White-tailed deer fi nd plenty to eat on the ranch, and broadleaf plants, such as these milkweeds, are useful to monarch butter- fl ies, which migrate through the central part of the state.
The Richmonds settled on the ranch in 1883. Jule
chuckles when he says the remains of whiskey stills up in the hills tell him the nearby spring must have been fl owing in the early days. In later decades, “with overgrazing, drought and
brush growth, those springs were just a wet spot in the ground. I was here in the ‘50s and was old enough to remember these springs had pretty well gone away. My sister from New York was here with her family recently. She looked at me and said, ‘This wasn’t here when we were kids!’” The local soil and water conservation districts are
led by local landowners. Direction for the state agency fl ows up from those local districts. Richmond and his neighbors serve on the Pecan Bayou’s SWCD board. “All of us have a natural love and appreciation for conservation of our natural resources.” Rex Isom, TSSWCB executive director, says “Local
board members do a tremendous work of educating their neighbors about this philosophy of water supply
tscra.org
enhancement through brush control. These programs are examples of ‘we’re from the government and we’re here to help,’ and we really are. We are here to help the landowner in a voluntary program. TSSCWB is not a regulatory agency. We really are here to help the Jule Richmonds across the state.” Cody York, a member of the Pecan Bayou’s SWCD
staff, works with each of the 46 landowners in the Lake Brownwood project. “I haven’t had one single complaint yet,” he says. “Voluntary land stewardship on a grand scale is a
cornerstone solution for water supply issues in Texas. The efforts of private landowners to control water- depleting brush are vitally important to the ecological health of our productive rangeland across the state,” says Isom. “Many Texans today, especially those in urban areas, enjoy the public benefi ts — such as clean plentiful drinking water — they derive from the volun- tary land stewardship provided by private landowners and agricultural producers throughout the state.”
November 2016 The Cattleman 95
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