Pre-Conference Technical Tours

Urban Open Space Grazing Management

Saturday, January 31st • 11 am–8 pm

The San Francisco Bay Area is not only known for its famous sights and the Silicon Valley, but also an extensive network of open space park lands. Much of the open space park land (as much as 100,000 acres) is rangeland, supporting public access and recreation and managed with beef cattle grazing. This tour will take you to Garin Regional Park in the East Bay. At the park, which sits on the urban edge, you will hear from park managers and ranchers who work together to manage the most heavily used grazed parklands anywhere on the planet. After the park visit you will be taken to Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39 in San Francisco for some time on your own or with fellow SRMers before returning to Sacramento.

Urban Targeted Grazing

Sunday, February 1st • 9:30 am–3:30 pm

This technical tour will visit two urban open space areas in the East Bay to discuss targeted goat grazing strategies and best practices. One site, a native grassland at a park in Oakland, has used goat grazing primarily for vegetation fuels control in recent years. Last year the site incorporated an objective of maintaining biodiversity. Land managers at the other site, a former WWII Naval Fuel Depot on the San Francisco Bay, are considering the use of goat grazing in order to manage broom encroachment. The sites will have various representatives (goat grazing operations, environmental groups, and city officials) to discuss the benefits, myths, and more of grazing urban lands. SRM participants will be welcome to contribute their expertise and experiences as a part of the tour.

Technical Tours

Grazing for National Security and Conservation

Wednesday, February 4th (All Day Tour)

Don't miss your chance to learn about how cattle grazing is utilized for national security and conservation in California! Take an hour drive north of the Convention Center through the heart of California's Sacramento Valley, seeing a diversity of intensive agriculture along the route. The tour will traverse through Beale Air Force Base with stops at restoration sites that are grazed, static aircraft on display, and a German POW Camp. You will enjoy a warm, hearty, home-cooked meal before heading off to the second stop at a Placer Land Trust preserve. This tour will feature grazing program managers, ranchers and ecologists—all part of a balancing act to enhance the ecological diversity of California rangelands in conjunction with maintaining profitable ranching operations. (Participants must be willing to share full legal name, date of birth, and driver's license number/ state with tour manager Tracy Schohr for access to base.)

Lockeford Plant Material Center and Sparrowk Livestock

Wednesday, February 4th (All Day Tour)

The Lockeford Plant Material Center (PMC) has been in this location since 1973. It is a 107-acre facility that is prime farmland along the Mokelumne River. Soils are fine sandy loam, making it ideal for all the planting projects that a PMC does. The PMC serves close to 62 million acres of California and includes 11 Major Land Resource Areas (MLRAs). The area covered by the PMC is characterized by a Mediterranean climate with a six-month wet season and a six-month dry season. They have completed several plant releases, including native grasses (purple needlegrass, California brome, blue wildrye, sulfur flower buckwheat, inland saltgrass and fourwing saltbush) as well as non- native species such as Berber orchard grass and “Lana” woollypod vetch. The mission of the PMC is to develop technology and plant materials to address the resource concerns of California.

The majority of the work is focused on species that are native to California. They currently work with NRCS field offices, public agencies, universities, conservation organizations, tribes and commercial seed producers and nurseries. Specific projects that will be showcased during the tour include the National Soil Health Study, Drought Tolerant Cover Crops, Cover Crop Component Demonstrations, Pollinator Meadows, Sanfoin & Grass Seeding Trials, Biofuel Oilseed Study and Range Field Trials. Participants will be taken on a guided walking tour of the facility with specific talks at each trail or point of interest followed by a BBQ lunch with time to chat with locals and tour guides.

