What is falconry?

If you were to go ask passersby on the street for the definition, you would probably get a range of responses.  Plus, that would be cheating.

So, allow us to provide you with some study materials.  In this piece, the author, Tim Cahill, gives a humorous account of his efforts to discover falconry’s true definition.  Indeed, in just a few short weeks, Cahill evolves from thinking of falconry as “that extinct medieval sport wherein guys in metal suits throw birds to fish” to a more enlightened view of the sport as “that flourishing contemporary field sport in which frenzied, monomaniacal men (and some frenzied monomaniacal women) soil their neighbor’s living rooms with bird droppings and run around naked in the snow.”

Really powerful stuff.

If you would like to read more about the author’s trials and tribulations in seeking this knowledge, as well as a number of his other insightful stories (we recommend the one about the outhouse built over a bat cave), you should pick up a copy of his book, Pecked to Death by Ducks.  In the meantime, you can see a preview of the stories on Google Books.

To learn even more about falconry (or to start training to be a falconer yourself!), check out FSC affiliate Duane Zobrist of The Falconry and Raptor Education Foundation.

One of our readers, Kelly, had a few great questions for me and I’d like to address two in today’s blog. (PS – Kelly writes a blog called Ride, Groom, Feed -the journal of a New Zealand Rider.) I hope my answers are helpful as it’s somewhat difficult to be specific since so much depends on your site, your program, and your goals. Thanks for your questions and for reading.

Q: “How can you allow flexibility for future development (that may never occur) without constricting the initial plans too much?”

A:  Building for flexibility has its limits and you need to at least have a rough idea about how things might change in the future so you can plan for it in a reasonable and cost-effective way. Too much flexibility could ultimately end up adding to your costs, especially if the future needs are never realized. Here’s a couple of examples.

Regarding a site plan, say you want to build a 12-stall barn now, but may add or increase it to total 24 stalls later. I would recommend building a 12-stall barn with all of the horse stalls to one end so that you can add the future stalls to the other end to produce a 24-stall barn. That way the barn services (tack room, feed room, wash stalls, lounge/office, bathrooms) are all located to the center, where they are most efficient for a 24-stall barn. At the same time, if the services are at one end of a 12-stall barn, it’s still efficient for daily use.

Another example may be the question of where to build a barn and an outdoor arena with the idea that you’d like to add an indoor arena at some point in the future. A master plan can really help you to determine a phased build out of your entire program over time. If you do it once and take the time to fully plan for your entire potential program, you can determine the best placement for each structure and identify potential pitfalls to your site, understanding what can work best for your needs. There is no easy or simple explanation in this instance, but a master plan will help you (literally) visualize your success now and into the future.

 

Q: “I live in an area where it rains a lot. What are the most effective drainage solutions? Where should run-off water go? What kind of drains are the safest?”

Make sure the barn is on high ground and that all grade around the barn drains away from the barn. Same with paddock gates and lead paths. You can create storm drainage swales that lead to bio-retention ponds or back into the ground without eroding the surface soils. Safe drains depend on where they are located and their size. I try to avoid any conditions where a horse can step into or off a ledge and suffer a foot or leg injury. Use French drains where necessary to drain water into the soil without creating surface conditions that become or create hazards. Good site planning is critical and is another area where an experienced equestrian architect can provide a valuable service that the inexperienced architect does not have (and you will rarely receive from the design build or prefab barn builder).

Restoring endangered steelhead trout to the Southern California rivers and streams where they once swam in abundance will cost as much as $2.1 billion over the next 100 years, according to a new federal report.

The 600-page Southern California Steelhead Recovery Plan, recently released by the National Marine Fisheries, warns that along with a financial commitment, a “shift in society attitudes, understanding, priorities and practices” concerning water use will be needed to save the fish that swim between the ocean and rivers.

About 500 returning adult steelhead exist today, compared with an estimated 45,000 that swam in rivers before World War II.

Read more: http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/66726

Photo courtesy of Pam Brophy

Over the past 30 years, land development trends have been such that farmland has been lost to development at an ever-increasing rate.  In fact, between 1982 and 2007 the US lost more than an acre of farmland every minute.  When the housing bubble burst in 2008, that process was stopped.  In many ways, the burst has been a tragedy with the millions of homeowners who faced foreclosure.  However, one silver lining that has appeared has been the return of lands slated for development back to farmland.

Indeed, in the story we heard this morning, one farmer who sold his land to a developer for $80,000 an acre has since bought it back at a heavily discounted $18,500 an acre and has returned it to agricultural use.  Further, more and more young farmers are entering the field by leasing lands and living on the profits they make from selling high-value commodities like cotton and hay.  We encourage you to have a listen by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of John Fielding

Yes, we know it’s January.  And yep, we know January falls squarely in the category of “winter.”  But winter is typically the season when we find ourselves keeping warm by the fire, thinking longingly about that steelhead we were playing back in October.   Hence the title of this post.

We were in one of those reflective moods the other day when we came across this article in The Contemporary Sportsman.  In it, the author, Bryan Huskey, gives a moving account of growing up in Central Oregon surrounded by trout rivers, lakes, and streams.  Beginning with his introduction to fly casting for steelhead, he gives a methodical description of his evolution as a fisherman, tying it into the evolution of the sport itself.  Looking back at the emergence of two-handed rods, learning the nuances of the water and movement of the fish, and simply taking in the beauty around him, Huskey makes it hard for the reader to not want to get back out on the water.

