiring and retiring ranchers working together on meaningful land succession—Quivira’s success and the ability for lasting and meaningful impact is rooted in a deep commitment to relationship building.
We invite you to join us.
About this year’s conference
Connect
Hear from experts. Make lasting connections. Take home new skills and ideas. Begin partnerships for change. For 15 years, the Quivira Conference has been a hub for individuals and groups coming together around the concepts of fostering ecological, economic, and social health through education, innovation, collaboration, and progressive public and private land stewardship.
Come together
The Quivira Conference is renowned for bringing together a broad community as diverse as the lands they manage. Our attendees come from across the southwest, the country, and the globe and bring their expertise as farmers and ranchers, scientists, government agencies, conservationists and innovators in managing healthy land. Whether you are a young farmer preparing to dig your hands into the soil for the first time or a professional interested in new ideas and opportunities for collaboration, our conference has something for you.
Participate
Sponsorship is the fundamental soil that allows us to make the Quivira Conference happen each year. We offer attractive benefits for sponsors at a variety of levels. Please click here to view the benefits available to sponsors. If you have any questions, contact Nick Mendoza at nick@quiviracoalition.org.
Stay
The conference will be held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Albuquerque Hotel & Spa, an all-suites hotel. It is centrally located in downtown Albuquerque, three miles from Albuquerque International Airport. Free parking, complimentary indoor pool, fitness & business centers, and free made-to-order breakfast are available to guests. Book at a special Quivira Conference rate of $129/night. Rooms are limited and conference block rates close October 16th.
Attend
You can find a breakdown of pricing for the conference, special events, dinners, and workshops on our Conference Registration page.
Special rates are available for Early Bird registrants, Quivira Members, and Young Farmers/Ranchers and Students attending their first Quivira Conference. Additionally, some scholarships are available. Interested in sponsoring scholarships? Please click here.
Partner
Sponsorship is the fundamental soil that allows us to make the Quivira Conference happen each year. We offer attractive benefits for sponsors at a variety of levels. Please click here to view the sponsorship levels. For more information, contact Arielle Quintana at arielle@quiviracoalition.org.
CONFERENCE ATTENDEES
SPONSORS & PARTNERS
Community
Water
Animal
Plant
Seed
Soil
Partners
Media Partners
SPEAKERS
Allen Williams
Principal, Soil Health Consultants, LLC
Dr. Ann Adams
Executive Director, Holistic Management International
Larry Littlebird
Pueblo Elder & Founding Director, Hamaatsa
Wendell Gilgert
Director, Rangeland Watershed Initiative
Allen Williams is a 6th generation family farmer and founding partner of Grass Fed Insights, LLC, and a partner in Joyce Farms, Inc. He consults with farmers and ranchers in North and South America on operations ranging from a few acres to over 1 million acres. He pioneered many of the early adaptive grazing protocols and forage finishing techniques and has spent the last 15 years refining those.
Allen is a “recovering academic,” having authored more than 400 scientific and popular press articles, and is an invited speaker at national and international conferences. His major areas of research and business focus include soil health, cover crop/livestock integration, adaptive forage & grazing management, high attribute pasture-based meat production, and alternative marketing systems.
Plenary Talk Topic: Restore Soil Health & Ecosystem Health Through Adaptive Grazing
Everything we do in agriculture results in either negative or positive compounding effects on the soil, plants, animals, and us. The question is not whether this is the case, but whether we are going to respond with appropriate management practices. Adaptive grazing can produce significant positive compounding effects that can alter soil health parameters, plant species complexity & diversity, insect and pollinator species, birds & wildlife, livestock performance & health, and eventually human health & vitality. Even weather patterns are impacted by our agricultural practices. With adaptive management practices, we can have a positive influence on local and regional weather impacts, producer greater drought resilience, and reduce flooding potential. Beyond these compounding benefits, the practitioner will also realize improvement in net profits per acre, reduced reliance on external inputs, and better quality of life
Roundtable Discussion Topic: Adaptive Grazing: Practical Steps and Problem Solving
Picking up on the three principles of adaptive grazing presented in his plenary talk, Allen Williams will lead a discussion focused on strategies that producers and interested parties can use to practically implement these on their land. Everyone faces unique challenges in their particular contexts. This is an opportunity to discuss adaptive management practices and how they can produce a positive influence on your local and regional weather, greater drought resilience, and reduce flooding potential, while improving net profits per acre and quality of life.
Joyce Farms
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Ann has worked in the nonprofit world for almost 20 years, creating and directing national programs, collaborating with over 100 non-profit and government entities to create positive impact among producers and land stewards. Ann has been a Holistic Management Certified Educator since 1998 and has practiced and taught Holistic Management® in multiple capacities for 20 years. She has written countless articles, helped develop agriculture-based software for financial and grazing planning and written a training handbook, At Home with Holistic Management: Creating a Life of Meaning. Ann raises goats and chickens on a homestead in the Manzano Mountains southeast of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Roundtable Topic: Holistic Management for the Radical Center
What are the human, financial, and natural resource issues you face? What tools and techniques have you found to be helpful in addressing these issues? Holistic Management is a systems approach for effective adaptive management of all resources. Using a value-based decision-making process you can create common ground even in high conflict situations and determine appropriate action plans for key stakeholders. This roundtable will include Holistic Management practitioners and educators sharing the results they have seen using this process. Come share your challenges and successes to deepen our learning of effective tools for the radical center.
Holistic Management International
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Larry Littlebird (Laguna/ Santo Domingo Pueblo) is the Founding Director of Hamaatsa where he celebrates an indigenous holistic way of life. A master storyteller, Native filmmaker/artist and author of Hunting Sacred, Everything Listens, Larry shares spiritual roots of sustainability and ways of blessing for inspiring transformative leadership and social action. His signature experiential land based programs have had a profound impact on people’s lives, globally, nationally and locally. Learning to Listen© is a provocative spoken word experience that Larry presents as a keynote speaker and custom tailors for group retreats, conferences and story camps. His legacy continues on the lands of Hamaatsa, an indigenous continuum – story gathering place and sustainable living farm he co-founded with his wife Deborah, where he celebrates an indigenous holistic way of life.
