JA Ranch

Transcription

{Film reel spinning} {Music} [Narrator] This is footage shot back in 1915 at the JA Ranch. The ranch was founded by Charles Goodnight and John Adair and is still operated by descendants of the Adair family. At its peak size in 1883 the JA encompassed over a million acres. Since 2005 Andrew Bivins has run the land management side of the ranch. [Andrew Bivins] The salt cedar beetles, they defoliate the leaves off these trees, which will eventually kill the tree. It's what we're doing, what we're doing today, my kids are going to reap the benefit of, not me. [Narrator] Andrew is the latest in a long family lineage that goes back five generations. The child in his arms represents generation six. [Andrew Bivins] It's a very long-term strategy. It'll be my lifetime of working on it and it'll be my son's lifetime of working on it. And hopefully our grandchildren will have a ranch that's more of a prairie than what my son and I will have. [Narrator] There was a time when the prairie was open as far as the eye could see. But when early settlers removed fire from the natural landscape, invasive vegetation like mesquite and juniper overtook much of the land. {Music} [Andrew Bivins] The brush work side of it, just clearing this land and implementing prescribed fire, I feel is the only way we're going to get it back. And we're never going to get it back to what it was. Try to slowly improve it, to get it closer to what it originally was. [Narrator] Another land management tool that Andrew uses is called grubbing. [Andrew] We're just after target species, mesquite and juniper. [Narrator] The process can be time-consuming, expensive, and extremely difficult. [Andrew] That's not the hard part. The operator is the hard part. I have a fabulous operator. [Narrator] And this is the fabulous result on a prairie that's been treated by both grubbing and prescribed burn. [Andrew] Everything out here is in competition for the little water we get. Pulling the woody invasive species out, allows more water for the grasses. {Music} [Narrator] And competition on the range is fierce. Each juniper can soak up to 12 to 15 gallons of water a day. That's water that could go to replenishing the natural prairie grass. [Todd Montandon] The brush work that Andrew's been doing on this property is phenomenal. [Narrator] Todd Montandon is a Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist who gives Andrew technical support. [Todd Montandon] Andrew's been able to make some really dramatic improvements on the ranch. To reclaim country a lot of times this takes a lot of time. [Andrew Bivins] So what I've done is I've created a digital map of the JA. [Narrator] To manage everything here on the ranch. Andrew has a unique approach. [Andrew Bivins] ...pasture boundaries, roads, water facilities... [Narrator] He uses data. [Andrew Bivins] ...all our windmills, wells, dirt tanks... [Narrator] Nearly everything. [Andrew Bivins] Any kind of brush work we put on our map. [Narrator] And it all goes into this database. [Andrew Bivins] And so now we have a pretty detailed database of all the brush work that's been done on the ranch. What I hope to do with this is allow it so when my children and my grandchildren are running the ranch, they say oh look, here's what my grandfather did in 2010. Here's what he did in 2011. {Music} [Narrator] Andrew might have to wait a few decades before his kids are old enough to appreciate what Dad's doing on the computer. But waiting doesn't bother him. [Andrew Bivins] It's what you have to do. Leave the land in better shape for the next generation than how I found it. {Music Ends}