We’re in this together

At Western Landowners Alliance, we respect land as a living community that includes both people and wildlife. Today, the movement for racial justice underscores more than ever that we are one people on a finite planet. Our care for one another and our care for the land go hand in hand. The impulses that lead people to abuse others are the same impulses that lead to abuse of land and natural resources. Yet we also have the capacity to create systems, cultures and relationships that curtail injustice, generate healing and bring forward the better aspects of our nature. There has never been a more important time to do so.

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Greg Hertel and his airedale terriers

Greg Hertel has used Airedale terriers for several years to protect himself, family and staff from grizzly bears by keeping them away from livestock and buildings around their Cody, Wyoming ranch. The Airedales sound a particular bark when they smell or see a grizzly bear, and are let out of their kennel to run the bears off the ranch.

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Profiles in Land and Management – Root Down Farm

This month we share the story of Root Down Farm in Pescadero, California. In 2014, Dede Boies started Root Down Farm in one of the most expensive counties in the United States. While finding affordable land and housing and starting a new business was a substantial challenge, her unwavering commitment to growing the best food she could for her customers in a way that also improves the health of the land helped Root Down Farm not just survive but grow.

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Tenacity + Solidarity + Creativity

One cold, dark, November night, I was lost somewhere outside the small town of Walden, CO, searching for a bison ranch. I had taken time off from my marketing job at Whole Foods Market to help during the outfit’s annual bison roundup. With no cell service, I was becoming increasingly concerned about finding the ranch. Self-doubt kicked in. When I finally had service I called my husband. “Is this normal?! For a 30-some year old woman to be spending her free time showing up at some ranch not knowing where she is going to sleep, what she is going to eat, to learn about a completely new profession?!” My husband replied, “No, but do it anyway.”

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