Plenary Talk Topic: Bringing Back the Sacred in the Way We Eat, Grow and Share Our Food
Through regenerative farming practices, permaculture and indigenous land wisdom, we are committed to growing and eating healthy food, and sharing knowledge, seeds and building relationships within our local communities.
HAMAATSA
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Wendell was born and raised in Northern California on a fourth generation family farm in San Joaquin County. He worked as a Soil Conservationist, District Conservationist, and Area Conservationist in Northwestern Nevada and Northern California. He served as Wildlife Biologist for the Wildlife Habitat Management Institute at Colorado State University. For the final six years of his NRCS career he served as the West Region Wildlife Biologist for the National Technical Support Center in Portland.
In June 2011, he retired from NRCS and transitioned to work with the Point Blue Conservation Science to direct their Rangeland Watershed Initiative which is an effort to place, train, and manage partner biologists to help plan, implement and monitor USDA Farm Bill Programs on private land.
Plenary Talk/Roundtable Topic: Point Blue’s Rangeland Watershed Initiative-ReWatering California One Ranch at a Time
Point Blue Conservation Science is collaborating with the USDA-NRCS, cooperating ranchers, RCD’s and conservation partners to improve rangelands in California. Point Blue Partner Biologists are teaming up with NRCS Field Conservationists and RCD’s to working closely with ranchers, land trusts, and some public lands to plan, and apply prescribed rangeland grazing and management practices. With support from NRCS and Farm Bill programs, cooperating ranchers are utilizing technical assistance to increase soil water retention in foothill watersheds, increase livestock forage, improve water supply reliability both on-site and downstream, enhance ranching productivity, expand riparian corridors and wetland habitat for migratory birds and enhance upland wildlife habitats.
Our companion effort, the Rangeland Monitoring Network (RMN) measures soil carbon, vegetative trends, and wildlife habitat benefits of prescriptive grazing and associated grazing practices.
Point Blue Conservation Science
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Michael Phillips
Orchardist, Herbalist & Author, Heartsong Farm Healing Herbs
Laura Paine
Program Director, Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship
Calla Rose Ostrander
Independent Communications & Climate Policy Consultant
Harrison Topp
Membership Director, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union & Manager, Topp Fruits
Michael Phillips is renowned for helping people grow healthy fruit using herbal protocols. The “community orchard movement” that he helped found at www.GrowOrganicApples.com provides a full immersion into the holistic approach to orcharding. His Lost Nation Orchard is part of a medicinal herb farm in northern New Hampshire. He is the author of, The Apple Grower, and The Holistic Orchard, which recently received Garden Book of the Year honors from the American Horticultural Society. His work has been compared with Sir Albert Howard and J.I. Rodale’s classic books on organic gardening. Michael’s latest, Mycorrhizal Planet: How Fungi and Plants Work Together to Create Dynamic Soils, will rock you!
Plenary Talk Topic: Soil Redemption Song
This lively exploration of soil biology and healthy plant metabolism will rouse every gardener, farmer, rancher, and fruit grower to think deeper. How mycorrhizal fungi enhance plant health is absolutely stunning. Nutrients are delivered by means of “fungus-root” synergy. A boost to green immune function helps keep disease at bay. Expansive fungal networks bring resiliency to ecosystems. Soil aggregate formation addresses carbon flow. Yet for the longest time, we have ignored basic soil biology and instead disturbed ecosystems at our own peril. Time to change all that, and fast!
Roundtable Discussion Topic: Mycorrhizal Stewardship
How do we as growers best carry fungal futures forward? Which scenarios call for mycorrhizal inoculum? And which are good to go? What does “southwest fungal diversity” look like? How do mycorrhizae correlate with good grazing practice? How can we as growers do even better as regards the Nondisturbance Principle? Time to delve into fungal consciousness as a primary driver of sustainable land stewardship.
www.HerbsAndApples.com
www.GrowOrganicApples.com
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Laura Paine is Program Director for Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, a national two-year formal Apprenticeship registered with the federal Department of Labor. A Holistic Management Certified Educator, she has been involved in managed grazing and beginning farmer education in a variety of roles for more than 25 years. She conducted on-farm research on managed grazing at the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture and served seven years as an Extension Agriculture Agent. From 2006 to 2014, she served as Grazing & Organic Agriculture Specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, conducting research and education for farmers on producing and marketing organic and grass-fed products. Laura and her husband raise and market grass-fed beef on their farm near Columbus, Wisconsin.
Plenary Talk Topic: Training the Next Generation of Land Stewards
For centuries, apprenticeship has been the means of passing on the skills of many trades, from engravers and silversmiths in the middle ages to electricians and carpenters today. Using work-based learning alongside experienced artisans is a means of ensuring that the basic skills needed for a functional society are maintained across generations. Why not in agriculture? There is no societal function more basic than producing the food that sustains us and stewarding the natural resources on which we depend. This session will focus on how we can create a tradition and culture around passing on the best practices of our craft to future generations, as well as why it is critical that we do.
Roundtable Topic: Building a culture of mentorship in Agriculture
Join current and prospective ranching and farming mentors for a discussion of agricultural apprenticeship. What are the keys to a successful mentoring relationship? What common challenges do producers face in training the next generation? This session will cover the nuts and bolts, from hiring to setting expectations, giving feedback to structuring productive learning. Moderated by Laura Paine with Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, and Monica Pless with Quivira’s New Agrarian Program, the roundtable will encourage sharing lessons, concerns, and successes in passing on the skills, goal setting, and holistic mindset needed for aspiring agrarians to manage operations and steward land.
Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Calla Rose Ostrander is a climate change innovations advisor to individuals and organizations dedicated to stabilizing Earth’s climate. From 2008-2016 she was the climate change projects manager for the City and County of San Francisco, where she created and managed the city’s internal agency sustainability reporting and local offset program, and led community-wide climate planning under mayors Gavin Newsome and Edwin Lee. Calla Rose grew up in Colorado and before moving to California in 2008 was a communications fellow at Rocky Mountain Institute and co-authored the City of Aspen’s first climate action and adaptation plans. She studied ecological economics with David Batker of Earth Economics and holds a degree in International Political Economy from the University of Puget Sound.
