Resilience
Resilience
What is resilience? And what business and conservation methods are used by the Eagle Rock Ranch to make the operation productive into the future?
The ability of a natural system to absorb the effects of change, reorganize itself and adapt to a new environment is critical to its survival and thus forms the basis of ecological resilience.¹ It may be a new term, but it is not a new concept. Almost one hundred years ago, Aldo Leopold wrote that land’s capacity for self-renewal (i.e., its degree of ecological resilience) is a function of its overall health. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity.² The concept of “a land ethic” reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land.” The development and nurturing of this concept of conservation and concomitant sense of responsibility then is central to any quest for resiliency in a landscape.
Land health or resiliency then can be enhanced when an individual rancher includes “wild plants and animals with tame ones as expressions of fertility.”³ Such biodiversity is enhanced on the Eagle Rock Ranch by such actions as retaining all organic material on the property, facilitating wildlife corridors, retaining understory layers, reducing night-time light pollution, paying attention to pollinator, fish and macroinvertebrate habitat, re-planting of native species (particularly keystone species such as willows), leaving longer hay stubble to improve soil health and provide habitat (as discussed above), and either the elimination of unnecessary fencing or conversion to wildlife-friendly fencing.
Another critical attribute of resiliency is functional redundancy. For example, pollination of flowers and other flora is carried out by many species of insects, but also by birds and other animals. If one of these species should fail, its role will be carried out by the others. In another example, the need for grasses to be consumed in order to reproduce is often carried out by ungulates such as cattle on the Eagle Rock Ranch, but that role is supplemented by other ungulates such as elk, deer, antelope, etc. to maintain a thriving grassland ecosystem. At the Eagle Rock Ranch, all of these species are present on the ranch and carry out this function, thus demonstrating a classic example of functional redundancy. Conversely, if a certain grass species should fail, other species are present to replace it on the landscape. The CNHP identified over thirty species of various forage grasses present on the Ranch, stating:
“The upland, grassland hillsides of Eagle Rock Ranch were in excellent ecological condition and of sufficient size and with connectivity to surrounding landscapes to provide significant habitat value . . ., the vegetation was of high quality, with only native species noted . . .. Grasslands in general are regarded as the most imperiled ecosystems in North America . . . and Eagle Rock Ranch supports high-quality, representative grasslands characteristic of South Park and the inter-mountain basins of Colorado . . .. In general, the habitat mosaic of wetlands and uplands on Eagle Rock Ranch provides significant habitat for plants and wildlife, including pollinators. With a strong component of native plants in the vegetation, little habitat fragmentation, and support of ecological processes with intact wetlands, the Ranch provides a key connectivity link to adjacent open spaces owned and managed by CPW and USFS.
According to the Colorado Soil Health Program (Soil Health Connector Hub), soil health increases resilience of both the ranch and the surrounding community. The Eagle Rock Ranch improves its soil health by consistently rotating cattle through its various pastures, judiciously using animals as partners in soil health through the thoughtful integration of grazing animals which recycle nutrients, stimulate plant growth, and contribute to soil fertility and ecosystem balance.⁴
Just as a healthy ecosystem is comprised of individual organisms that are able to adapt and change to new conditions, so too must a healthy human community rely on members that can do the same. Agriculture has always had to be resilient to a certain degree due to the constant change in what it produces, together with changing consumer expectations, government policies, economics, interest rates, cattle and hay markets, fuel and fertilizer prices, water availability, weather, climate, and changes in the communities to which they belong. Sometimes, all at the same time. Ranchers themselves and their families are the most important part of the equation for ranches to successfully adapt to changes. A key part of this human equation for our ranch has been the establishment of a formal succession plan coupled with significant community involvement in such activities as local 4-H, local CPW Habitat Partnership Program, local cattlemen’s association, Park County Fair participation and sponsorship, Park County school booster program, and working with neighbors to address elk migration issues, wildlife-friendly fencing issues, soil health, grazing rotations, etc.
