Unless we practice conservation, those who come after us will have to pay the price of misery, degradation, and failure for the progress and prosperity of our day.  ~Gifford Pinchot

This quote from Gifford Pinchot (better known as the Father of Conservation) perfectly captures the essence of conservation and the need to establish good land stewards today.  This all starts with conservation-minded Land Planning.  Whether you have a lot of land or just a little land, you can take steps to conserve your property for generations to come.

There are Nine Basic Steps of Land Conservation Planning

The Natural Resources Conservation Service uses a 9-step planning process to establish and maintain Conservation Plans.  Though the process may seem simple in theory, it is really important to actually work your way through it and check back in regularly to make sure you're still on target.

Step One: Identify the Problem 

Sometimes people get in a groove of doing things the same way they’ve always been done and turning on their blinders to everything else.  This initial step is meant to just step back and look at the big picture.  Is there anything going awry, or anything that could be going better or your land, with your herd, or in your life in general?  Example could be: poor irrigation management with an inability to manage water flow, overgrazing or undergrazing in certain areas, low weaning weight, poor body condition score, too much beetle kill on your property or a newly-cleared forest, too many noxious weeds, inability to breakeven financially at the end of the year, etc...  Whatever your problem is, write it down and move onto the next step. 

Step Two: Determine the Objective 

Now that you have determined your problem, determine what your goals and objectives are.  What would you like to see your land look like?  Where do your want your water to go or to be checked up at?  Where would you rather have your animals graze or their weight and body condition score to be at?  What do you want the forest on your property to look like?  What is a tolerable level of weeds?  What is your breakeven point?

Step Three: Inventory the Resources

This is where you actually get out there and see what you’ve got on your property.  How much water are you actually putting down your ditch?  How much water is coming out at the end?  What is the actual forage quantity in “overgrazed” and “undergrazed” areas?  What are your actual weaning weights and body condition scores?  How many dead trees are there and how much regeneration is there in your forest?  How big is your weed problem?  What are your actual incomes and expenses?

Step Four: Analyze the Resource Data

Now that you have collected your data, look at and try to figure out what’s really going on.  Do you have a leaky ditch problem or just a damning problem?  Are your animals tending to overgraze the areas nearest their water source or maybe their mineral source?  Are your body condition scores and weights what you thought they were or better/worse? Were your animals better during a certain time of the year than they were at a different time of the year?  Does you feed meet your animals’ nutritional requirements?  How does your regeneration compare to what is expected or desired? Were your incomes and expenses average this year or exceedingly high/low?  If you did sample plots (i.e. sampled ¼ ac or 15% of the herd, etc…), how does that extrapolate across a larger area or the entire herd)?

Step Five: Formulate the Alternative Solutions

Now that you've figured out the problem, what you desire, and what you have, let’s figure out how you can get there.  Think of all the possible solutions to your problem, not thinking of practicality yet…just ALL the possibilities.  Is it pipes or PAM for the better water management?  Is it fencing or moving water/mineral sources for better grazing management?  Is it providing supplements or better forage for your cattle?  Is it logging your dead trees or planting seedlings or thinning your saplings?  Is it spraying herbicides or hand pulling weeds?  Is it decreasing unnecessary expenses and increasing your income or just choosing different expenses that may be for efficient for your budget in the long run?

Step Six: Evaluate the Alternative Solutions      

Now that you have all the possibilities, let's look at practicality.  Maybe you may not have the funds to do all the different possibilities, but maybe there are grants that you can get to help you with the cost.  Do you have the time to spend doing some of the options, or can you hire someone else to do it for you?  Look at all the pros and cons.  Some of them might surprise you.

Step Seven: Determine the Course of Action

Now is the time to decide what you're going to do.  Decide on your plan and a timeline to go along with it.  Sometimes plans take months or even years to complete, but write the timeline down so that you can refer back to it.  This timeline will act as a good self-motivator if you realize you’re behind schedule or a little pat on the back for sticking with the program.   

Step Eight: Implement the Plan

You've decided on a plan, so now you've got to do it.  Some plans are more of a marathon than they are a sprint, so don't get on yourself it is taking a long time implement and see the results.

Step Nine: Evaluate the Results of the Plan

Once you've implemented your plan, look at the results.  Did you accomplish what you set put to do?  Are there things you could have done differently?  Is there more to be done?  Did you identify a new problem in the process?
 
Step nine can actually go along with step eight if you have a long implementation plan.  This is called Adaptive Management.  As you're going along and see that things aren't working out like you'd hoped, stop, reassess, and adjust your plan accordingly.  This is different than Trial & Error because you are Leaning by Doing and using your past experiences and knowledge to decide how to progress.  Your continual monitoring allows for quicker more educated adjustments to your plan.  With Adaptive Management, your plan may not necessarily have a distinct end.  It may be more of a circle that's pretty bumpy at the beginning with lots of hiccups and adjustments but the circle should become smoother over time.  It is a marathon, not a sprint. 
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If you need assistance starting the Land Planning process, consider contacting
Mark Volt, NRCS District Conservationist, at 970-724-3456 (for ag properties) or the Colorado State Forest Service Office at 970-887-3121 (for forested properties)  They can help you put your thoughts on paper and get your plan in action.