Panel Topic: Carbon Farming, A Replicable Model from California
This panel led by Calla Rose will present an overview of carbon farming in California, including updates on the state’s Healthy Soils Initiative, building out the supply of compost for ranchers and farmers, and collaborative regional development to support carbon farming in southern California.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Personal Bio:
Harrison Topp is the Membership Director for the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and the manager of Topp Fruits in Paonia, CO. He works with a diverse spectrum of farmers and ranchers in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, to build community driven chapters and organize around local, state, and federal issues that impact agriculture. Topp is passionate about two things – soil and helping develop grassroots leaders. He is a first generation farmer, who began farming after college on a sugar farm in North Carolina and is now developing a commercial orchard business in his home state of Colorado. Topp graduated from New York University in 2009 with a double major in Film and Television Production and Anthropology.
Plenary Talk Topic: The Radical Re-centering of a Wiseacre Young Farmer
To understand the radical center, it helps to respect farmers from all the far-flung sides of the agricultural system. Even better, one can strive to be a better farmer in adopting qualities and lessons from all those unlikely mentors. This plenary session will explore the training and experiences of a young peach farmer and community organizer, whose livelihood depends on expanding his network’s boundaries. In the field, in his community, and industry, he’s confronted the multitude of linkages that keep our food system aloft. Like many farmers and organizers before him, his story explores the intersectional forces that shape the radical center and our role in the future of agriculture.
Facebook: Rockymountainfarmersunion
Twitter: @harrisontopp, @rmfunion
IG: harrisontopp
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Michelle Otero
Writer, Community-based Artist, and Coach
Monica Pless
New Agrarian Program, The Quivira Coalition
Cathryn Wild
Founder and Executive Director, Seventh Generation Institute
Katherine Yuhas
Albuquerque Water Resources Division Manager, Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority
Michelle Otero is a writer, community-based artist, and coach, who utilizes creative expression and storytelling as the basis for organizational development and positive social change. Her process of engaging individuals and communities through the expression of shared story has found a wide range of applications, from helping environmental organizations understand the priorities of traditional land-based communities to helping people heal from trauma.
She is the author of Malinche’s Daughter, an essay collection based on her work with women survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Oaxaca, Mexico as a Fulbright Fellow. She lives in Albuquerque where she works with fellow artists and local farmers to implement the Community Table project, which combines art, local agriculture, and economic development as a platform for neighborhood revitalization. Michelle holds a B.A. in History from Harvard University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College.
Michelle will be delivering the Final Conference Plenary on Friday, November 17th, A Stand of Aspens: Reflections on Standing Together.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Monica Pless leads Quivira’s New Agrarian Program. She has worked on farms since 2004, and apprenticed on a CSA in rural Massachusetts, raising produce, tree fruit, beef, pork, and eggs. Since then, she has worked on dairies, orchards, produce operations, and for the last three years managed the farm at EarthDance Organic Farm School near St. Louis, Missouri. There she taught apprentices about vegetable CSA production, pastured poultry, keyline swales, pawpaws and persimmons, installing greenhouses and buildings, and cover cropping. She brings a background in ecology, youth development in with her experience as both an apprentice and mentor to her work at Quivira coordinating apprenticeships for the New Agrarian Program.
Roundtable Topic: Building a culture of mentorship in Agriculture
Join current and prospective ranching and farming mentors for a discussion of agricultural apprenticeship. What are the keys to a successful mentoring relationship? What common challenges do producers face in training the next generation? This session will cover the nuts and bolts, from hiring to setting expectations, giving feedback to structuring productive learning. Moderated by Laura Paine with Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, and Monica Pless with Quivira’s New Agrarian Program, the roundtable will encourage sharing lessons, concerns, and successes in passing on the skills, goal setting, and holistic mindset needed for aspiring agrarians to manage operations and steward land.
Laura Paine and Monica Pless will lead a roundtable focused on agrarian programs across the country, including the key ingredients for successful mentorship
Keynote: Film Discussion
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Cathryn Wild founded Seventh Generation Institute in 2007 based on an approach of “New School” conservation. She leads Seventh Generation Institute as both a board member and as Executive Director.
Cathryn holds an M.S. in environmental management, with emphasis in conservation biology, from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a B.S. in Agricultural Education in addition to teaching credentials in Life Science and Vocational Agriculture from the University of California at Davis. She expanded those early skills and knowledge through the “School of Life” working on projects from marine protected area management to ecotourism planning, endangered species conservation, stream restoration, and climate change adaptation. Locations included Honduras, Colombia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Bonaire and the western US. In addition to her work with the Institute, Cathryn is a member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management and contributes to their work. “Everything I’ve learned in life is wrapped up in the Institute’s new school approach to conservation,” she says.
Cathryn will facilitate the screening of her film, Rethinking Beaver: Old Nuisance or New Partner, and will moderate the panel discussion following the film.
Seventh Generation Institute
Seventh Generation Institute is not interested in the “old school environmentalism” characterized by litigation, arguing, and fighting. Where are the results after so many years? The Institute’s approach to achieving our mission is based in three concepts: entrepreneurial-applied science, collaboration and impact. This is what we mean by “new school conservation.” Throw in a dash of common sense, and you have fresh ideas and strategies for conservation. As we work throughout the West and beyond, we are finding common ground with people everywhere.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Katherine is the Water Resources Division Manager at the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority in charge of aquifer storage and recovery, reuse and recycling, resiliency planning, water conservation, source water protection and environmental restoration. Prior to managing the Water Resources Division she served as the Authority’s Water Conservation Officer from 2002 -2016. During that time water usage was reduced from 205 gallons per person per day to 127 gallons per person per day. Prior to joining the Water Authority she worked as the Santa Fe County Hydrologist and at the New Mexico Environment Department in ground water protection and remediation.
Panel Topic: The Groundbreaking Rio Grande Water Fund
This panel of experts will discuss the Rio Grande Water Fund, an innovative project created to invest in the long term restoration of Northern New Mexico’s forested lands and watersheds, with the goal of creating sustainable funding for the work needed to protect clean water for local communities and larger cities downstream. The Rio Grande Water Fund will generate sustainable funding for a 20-year program of large-scale forest and watershed restoration treatments targeting 600,000 acres north of Albuquerque—including thinning overgrown forests, restoring streams and rehabilitating areas that flood after wildfires.
Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Sandra Postel
Director, Global Water Policy Project
Russell Chamberlin
Co-Manager, Ted Chamberlin Ranch
Mike Callicrate
Farmer-rancher, Entrepreneur, Family Farm Advocate
Dr. Keri Brandt
Professor of Sociology & Gender Studies, Fort Lewis College
Sandra Postel directs the Global Water Policy Project, and lectures, writes and consults on global water issues. In 2009, she was appointed Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society, where she spearheaded the creation of Change the Course, a freshwater initiative that has restored billions of gallons of water to depleted rivers and wetlands in North America. Sandra has authored several acclaimed books, including the award-winning Last Oasis, which was the basis for a PBS documentary. The recipient of several honorary degrees, Sandra works to bridge science, policy, and practice to promote innovative ways of securing water to meet both human and ecosystem needs. Her latest book, released last month, is Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity.
Panel Topic: The Groundbreaking Rio Grande Water Fund
Sandra will moderate a panel of experts in discussing the Rio Grande Water Fund, an innovative project created to invest in the long term restoration of Northern New Mexico’s forested lands and watersheds, with the goal of creating sustainable funding for the work needed to protect clean water for local communities and larger cities downstream. The Rio Grande Water Fund will generate sustainable funding for a 20-year program of large-scale forest and watershed restoration treatments targeting 600,000 acres north of Albuquerque—including thinning overgrown forests, restoring streams and rehabilitating areas that flood after wildfires.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Russell Chamberlin is a third generation California cattle rancher from the Santa Ynez Valley committed to improving range land through sequestering carbon and improving the soil water holding capacity with planned grazing and applying compost. His family’s ranch has a Carbon Farm Plan and is working with many agencies including the CRCD, NRCD, CEC, SB Foundation and CCI. Russell has dedicated the last 7 years to Holistic Ranch Management continually working to improve the sustainability of our environment.
Panel Topic: Carbon Farming, A Replicable Model from California
Russell will be a member of the California Carbon Project panel. The panel will present an overview of carbon farming in California, including updates on the state’s Healthy Soils Initiative, building out the supply of compost for ranchers and farmers, and collaborative regional development to support carbon farming in California.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Bio Coming Soon…[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Keri Brandt, PhD is a Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Fort Lewis College. Her research is primarily in the field of Human Animal Studies where she is endlessly fascinated with how humans and animals craft shared worlds together. She lives on the Off Family Ranch in the San Luis Valley with her husband David, a 4th generation cattle rancher, and their son Ryder.Plenary Talk/Roundtable Topic: Zombie Agriculture and the Denial of Death
Industrial agriculture has resulted in dead soils and animals living in torturous conditions. We call this process “zombie agriculture” in reference to constant supply of synthetic inputs required to reanimate the dead. This process hurts farmers and ranchers relationships with their land and animals and allows consumers to eat without having to confront death. The imperative is to engage in eating and producing food as a sacred activity and being in relationship with all living beings. It is also about understanding that part of the human legacy is to be aware of the complexity of eating and its sacred relationship to death. This, we hold, brings us back to the radical center.
Fort Lewis College
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Lesli Allison
Executive Director, Western Landowners Alliance
Lance Bernal
Wildlife Biologist, Vermejo Park Ranch
Laura McCarthy
Associate State Director, The Nature Conservancy
Rick Danvir
Western Landowners Alliance
Lesli Allison is a founding member and executive director of the Western Landowners Alliance. She was also a founding member of the Chama Peak Land Alliance. Prior to her work with these organizations, Lesli managed a large ranch the southern San Juan Mountains of Colorado. During her 16-year tenure, Lesli implemented award-winning programs in restoration forestry, prescribed fire, grazing, stream restoration, hunting and wildlife management, and scientific research and monitoring. Throughout her career, Lesli has worked extensively with private landowners and multiple stakeholders to advance conservation, sustain working lands and support rural communities. Lesli holds a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.A. from St. John’s College, Santa Fe.
Roundtable Topic: Leading from the Land: Finding Common Ground in Public Policy
Increasingly few policy makers today have experience in land and natural resource management. As a result, public policies impacting western lands and agriculture are often driven by competing special interest groups, DC-based think tanks and political rhetoric. If we want public policies that make sense on the ground, unite rather than divide, and provide for future generations, it’s time to exert unified leadership from the land. The place-based collaborative movement that has emerged in the West over the past two decades has the potential to better inform public policy and help bring a perilously divided nation back onto common ground. This roundtable will consider current efforts and opportunities to bring this movement to scale.
Facebook: Westernlandownersalliance
@VoiceofWLA
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Lance Bernal is from Sandia Pueblo, New Mexico. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University in 2007 before returning to New Mexico to work as a biological science technician at the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Lance then attended Texas Tech University, receiving a Master’s degree in Wildlife Science. After several years working for a Native American owned environmental consulting company in Albuquerque, NM, Lance took the position of Wildlife Biologist at Vermejo Park Ranch in 2015. His professional interests are big game management, predator/prey dynamics and habitat management.
Plenary Talk Topic: Big Game Management and Predator/Prey Dynamics on
Working Landscapes
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Laura McCarthy is Associate State Director for the Nature Conservancy in New Mexico. She manages the Conservancy’s programs in the Rio Grande, Gila and San Juan basins, and leads the Rio Grande Water Fund. She has been with the Conservancy since 2005, including seven years as the Conservancy’s National Policy Advisor for fire management and forest restoration.
Laura’s prior work includes more than a decade with the USDA Forest Service as a firefighter and planner. She has also worked for a State Forester and the Santa Fe-based Forest Guild.
Laura’s professional life was significantly altered by the Cerro Grande Fire in 2000, which she watched from across the valley and that fostered her interest in better policy and management of forested watersheds. Las Conchas Fire in 2011, with its massive post-fire debris flows, deepened her concerns and sharpened the point on water source protection.
Laura is enjoying her role building bridges that connect people to nature, including land and water managers, and urban and rural communities. She has earned several awards for her work, most recently, Governor Martinez’s Environmental Leader in 2015 and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2017.
