“If you can slow it down, you can soak it in,” he
says, and provides some tips for landowners on how to slow down any runoff on your ranch. Wright has spent the majority of his career in far
West Texas, where annual rainfall averages less than 12 inches. “So if a drop of water falls on one of those farms or ranches, they want to keep it on the place,” he says. He admits that his fi rst tip may be obvious, but it
bears repeating. “Practice prescribed grazing and use the proper stocking rate for your land. Don’t overstock the place. Look at what you have and decide from that what you can run on the place.” Prescribed grazing will do several things for the
rancher, he says. “You won’t be losing soil to erosion and you’ll increase infi ltration through vegetative cover on the land. As long as you’re holding water on your place, it’s not running off and you can use it.” Another practical tip is to take a look at your land
as a whole. “Maintain a healthy ecosystem. Try to keep the ranch healthy. If it has plenty of vegetation,
the livestock look healthy, the rangeland looks healthy and the creeks look healthy, then everything is going to be functioning the way it should. I’m a fi rm believer in natural regeneration. Many times when we go into areas that are not healthy, if we will just back off some of the pressures that we are applying to the land, things will begin to improve on their own rather quickly.” The privately owned lands of Texas serve as fi lters
for the creeks, streams, rivers and aquifers that pro- vide water for the entire state. Vegetative cover slows down rainfall, in effect, so it is naturally fi ltered before making its way into the water system. Wright says, “I would rather take a drink out of a spring bubbling up out of the ground where it’s been naturally fi ltered, than from a puddle where it ran off without any fi ltration.” After looking around at the whole system, look
down at the soil. “Look at the health of the soil. Ev- erything we do on our ranch is built on the foundation of the soil. If the soil is not healthy, then it will be a struggle to keep everything above it healthy. Healthy soils are extremely important for water conservation
70 The Cattleman May 2016
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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