Field tour of an amazing place

[jyoutz]

Today, I attended an invited field tour of the Vermejo Park Ranch, as a member of the New Mexico chapter of the society of American Foresters. This ranch is approximately 600,000 acres in size and is located in the Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico. We were invited to discuss forest management practices. The ranch is owned by Ted Turner. Regardless of what you may think of his politics, he has an amazing land stewardship ethic and the financial capability to implement his visions. This ranch has professional ranch managers, foresters, wildlife, and fisheries managers on staff to tend to his vision of restoring land that has been abused by poor past management. We saw outstanding forest restoration of hygraded cut over stands, free ranging buffalo, elk, deer, and oil production conducted in a wholistic manner. The logging operations we saw were focused on removing small diameter low grade timber for sale to the local post and pole mill/treatment plant and improving the health, quality, and wildfire resilience of the forest, not maximum revenue production. The John Deere forestry processor will limb and cut logs to a programmed length. The oil pump jacks were fed by underground power lines, the pads reseeded with grass and the pump jacks painted pine forest green to blend with the landscape. Buffalo steaks and burgers are sold nationwide at his restaurants named “Ted’s Place.” Lots to see and it was nice to see what an unlimited checkbook can do. This level of management isn’t possible for most landowners, public or private, but it is nice to see a landscape being managed using the best science and technology.

 

[MossRoad]

Wow, that would be cool to see.

I try to manage our little slice of the world responsibly. But I just tried to visualize 600,000 acres.... (we have 20).

For reference:
1 section is 640 acres, or 1 square mile.
So we're talking about 937 square miles.
If it was a square, it would be a bit over 30.6 miles on each side.

That's impressive.

Some good friends of ours own 10,000 acres here in Indiana jointly with their large family, but it is mostly corn and soybean fields, with a few hundred acres in woods and waterways. I've never talked to them regarding forestry management. It'll probably be discussed at our next outing now. Thanks.

 

[jyoutz]

Wow, that would be cool to see.

I try to manage our little slice of the world responsibly. But I just tried to visualize 600,000 acres.... (we have 20).

For reference:
1 section is 640 acres, or 1 square mile.
So we're talking about 937 square miles.
If it was a square, it would be a bit over 30.6 miles on each side.

That's impressive.

Some good friends of ours own 10,000 acres here in Indiana jointly with their large family, but it is mostly corn and soybean fields, with a few hundred acres in woods and waterways. I've never talked to them regarding forestry management. It'll probably be discussed at our next outing now. Thanks.

Your state forestry department can help your friend with discussing management options. Related to the acreage, Turner also owns two other ranches in NM without timber, mostly grazing land. They total an additional 400,000 acres, making a NM land ownership total of 1M acres. He also owns ranches in Montana. All with professional managers.

 

[EddieWalker]

I hunted a ranch in Montana that was next to one of his properties and everyone there talked about how good he was at taking care of his livestock, and that he had an outfitter running a hunting operation on that ranch. I found it surprising that his politics don't apply to his land stewardship.

 

[MossRoad]

Your state forestry department can help your friend with discussing management options. Related to the acreage, Turner also owns two other ranches in NM without timber, mostly grazing land. They total an additional 400,000 acres, making a NM land ownership total of 1M acres. He also owns ranches in Montana. All with professional managers.

Yep. Back in 1989 we consulted our state forester as soon as we bought our property.

FOR FREE:

- They came out and evaluated the property.
- Inventoried the existing woodlands and provided a report (20,000 trees of mixed species, mostly sugar maple, oak, cherry, black locust, various shrubs, and some invasive species, etc.)
- Developed 3 separate plans for a small field, the existing woods, and a larger field.
- Gave us a list of approved foresters (one that I went to high school with and got the job) to plant the small field and a windbreak around the large field.
- Enlisted us in a program where if we bought and planted the trees and shrubs they suggested (from a huge list of species) and maintained them for just 5 years by mowing or spraying between rows, they'd reimburse us for 75% of the total cost.
- So, my forester friend went to a state nursery, purchased and planted 2150 trees (half pine, half mixed hardwood) and several hundred shrubs and small trees, and we paid a total of:

$265 after reimbursement! (yep, that's two hundred sixty five dollars)

 

[jyoutz]

Yep. Back in 1989 we consulted our state forester as soon as we bought our property.

FOR FREE:

- They came out and evaluated the property.
- Inventoried the existing woodlands and provided a report (20,000 trees of mixed species, mostly sugar maple, oak, cherry, black locust, various shrubs, and some invasive species, etc.)
- Developed 3 separate plans for a small field, the existing woods, and a larger field.
- Gave us a list of approved foresters (one that I went to high school with and got the job) to plant the small field and a windbreak around the large field.
- Enlisted us in a program where if we bought and planted the trees and shrubs they suggested (from a huge list of species) and maintained them for just 5 years by mowing or spraying between rows, they'd reimburse us for 75% of the total cost.
- So, my forester friend went to a state nursery, purchased and planted 2150 trees (half pine, half mixed hardwood) and several hundred shrubs and small trees, and we paid a total of:

$265 after reimbursement! (yep, that's two hundred sixty five dollars)

Nice. People with forested lands should take advantage of the many services that state forestry has. The states are funded annually by the US Forest Service to assist private landowners.