The Back 40

As the bluebonnets bloom in Texas, the wildflower’s popularity creates some concerns for Texas residents. The state flower of Texas, this time of year causes a fanaticism among Texans and tourists who absolutely must have a photo of themselves basking in all of the bluebonnet goodness. It’s not all wine and bluebonnets, however. Given the [...]

Beverly Bell and Tory Field recently wrote an interesting piece for the Huffington Post about the global food market and the impact it has on producers and consumers at the local level. They write that food is a great unifier for the world’s citizens, but control of food production and distribution is increasingly being taken [...]

A recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture entitled, Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators, 2012 examines “trends in economic, structural, resource, and environmental indicators” in the agricultural sector that have developed since the previous report was published in 2006. We are encouraged to see improvements in water efficiency, conservation tillage, nitrate recovery, as well [...]

In what amounts to the largest conservation easement ever provided to the federal government, billionaire Louis Bacon, has pledged to protect 90,000 acres of his ranch in Colorado under a conservation easement. The easement, which provides tax benefits to Mr. Bacon would be part of the “Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area” proposed by the U.S. [...]

Nebraska Cattlemen and five federal lawmakers have joined together to question the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its use of flyovers to monitor the environmental compliance of farms and ranches across the nation. The EPA, which has been doing these flights for 10 years, claims that they are an effective, inexpensive way [...]

By Brent M. Haglund, Ph.D. A decade and a half passed between completion of Aldo Leopold’s two most significant books.  In Game Management – released in 1933 – he stated that recovery of wildlife habitat and wildlife species dependent on such could often be accomplished with more skillful, careful use of the same tools which [...]