Panel Topic: The Groundbreaking Rio Grande Water Fund
This panel of experts will discuss the Rio Grande Water Fund, an innovative project created to invest in the long term restoration of Northern New Mexico’s forested lands and watersheds, with the goal of creating sustainable funding for the work needed to protect clean water for local communities and larger cities downstream. The Rio Grande Water Fund will generate sustainable funding for a 20-year program of large-scale forest and watershed restoration treatments targeting 600,000 acres north of Albuquerque—including thinning overgrown forests, restoring streams and rehabilitating areas that flood after wildfires.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
For over thirty years Rick has managed wildlife and land with Deseret Ranches and as a private consultant throughout the Intermountain West, the Great Plains, and other random locales. A member of the Wildlife Society and Society for Range Management, Rick has served on many local, state and federal boards and committees. He focuses on collaborative and holistic resource management solutions. He is the Wildlife and Range Advisor to Western Landowners Alliance and as the owner of Basin Wildlife Consulting, LLC.
Plenary Topic: TBA
Using Earth Sense technology, we compared percent upland bare ground and riparian vegetation between lands managed using time-controlled grazing principles and more traditional grazing practices. intensively managed ranches significantly less bare ground and more riparian vegetation.
Western Landowners Alliance
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Kevin Watt
Policy & Strategy Manager, TomKat Ranch
Kevin Muno
Co-Founder, Ecology Artisans
Janine Fitzgerald
Professor of Sociology & Environmental Studies, Fort Lewis College
Jan-Willem Jansens
Landscape Planner, Ecotone Landscape Planning
Kevin Watt serves as the Policy and Strategy Manager at TomKat Ranch in Pescadero, California and as a board member for the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts. His work focuses on discovering and sharing the demonstrable benefits of regenerative rangeland management and the creation of tools and technologies that empower land stewards to efficiently and effectively work with complex natural systems.
Panel Topic: Carbon Farming, A Replicable Model from California
Kevin will be a member of the California Carbon Project panel. The panel will present an overview of carbon farming in California, including updates on the state’s Healthy Soils Initiative, building out the supply of compost for ranchers and farmers, and collaborative regional development to support carbon farming in California.
www.tomkatranch.org
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Roundtable Topic: Carbon Farming, A Replicable Model from California
Kevin Muno will be a member of the California Carbon Project Panel. The panel will present an overview of carbon farming in California, including updates on the state’s Healthy Soils Initiative, building out the supply of compost for ranchers and farmers, and collaborative regional development to support carbon farming in California.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Janine lives in a straw bale house she built with her husband on her parent’s dry land farm in Southwest Colorado. She gardens an old road on that land, milks her cow and makes cheeses. She has fought against oil and gas drilling in the HD Mountains with a coalition of ranchers, neighbors, and environmentalists. She also hays 20 irrigated acres of land that she and her sister co-own with her draft horses. Her day job is teaching Sociology and Environmental Studies at Fort Lewis College. Her area of interest is to honor the knowledge of rural people, animals, plants and soil with the “bookish” wisdom of academia.
Plenary Talk/Roundtable Topic: Zombie Agriculture and the Denial of Death
Industrial agriculture has resulted in dead soils and animals living in torturous conditions. We call this process “zombie agriculture” in reference to constant supply of synthetic inputs required to reanimate the dead. This process hurts farmers and ranchers relationships with their land and animals and allows consumers to eat without having to confront death. The imperative is to engage in eating and producing food as a sacred activity and being in relationship with all living beings. It is also about understanding that part of the human legacy is to be aware of the complexity of eating and its sacred relationship to death. This, we hold, brings us back to the radical center.
Fort Lewis College
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Jan-Willem Jansens is owner of Ecotone Landscape Planning, LLC, a Santa Fe consulting firm specializing in designing ecological restoration and stewardship strategies for areas that need a boost in health and productivity. Ecotone approaches land health work in a long-term and integrated way, in tune with the many diverse and evolving aspects of Nature and with the people who live on the land. Ecotone’s work grows collaborative learning partnerships between landowners, institutional partners, and private service providers. With a professional background of 30 years, Jan-Willem has developed extensive cross-disciplinary connections among professionals and landowners. He holds a Master of Agricultural Sciences degree from the Wageningen Agricultural University in The Netherlands.
Talk/Roundtable Topic: Cultivating Healthy Land, More Than the Sum of Its Parts
How can we overcome institutional and disciplinary barriers toward more effective, collaborative outcomes at the Radical Center? What does each of us need to do to become more tuned to collaboration across jurisdictions, disciplines, regulations, and financing mechanisms to deliver better results? What success stories can we tell that illustrate these important changes?
Ecotone Landscape Planning, LLC
Linked In
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Adam Danforth
Author, Butcher & Chef
Deborah Madison
Chef, Cooking Teacher & Writer
Toner Mitchell
Water & Habitat Coordinator, Trout Unlimited New Mexico
Adam Danforth is the James Beard and IACP award-winning author of two books, published by Storey Publishing, about slaughtering and butchering livestock. He teaches workshops worldwide on butchery and meat science for venues such as Stone Barns Center for Agriculture, the James Beard Foundation Chefs Boot Camp, Oregon State University, and the National Bison Association. Adam also consults and provides experiential education to restaurants including Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern, Bazaar Meat, and Maude. He is the American ambassador for the Butchers Manifesto and a board member of the Chefs Collaborative and The Meat Collective. Adam lives in Ashland, OR. [/et_pb_popup_builder]
Deborah Madison is the founding chef of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco and, with David Tanis, of Cafe Escalera in Santa Fe. She is the author of 14 books and many articles focused on food and farming. A long time member of both SWGLA and the Quivira Coalition, Deborah has long recognized the need for both groups to be a vocal part of our food culture. Although often thought of as a vegetarian because of the scope of her cookbooks, Deborah is in fact a rather open minded eater and is aware that agricultural practices need to change if it is not to be regarded as the biggest contributor to climate change—and our overall poor health.