Three additional components are usually considered in becoming more resilient - persistence, adaptability, and willingness to consider transformative change. The first refers to the ability to deal with short-term challenges such as fuel shortages, market downturns, a weather event, etc. Park County is famous for its winter winds and we are at times without phone and/or power service. Moreover, COVID brought a lot of these and other challenges to the forefront. The Eagle Rock Ranch prepares for short-term challenges by setting up a reserve fund and establishing a line of credit – even though there might not be a current need for the funds. Phone communication is redundant through land lines and also satellite dish internet service. Careful attention is paid to proper insurance coverage. We retain extra bales of hay in our stackyard, keep our feed hoppers full, and we keep fuel reserve tanks full. The ranch has installed back-up electrical generators.⁵ We have a comprehensive Ranch Management Plan that deals with contingencies such as animal health protocols, bio-security procedures, disease, quarantines, drought, flood, and wildfire, etc. Discussing these potential events and devising alternatives ahead of time is a good step in making the ranch more resilient to these types of stress events.
Adaptability deals with the willingness and ability to make larger changes to our crops or livestock operations to keep them profitable over the long-term. Installing over a mile of buried water line and setting cattle drinkers in our pastures – all gravity-fed and solar-powered - would be one example of our ability to adapt to the possibility of drought. Recognizing that lower cattle numbers in the state might lead to lower hay prices for cattle led us to take steps to certify all our hay as “weed-free” so as to appeal to horse owners who are willing to pay a higher price for top quality hay.⁶
Transformative changes often entail the greatest time, risk and expense and require us to move out of our comfort zone. Examples of transformative change at the Eagle Rock Ranch would include our willingness to experiment with different calving seasons, moving cattle off the ranch in winter, leasing bulls in lieu of owning them (easier to do now that the Ranch runs a different calving season), down-sizing the herd while revising genetics and introducing heterogeneity into the herd to increase other attributes, completely changing our beef marketing plan to eliminate all “middlemen” and start dealing directly with consumers, starting (from scratch) a retail marketing establishment in Fairplay, and diversification of income with supplemental sources such as a long-term fishing lease, hunting and camping opportunities on the property, movie/film location services, and the implementation of ranch tours that include calving season, nature tours, and finally wildlife conservation income through a privately-funded elk migration agreement. While the Eagle Rock Ranch retains many of the characteristics that attracted us in the first place, its business operations now reflect many transformative features, all leading to heightened resiliency and land health.
1 The Stockholm Resilience Centre defines resilience as “the capacity to deal with change and continue to develop.”
2 Leopold, A. 1949. A Sand County Almanac. Oxford University Press, New York, New York. P. 221
3 Leopold, A., “A Biotic View of Land” – River of the Mother of God, 272.
4 The resilience and overall health of the grazing pastures utilized by the Eagle Rock Ranch has allowed us to offer pastures for temporary grazing to other ranchers affected by drought or wildfire.
5 The Eagle Rock Ranch, with its added generator capacity and enlarged fuel storage, coupled with an ability to use horses for a variety of ranch-related activities, is now and would be self-sufficient in terms of all fuel supply, electricity generation, and power/heat supply for upwards of a year.
6 The simple fact that our operation combines both a cow/calf operation and a haying operation in and of itself renders the ranch more resilient than a ranch that just features one of these attributes. This fact was brought home recently when we (along with CPW) donated two semi-truck loads of hay to cattle ranchers in NW Colorado devastated by the 2025 Lee Fire. See, e.g., “Colorado rancher, wildlife agency help provide relief to those impacted by the Lee Fire,” Aspen Times, Dec. 29, 2025, https://www.aspentimes.com/news/colorado-rancher-wildlife-lee-fire/#:~:text=Around 36 tons of hay,Rio Blanco County this summer. The local rancher receiving the hay told us that his multi-generational operation has always bought winter hay for their herd and did not produce it themselves. We understand that the business operation of every ranch is different, but the lack of their own hay production left them vulnerable when wildfire decimated their summer range and is putting severe stress onto their winter pastures.