(music)
[Chase Currie] It's a very difficult environment to ranch
in. There's not a consistent rainfall pattern.
[Daniel Kunz] In South Texas, as far as the climate goes,
we have very frequent droughts. You know, if we're not in a drought, we're probably
about to go into one.
(wings)
[Daniel Kunz] It creates a lot of challenges managing for
livestock or wildlife.
(quail)
[Chase Currie] Bottom line, we manage for diversity.
(music)
[Joseph Fitzsimons] I'm Joseph Fitzsimons and we're here at the
San Pedro Ranch. We're in southwest Texas, about as south and west as you can get and
still be in Texas.
(bird)
[Joseph Fitzsimons] From the closest point to the border, it's
about 3 miles to the Rio Grande, the Rio Bravo. Our grandfather bought this ranch in 1932.
And our father operated it for many years. And then my sister and I have been very fortunate
to operate the San Pedro as well.
(music)
[Pamela Howard] It was originally a Spanish land grant from
1812.
[Joseph Fitzsimons] This is the marker of the King's Highway,
the lower road of the Camino Real up to San Antonio. So people have been crossing here
for awhile. We're not the first ones here. San Pedro Springs, mentioned in early Conquistadors'
and explorers' journals starting in the early 1700s. It's a very special place. It's very
much like it's been for the last hundred years.
(music)
(machinery)
[Chase Currie] I'm Chase Currie. I'm the general manager
here. From an operations standpoint, our two sources of revenue are wildlife and cattle.
[Chase Currie] Pretty bull.
(chute opens)
(music)
[Chase Currie] We just finished weaning our fall-born calves.
(sack opens)
[Chase Currie] We feed them, just helps gentle them down,
relieves the stress, and then here in another 4 or 5 days, they'll go on to pasture.
[Joseph Fitzsimons] Come on boys.
[Chase Currie] These cattle can go elsewhere and and do very
well.
[Joseph Fitzsimons] They're not going to go anyplace that's tougher
than here.
[Chase Currie] It's important to the family that this ranch
remain a working ranch. While the cattle are important from an economic standpoint, they're
also very important in what we do here on the ground to manage for a more complete landscape.
(music)
[Chase Currie] Currently we are in the worst drought that
this particular area of Texas has experienced in roughly 90 years, here in southwest Dimmit
County. We didn't think it could get any drier, but it has.
(cows moo)
[Chase Currie] Despite the historic drought, we've been very
diligent in our grazing. Keeping the cattle on the move, resting pastures. We actually
have the cattle in a pasture right now that we haven't been in in almost a year. We don't
move cattle based on a day on the calendar, but it's more of a planned grazing.
(music)
[Daniel Kunz] Managing their wildlife and livestock numbers
to leave some residual habitat in these dry times, it's really a testament on how they
operate down here, the habitat is still as healthy as it is even in this historic drought
we're in right now.
[Daniel] When you do get the rains back, it's going
to respond.
[Daniel Kunz] They've been a great partner with Texas Parks
and Wildlife.
[Daniel] Very good cover plant as well for quail.
[Daniel Kunz] Every year we come out here and we evaluate
the browsing pressure on the woody species out here.
[Daniel] This is a fresh deer bite.
(clicker)
[Daniel Kunz] We come out here and we count stem tips with
Chase and monitor this over the long term and we set harvest rates also based on this.
So it's been very enjoyable to work with the San Pedro Ranch every year to do this.
(music)
[Daniel Kunz] When you have very little herbaceous and grass
cover, you have a lot of runoff, and you lose a lot of water off your property.
(water flowing)
[Daniel Kunz] So they try to catch as much water as they
can in the soil. And you can really see that, that the springs are still running, in the
midst of this historic drought that we're under right now in this part of South Texas.
[Joseph Fitzsimons] Watershed management is really key to how
you manage an arid rangeland.
(music)
[Daniel Kunz] Some of their primary creek bottoms, they
have restricted from livestock grazing to protect those sensitive areas. And the stuff
they have done here as far as repairing riparian function is also really interesting.
[Chase Currie] We've working with Bill Zeedyk out of New
Mexico to restore eroded creek bed, basically. By correcting these longstanding erosion problems,
we've been able to slow the water down and help it percolate to the water table for the
San Pedro Springs.
[Joseph Fitzsimons] Prepare the land for when it does rain, and
that's the key.
(camera)
[Daniel Kunz] They have a wetland area that they built.
(camera)
[Pamela Howard] It was an old caliche pit. We've re-seeded
with lots and lots of natives and wildflowers.
[Chase Currie] So we took one of the least productive areas
on the ranch and turned it into one of the most productive areas on the ranch.
(music)
[Chase Currie] Probably one of the biggest steps they took
to preserve the San Pedro was the conservation easement.
[Joseph Fitzsimons] We donated a conservation easement, so this
ranch will stay together and be a whole habitat, whether we own it or not.
[Pamela Howard] And this is in perpetuity, this is forever.
(bird)
[Pamela Howard] You are saying to your children and generations
on, we value these very special sensitive areas, that they're worth protecting.
(bee buzzing)
(quail)
[Joseph Fitzsimons] Our father was an early adopter of holistic
resource management. Our cattle operation is part of our wildlife management operation,
and holistic management doesn't treat those as being on separate lands because they're
not.
(music)
[Joseph Fitzsimons] Our father always told us to manage for the
drought, and the times of rain and plenty will take care of themselves.
(film projector)
[Pamela Howard] I can definitely remember my dad instructing
me on riding, he was an excellent horseman. It's a passing of knowledge and tradition.
(music)
[Pamela Howard] Joseph putting Hayden on the horse, you're
handing off the knowledge and appreciation to each subsequent generation. Now we're in
our 5th generation, and I like to think of my grandfather looking down, smiling broadly.
[Joseph Fitzsimons] I hope my children and grandchildren have
an opportunity to experience the challenges of managing a great piece of habitat like
this. Running a working ranch, you learn a lot managing through tough times.
[Pamela Howard] The name of the game is adaptability.
(music)
[Joseph Fitzsimons] We feel it is a tribute to our father and
our grandfather and the whole family, to keep the place going.
(music)
[Joseph Fitzsimons] It's a great life.