Deborah will be on the Keynote panel at the Quivira Conference (description to come
deborahmadison.com
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Toner Mitchell holds a BA in biology and a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction writing. He began his conservation career as an aide to NM Senator Jeff Bingaman on environmental issues: CERCLA, Clean Water and Air Acts, Endangered Species Act, and other important legislation involving public land management. Toner subsequently worked as a consultant on CERCLA and other hazardous waste projects in California, Montana, and Alaska, then entering the fly fishing industry. He guides around the western U.S. and manages a retail store in his birthplace of Santa Fe. At Trout Unlimited, Toner has worked around New Mexico to achieve conservation outcomes in ecosystem resiliency, guided by a co-equal objective of sparking economic development in rural communities based on sustainable resource use.
Panel Topic: The Groundbreaking Rio Grande Water Fund
This panel of experts will discuss the Rio Grande Water Fund, an innovative project created to invest in the long term restoration of Northern New Mexico’s forested lands and watersheds, with the goal of creating sustainable funding for the work needed to protect clean water for local communities and larger cities downstream. The Rio Grande Water Fund will generate sustainable funding for a 20-year program of large-scale forest and watershed restoration treatments targeting 600,000 acres north of Albuquerque—including thinning overgrown forests, restoring streams and rehabilitating areas that flood after wildfires.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Radical Center Award Winners
Ernie Atencio
Conservation
Wink Crigler
Ranching
Kathy Voth
Research
Rachel Gilker
Research
Ernie Atencio is a native Norteño who grew up displaced in inner-city Denver but eventually found his way back home. He discovered the larger world— and the land—through an Outward Bound “hoods-in-the-woods” program and has worked throughout the West ever since as a wilderness instructor, park ranger, environmental educator, and journalist. Ernie is currently New Mexico Program Manager for National Parks Conservation Association, but spent many years as executive director of Taos Land Trust and has done a variety of other conservation and consulting work. With a master’s degree in applied cultural anthropology and a lifelong interest in remote landscapes and traditional cultures, he has spent years exploring wild places and promoting the connections between land and culture, and has researched and written about sustainable development on the Tibetan Plateau, Havasupai oral history, Navajo forestry, cowboy culture, and Norteño resource stewardship. Ernie is a long-time former board member of the Quivira Coalition and his many publications include Of Land and Culture: Environmental Justice and Public Lands Ranching in Northern New Mexico, published in 2001 by Quivira.[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Raised on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1890, Wink Crigler remains one of very few people on the land whose roots inform a deeply imbedded belief in tradition and the future. Her life’s work of keeping her strong heritage alive on the X Diamond ranch, located in the White Mountains of Arizona, has taken her along a path of collaboration, cooperation, and proactive land management to help ensure the sustainability of the operation. Wink has received numerous awards for her range management success, and her approach to documenting and reporting has led to a much clearer and acceptable understanding of the bene ts that an effective livestock grazing program can have on land and species resource improvement. Throughout recent years, Wink has also worked to provide diverse educational opportunities on her ranch, teaching people how important it is to keep people on the land. The descendent of pioneer stock with that resilient and feisty approach to living and surviving, she is an “out of the box” lady. Wink embodies the Radical Center spirit at it’s fullest.[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Kathy Voth and Rachel Gilker started On Pasture in March of 2013 with a little help from their friends and colleagues. Kathy and Rachel showed up with a mission: to translate research and experience into practices graziers could use right away. Why? They wanted to help folks raising livestock on pasture to be more pro table, and to support them in contributing to the health of their communities and environment. In four short years, On Pasture has published over 1600 articles and our readership has grown to 100,000 a month.
Kathy is best known for using animal behavior principles to develop a method to teach cows (and other livestock) to eat weeds in just eight hours over seven days, thus reducing costs and increasing forage for farmers and ranchers. Her background includes 12 years with the Bureau of Land Management working with ranchers, university researchers, and agency staff to develop solutions that help communities live sustainably in their environment.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Kathy Voth and Rachel Gilker started On Pasture in March of 2013 with a little help from their friends and colleagues. Kathy and Rachel showed up with a mission: to translate research and experience into practices graziers could use right away. Why? They wanted to help folks raising livestock on pasture to be more pro table, and to support them in contributing to the health of their communities and environment. In four short years, On Pasture has published over 1600 articles and our readership has grown to 100,000 a month.
After serving in Peace Corps Niger, Rachel earned a M.S. and Ph.D. in agronomy and soil science at the University of Maryland. She spent more than a decade conducting on-farm research and technical assistance with grass farmers in Maryland and Vermont.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Ron Mortensen
Civil Service
Curtis Chee
Civil Service
Mark Willis
Civil Service
Ron Mortensen came to the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in February, 2011 as the Range Program manager for the Springerville Ranger District, bringing with him an attitude of dedication to the mission of the Forest Service: caring for the land and serving people. Since then he has worked diligently to ensure that livestock managers be provided with options and alternatives to standard bureaucratic management, with a willingness to contribute to a collaborative management framework and often seeking out-of-the-box solutions to challenging and dif cult issues facing livestock operators. Such challenges include restrictive guidelines for protection of federally listed species, species recovery such as for the Mexican gray wolf, and impacts from catastrophic wild re.
In 2011, the Wallow re burned 840 square miles of southeastern Arizona, impacting 38 active grazing allotments on the Springerville and Alpine Ranger Districts (which Ron was also managing at the time). As a result, 4,000 head of livestock were displaced and the range infrastructure suffered extensive damage, including loss of more than 800 miles of fence . Ron spearheaded a team that was instrumental in land recovery and livestock restocking, range infrastructure reconstruction, and rehabilitation of severely burned areas across the forest.
It goes without saying that there is no “I” in team, and the two rangeland specialists on the Alpine and Springerville districts, Curtis Chee and Mark Willis, are where the rubber really meets the road. Both men have long tenure on their units, an often overlooked but truly important asset for working with people and the land. Curtis arrived at the Alpine RD in 2004, and Mark came to the Springerville RD in 2006. Their contribution to the Wallow Fire range restocking team has been invaluable.
