U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean Water Act grant through the Texas State Soil and Water Conserva- tion Board. LCRA began the program in 1990. Since then, the
program has helped 280 landowners plan, implement and fund conservation projects spanning 167,000 acres across the lower Colorado River basin, said Bobby Hum- phrey, supervisor for LCRA’s Natural Resources Conser- vation Program. Through the Creekside Conservation Program, Swift
and her family have cleared pastures of juniper trees, prickly pear cactus and other woody vegetation that soaked up much of the precious rainfall needed to help the land — and the family business — thrive. This pro- moted the spread of native grasses that allow more water to fi lter down through the soil to the aquifer. On a recent ranch tour, Swift proudly showed a group
of visitors the ranch homestead, built in 1898. The house stands today as a reminder of the unending importance of water conservation. A pipe still runs from the build- ing’s metal roof to a rock cistern where rainwater was captured for drinking, bathing, gardening and washing clothes. Swift’s daughter, Amber Fry, lives there now with her husband and children. Down a hill from the house is a round stone building
containing an old hand-dug well. “See how clear the water is and how high the level
To Amber Fry, a member of the Hoppe-Odiorne ranching fam- ily, water conservation is as important today as it was in her grandparents’ day. Her grandfather, Dwayne Hoppe, never forgot the withering drought of 1947 to 1957 and its devastat- ing impact on Texas ranchers, and Fry remembers the much more recent effects of the 2011 drought.
plan. “When I came here in the late ‘90s, Dwayne would periodically take me out to the ranch and tell me about his rangeland management philosophy. In that role I was more of a student than anything else.” These days, conservation efforts at the Hoppe-Odi-
orne Ranch continue with Swift at the helm — pri- marily through the ranch’s participation in the Lower Colorado River Authority’s (LCRA) Creekside Conser- vation Program. LCRA oversees the program in partnership with
NRCS and local soil and water conservation districts. The program administers cost-share grants to enable private landowners in the lower Colorado River basin to implement soil and water conservation projects that stabilize the soil and restore native plant communi- ties. Creekside Conservation is partially funded by a
78 The Cattleman February 2016
is? It got much lower than this during the drought, but it never went dry. I think that’s because of the way my father cared for the land,” Swift said. Her daughter Fry added, “Water conservation is just
as important today as it was when they dug that well.” Fry serves on the Pedernales Soil and Water Con-
servation District Board of Directors, a position her grandfather held for 3 decades. “My grandparents valued public service in the inter-
est of conservation, and I am honored to follow in their footsteps,” she said. “Like them, we are proud members of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) because it honors cattle producers for their role as stewards of our natural resources, whether they are fi rst-time ranchers or multigenerational ranch families.”
I guess I would rather work hard and hold on to what has been in the family for well over a hundred years.
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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