After checking out Huskey’s stirring words (and photography!), we encourage you to explore the plethora of content within the covers of this latest edition.  And once you’re done with that, you might want to consider subscribing to their newest publication, Backcast.

What follows is a letter to the editor in response to a recent article in Conservation Magazine titled, Chasing Rainbows by Anders Halverson. “Lured by a utopian vision of nature, fish and game agencies dropped billions of trout into thousands of lakes. Now, they’re determined to undo the damage they caused,” writes Halverson. The article which appeared recently is an adaptation from his recent book An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World, published by Yale University Press. Find photos and resources related to fish-stocking at http://andershalverson.com 

Dear Conservation Magazine,

We found it incredible that Anders Halverson’s detailed article, about rainbow trout introductions and the unintended consequences (Chasing Rainbows), never mentions the true tragedy of this ecological predicament: the rampant poisoning of entire ecosystems to rid them of planted rainbows.

The same flawed logic of single-species management used to plant the rainbows is now being used to remove rainbows, most often with a systemic poison, Rotenone.  Poisoning out non-natives in favor of a preferred native is euphemistically called, native fish restoration.  In fact, in many Western states today rainbows are being simultaneously stocked in some places and poisoned in others.

Unfortunately, Rotenone doesn’t discriminate between non-native fish and native fish.  It doesn’t spare amphibians or insects.  It kills them all and monitoring data show some species never return.  Our company has long espoused the Hippocratic Oath of “first, do no harm” as it applies to ecological restoration.  We need a strong web of organisms on this planet, not just rainbow trout, or cutthroat trout, or yellow-legged frogs.

Protecting and restoring healthy, functioning freshwater streams and wetlands to sustain a high diversity of organisms is a much more effective and economical way of conserving species.  Given half the chance, nature will decide when and where to chase the rainbows.

Read more: http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2011/11/chasing-rainbows/ or learn more about river, stream and lake poisoning at http://www.stopriverkilling.org

[Note: You can check out the original post at THI's blog, http://troutheadwaters.com/clubecoblu/?p=2603.]

Those six words mark the beginning of the cover story of the most recent edition of The Land Report and do a pretty good job of summing up our own feelings toward investing in conservation.  You see, investing in such practices as wildlife management, stream restoration, and recreational land use has a plethora of benefits to both people and the natural environment.  These include higher biodiversity, improved water quality, and, of course, higher real estate values, to name just a few.

In this particular story, billionaire T. Boone Pickens tells of many of the conservation efforts he has incorporated into his land investment strategy over the years.  As he puts it, “We always made a profit from the ranch sales.  But what I feel really good about is knowing that we left the land in better shape than we found it.”  Indeed, by incorporating wildlife management programs, Pickens was able to promote larger and healthier populations while also profiting off of the increased recreational values of the land.

Further, Pickens was also astute at determining the highest and best use for his and surrounding properties.  For example, when a colossal reservoir was discovered beneath the surface of his land in Roberts County, Texas, he recognized that rather than using that water to support irrigation-intensive agricultural practices, he decided to sell the water credits to local urban centers and instead allow the land to lie fallow.  In return, he not only profited off the sale of the water credits but also received tax benefits by placing his land into a conservation reserve program, and the land was allowed to return to pristine prairie.

You can read more about T. Boone Pickens and his conservation efforts by clicking here (begins on page 38).  While you’re reading, make sure to check out the stunning photography by friend of Field Sport Concepts, Wyman Meinzer.  And if you’d like a sample of our approach to investing in conservation, you can view a presentation given by FSC principal Bob McKee of McKee Carson by checking out this article from our most recent quarterly newsletter.

Now that you’re all caught up on your email and are getting settled back into your daily routine, isn’t it time for another vacation?  Maybe not, but how about a five-minute break?  We’ve got just the ticket!  Our affiliate, Trout Headwaters, is doing some great work at Running Colter Ranch over in Bozeman, Montana and recently released a video documenting their work.  Enjoy!

[crickets chirping]

Okay, maybe the title wasn’t supposed to be taken THAT literally.  But, we did just come across an article in UrbanLand that discusses the future of planned community development as being driven by a focus on relationships rather than simply on amenities.  Whereas the focus of traditional planned communities has been on golf courses, clubhouses, sports complexes, and the like, developers of newer communities are using clustered lot design, community space, and other strategies to promote greater connection among people and to the land itself.  Indeed, as one developer put it, “We’re not just stewards of the land; we’re also stewards of people’s lives.”

Perhaps one of the most notable characteristics of future planned communities is they likely will not be characterized by “one size fits all” methods and features.  Rather, a successful community will be designed around those features which may be lacking in that particular area.  In one area, that focus might be on hunting and fishing.  In another, it might be on open space, like parks and hiking trails.  And others may be based around other aspects of the sporting life.  Whatever the theme, it probably won’t be the same as the planned community in the next town over.  In the meantime, we can leave the McMansions to the students.

Photo courtesy of David Martin

But, what’s that you say?  You can’t find the newsletter in your inbox?  Never fear!  For those 5 or 6 of you who aren’t yet enjoying our quarterly newsletter, you can check it out by clicking here.  If you enjoy the content (we’re confident you will), you can subscribe by visiting our website.

Thanks to everyone who has been checking out our posts!  If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear from you!