This outstanding team of range professionals has continued to provide both indirect and direct management support on one of the most diverse set of allotments in the Southwest, and possibly in the entire Forest Service system. They have each provided responded promptly and comprehensively to requests for information and conducted data collection, while continuing to help ranchers maintain viable operations. The strong teamwork, high level skill, and dedication to ranching and conservation of all three men epitomizes the Radical Center and helps keep it grounded in the lives and careers of people who make good things happen on the land.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Ron Mortensen came to the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in February, 2011 as the Range Program manager for the Springerville Ranger District, bringing with him an attitude of dedication to the mission of the Forest Service: caring for the land and serving people. Since then he has worked diligently to ensure that livestock managers be provided with options and alternatives to standard bureaucratic management, with a willingness to contribute to a collaborative management framework and often seeking out-of-the-box solutions to challenging and dif cult issues facing livestock operators. Such challenges include restrictive guidelines for protection of federally listed species, species recovery such as for the Mexican gray wolf, and impacts from catastrophic wild re.
In 2011, the Wallow re burned 840 square miles of southeastern Arizona, impacting 38 active grazing allotments on the Springerville and Alpine Ranger Districts (which Ron was also managing at the time). As a result, 4,000 head of livestock were displaced and the range infrastructure suffered extensive damage, including loss of more than 800 miles of fence . Ron spearheaded a team that was instrumental in land recovery and livestock restocking, range infrastructure reconstruction, and rehabilitation of severely burned areas across the forest.
It goes without saying that there is no “I” in team, and the two rangeland specialists on the Alpine and Springerville districts, Curtis Chee and Mark Willis, are where the rubber really meets the road. Both men have long tenure on their units, an often overlooked but truly important asset for working with people and the land. Curtis arrived at the Alpine RD in 2004, and Mark came to the Springerville RD in 2006. Their contribution to the Wallow Fire range restocking team has been invaluable.
This outstanding team of range professionals has continued to provide both indirect and direct management support on one of the most diverse set of allotments in the Southwest, and possibly in the entire Forest Service system. They have each provided responded promptly and comprehensively to requests for information and conducted data collection, while continuing to help ranchers maintain viable operations. The strong teamwork, high level skill, and dedication to ranching and conservation of all three men epitomizes the Radical Center and helps keep it grounded in the lives and careers of people who make good things happen on the land.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Ron Mortensen came to the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in February, 2011 as the Range Program manager for the Springerville Ranger District, bringing with him an attitude of dedication to the mission of the Forest Service: caring for the land and serving people. Since then he has worked diligently to ensure that livestock managers be provided with options and alternatives to standard bureaucratic management, with a willingness to contribute to a collaborative management framework and often seeking out-of-the-box solutions to challenging and dif cult issues facing livestock operators. Such challenges include restrictive guidelines for protection of federally listed species, species recovery such as for the Mexican gray wolf, and impacts from catastrophic wild re.
In 2011, the Wallow re burned 840 square miles of southeastern Arizona, impacting 38 active grazing allotments on the Springerville and Alpine Ranger Districts (which Ron was also managing at the time). As a result, 4,000 head of livestock were displaced and the range infrastructure suffered extensive damage, including loss of more than 800 miles of fence . Ron spearheaded a team that was instrumental in land recovery and livestock restocking, range infrastructure reconstruction, and rehabilitation of severely burned areas across the forest.
It goes without saying that there is no “I” in team, and the two rangeland specialists on the Alpine and Springerville districts, Curtis Chee and Mark Willis, are where the rubber really meets the road. Both men have long tenure on their units, an often overlooked but truly important asset for working with people and the land. Curtis arrived at the Alpine RD in 2004, and Mark came to the Springerville RD in 2006. Their contribution to the Wallow Fire range restocking team has been invaluable.
This outstanding team of range professionals has continued to provide both indirect and direct management support on one of the most diverse set of allotments in the Southwest, and possibly in the entire Forest Service system. They have each provided responded promptly and comprehensively to requests for information and conducted data collection, while continuing to help ranchers maintain viable operations. The strong teamwork, high level skill, and dedication to ranching and conservation of all three men epitomizes the Radical Center and helps keep it grounded in the lives and careers of people who make good things happen on the land.
[/et_pb_popup_builder]
Venue
Embassy Suites Hotel
1000 Woodward Place NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
505-245-7100
The conference will be held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Albuquerque Hotel & Spa, an all-suites hotel. It is centrally located in downtown ABQ, three miles from Albuquerque International Airport. Free parking, complimentary indoor pool, fitness & business centers, and free made-to-order breakfast are available to guests. Book at a special Quivira Conference rate of $129. Rooms are limited and conference block rates close October 16th.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
downloadable PDF
Please note: The main conference will begin on Wednesday, November 15 at 8am and will run through noon on Friday, November 17. This year we have a number of pre- and post-conference activities and workshops listed in the schedule below.
Tuesday
| 10:00–4:00 pm | Special Event: HMI Open Gate Workshop Speakeasy Farms, Albuquerque, New Mexico |
Wednesday
| 7:00–8:00 am | Registration |
| 8:00–8:15 am | Opening Remarks |
| 8:15–9:00 am | Allen Williams, Grassfed Exchange |
| 9:00–9:45 am | Harrison Topp, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union |
| 9:45–10:15 am | Break |
| 10:15–11:00 am | Larry Littlebird, Pueblo Elder/Hamaatsa |
| 11:00–11:45 am | Wendell Gilgert, Point Blue Conservation |
| 12:00–1:15 pm | Lunch |
| 1:15–2:30 pm | Rio Grande Water Fund Panel |
| Sandra Postel (moderator) | |
| Laura McCarthy | |
| Katherine Yuhas | |
| Toner Mitchell | |
| 2:30–3:00 pm | Break |
| 3:00 – 4:15pm | Carbon Ranching Panel |
| Calla Rose Ostrander (moderator) | |
| Russell Chamberlin | |
| Kevin Watt | |
| Kevin Muno | |
| 4:15-4:45 pm | Break |
| 4:45–7:15 pm | Southwest Grass-fed Livestock Alliance Dinner @ Los Poblanos |
| 7:30–9:00 pm | Mindful Meat – Keynote |
| Adam Danforth | |
| Deborah Madison | |
Thursday
| 7:00–8:00 am | Registration |
| 8:00–8:15 am | Opening Remarks |
| 8:15–8:45 am | Rick Danvir |
| 8:45–9:45 am | Michael Phillips |
| 9:45–10:15 am | Break |
| 10:15–11:00 am | Laura Paine |
| 11:00 – 12:00 pm | Radical Center Awards Panel |
| Wink Crigler | |
| Ernie Atencio | |
| Ron Mortensen | |
| Kathy Voth | |
| Rachel Gilker | |
| 12:00–1:15 pm | Lunch |
| 1:00–1:30 pm | Book Signing |
| 1:30-2:15 pm | Keri Brandt and Janine Fitzgerald |
| 2:15-2:45 pm | Lance Bernal |
| 3:00–3:30 pm | Break |
| 3:30–5:00 pm | Roundtables Session 2 |
| 5:00–5:30 pm | Break |
| 5:30–6:30 pm | Career Connection |
| 7:30-8:30 | Film |
Friday
| 7:00–8:00 am | Registration |
| 8:00–8:15 am | Opening Remarks |
| 8:15–9:45 am | Roundtable Discussions |
| 9:45–10:15 am | Break |
| 10:15–11:15 am | Final Closing Keynote: Michelle Otero |
| 11:15–11:30 am | Closing Remarks |
Saturday
| 9:00–3:00 pm | Special Event: Biological Orcharding Workshop Tooley’s Trees, Truchas, New Mexico |
Special Events
HMI Open Gate Workshop
at Speakeasy Gardens
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Speakeasy Gardens, Albuquerque, NM
$30 per person, space is limited
For additional details or scholarship information, contact Stephanie at stephv@holisticmanagement.org.
Spend the day at Speakeasy Gardens, a local organic farm, developing strategies and tactics to strengthen the burgeoning sustainable food system. This interactive field day will focus on exploring practices and systems that build producer capacity, educate consumers and build scalable, replicable food distribution models. Live #LaVidaLocal! Join local agricultural producers, distributors and food advocates ready to address the critical issues of creating healthy land, healthy food, and healthy lives.
This is a rain or shine event. We will be spending at least two hours on the land. Boots or other enclosed protective footwear and warm clothing are recommended. Please bring a water bottle.
Grass-fed Livestock Alliance
Dinner at Los Poblanos Inn
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
5:00 pm – 7:15 pm
Los Poblanos Inn, Albuquerque, NM
$100 per person, Space is limited
For additional details, contact Arielle at arielle@quiviracoalition.org.
Join us as we celebrate the work of the Southwest Grass-fed Livestock Alliance at a Long Table Dinner at the Los Poblanos Inn. You’re invited to get to know one another at an intimate meal seated together at a long communal table. Executive Chef Jonathan Perno and his culinary team, in collaboration with Butcher Adam Danforth will create an exquisite four-course menu that showcases his signature Rio Grande Valley Cuisine and regional grass-fed meats. Wine and beverage pairings are thoughtfully curated by the Los Poblanos team. This dinner is an exclusive, and all-inclusive chance to be a part of the true La Quinta experience in one of the most stunning venues in all of the Southwest.
Career Connection
An Agricultural Jobs Fair
Thursday, November 16, 2017
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Embassy Suites, Albuquerque, NM
Free event
For additional details, contact Monica at monica@quiviracoalition.org.
In collaboration the National Young Farmers Coalition and the Rio Grande Farmers Coalition, we host a regenerative agriculture jobs fair. Prospective employers/mentors include (but are not limited to) private ranches and farms, conservation groups, food advocacy organizations, government agencies, land use service consultants (e.g. Holistic Management) and related private-sector businesses.
If you are seeking an intern, apprentice or employee for the coming season, complete this form to be added to the Career Connection program and to reserve a table at the event.
If you are seeking an internship, apprenticeship, or job, come to the event with resume in hand.
Biological Orcharding Workshop
with Michael Phillips
Saturday, November 18, 2017
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Tooley’s Trees, Truchas, NM
$60 per person (includes lunch), registration full
For additional details, contact Nick at nick@quiviracoalition.org.
Learn from orcharding legend Michael Phillips at beautiful Tooley’s Trees in Truchas, New Mexico. Fascinating biological connections make for a healthy orchard ecosystem. All insect pests and fruit tree disease – whether fungal or bacterial – have launching points and particular timing. Healthy trees address these challenges first and foremost from within. Growers utilizing an ongoing investment in soil nutrition and biodiversity set the stage for gentler organic sprays to grow a successful fruit crop. The challenges you face at your locale will become far more manageable as you build a holistic system that keeps trees and berry plantings healthy from the get-go. We’ll wrap up this day with important marketing perspective for selling the good fruit.
This is a rain or shine event. We will be spending at least two hours on the land. Boots or other enclosed protective footwear and warm clothing are recommended. Please bring a water bottle.
Join us for this film screening, followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker, Cathryn Wild, and ranchers Michael Bain (Twin Willows Ranch) and Terry Mitchell (Tequesquite Ranch) who are using beaver and are featured in the film. Get common sense answers to your toughest questions on how to manage beaver and whether they might be right for your land and water. Using unscripted interviews with ranchers from New Mexico, Nevada and Idaho, the film explores the use of beaver as a tool to repair erosion, increase forage and overall productivity, and improve wildlife habitat on ranches.
The film was produced by Seventh Generation Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe. “We have been working with ranchers and beaver since 2008,” said Cathryn Wild, the filmmaker. “Beaver need management like all wildlife, but in the right place and with the right management, beaver can be a real ‘Swiss army knife’ tool for ranchers. For additional details, contact Arielle at arielle@quiviracoalition.org.
Rates
Members
Join Quivira and save
All three days – $230
Day 1 – $100
Day 2 – $100
Day 3 – $65
Early Bird
Before October 1
All 3 days – $250
Day 1 – $110
Day 2 – $110
Day 3 – $65
Regular
After October 1
All 3 days – $275
Day 1 – $120
Day 2 – $120
Day 3 – $75
Rates include lunch on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as admission to the keynote conversation on Wednesday evening. All special events are individually ticketed.
Quivira offers discounted rates to beginning ranchers and farmers, and students. We also offer a limited number of scholarships. Contact Arielle Quintana for how to apply.
Contact Us
If you have additional questions, need help registering, or have other special requests related to the conference, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Oops! We could not locate your form.