Following lunch the group will take the bus on a short drive to Sparrowk Livestock. Sparrowk Livestock was the Regional IV National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Environmental Stewardship award winner in 2012. The ranch is a large cow/calf and stocker cattle operation. They operate in several counties in California as well as Oregon and Colorado. Bev Sparrowk, the ranch matriarch, will give tour participants a presentation about the history of the ranch and the challenges they face with ranching in 2015 in California. She will discuss their ranching business and how they bring environmental stewardship into their daily operations. She will showcase some of the projects they have done on the ranch with local school children and cooperating agencies. This is a true family operation and one that epitomizes a large cattle operation in California. During the tour the group will get to see farmlands, annual grassland and riparian areas, and meet locals involved in California agriculture.

Hedgerow Farms and Stone Ranch: Ranching with Restoration

Wednesday, February 4th (All Day Tour)

The tour will start at Hedgerow Farms Inc., a seed production farm specializing in California native grasses, sedges, rushes and wildflowers. They have over 400 acres under cultivation and offer seed for more than 100 species, including many bioregional ecotypes. They also provide consulting and planning services, custom seed mixes, contract growing for site-specific collections, native grass transplants, native straw and custom seed cleaning.

The tour will then travel into the Blue Ridge hills of western Yolo County, California, to the headquarters of a vibrant working cattle ranch. Established in 1976, Yolo Land & Cattle Co. resulted from the vision of family patriarch Henry H. Stone and his wife Suzanne. Henry’s sons, Scott and Casey, and their wives, Karen and Angela, now manage the diversified company, which produces Black Angus Natural Grass-fed beef, and various types of hay for domestic and export markets. Scott and Karen sell beef directly to consumers, while Casey and Angela market beef jerky and host tours and weddings at the ranch headquarters. For many years the working landscape of the ranch headquarters has been dramatically transformed through the efforts of Scott Stone, the family visionary. In order to complete the numerous restoration projects on the ranch, close partnerships were developed with multiple government agencies, non-profit organizations, universities, and private entities. With the help of these partners and allies, the family constantly strives to improve the rangeland ecosystem while producing a healthy product in an economically, yet environmentally sustainable manner. In 2005, working with the California Rangeland Trust, the family placed a majority of the home ranch into a permanent conservation easement, making it the largest conservation easement in Yolo County. In 2008, in recognition for restoration work on the ranch, the company received the National Environmental Stewardship Award presented at the NCBA Annual Convention in Reno, Nev. The Stone family invites you to come out for a private bus tour of the ranch, followed by an authentic, home-cooked western barbecue. The tour will focus on ranch history, modern cattle management practices, and restoration efforts on the ranch. In the event of rain, guests will see a Powerpoint tour of the ranch.

Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center

Wednesday, February 4th (All Day Tour)

The 5,000-acre University of California Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center, located 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, was established in 1960 as the UC Sierra Foothill Field Station. The center has supported research, education and outreach in the Sierra foothills for well over half a century. Located on the Yuba River and spanning river, grassland, oak woodland and riparian habitat types, the center supports programs on beef cattle production, nutrition and health, rangeland water quality management, grazing management, oak woodland restoration, and invasive plant management. Participants in this tour will tour the station and hear presentations about the station, annual rangelands and current research. The tour includes bus transportation and lunch. During the bus ride to the station you will learn about Sacramento Valley agriculture, the Gold Rush, and California rangelands. If it rains the tour of the station may be limited to paved roads and easily accessible fields near the headquarters.

California Rangelands: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water—and Regulations

Wednesday, February 4th (All Day Tour)

This all-day tour will explore the soils and vegetation of a mid-California slice of the interior Coast Range, foothill, and Central Valley landscapes that support grazing, diverse agriculture, and important environmental resources in a Mediterranean climate. California annual grasslands and remnants of perennial prairie grasslands intergrade with oak savanna uplands and discrete riparian corridors across the Coast Range foothill valley floor ecosystems. They provide opportunities for livestock production that is in competition with large-scale agricultural development projects (nut trees, grapes, and other crops) for the soil and water resources of the region. We will have an opportunity, depending on weather and access, to visit a multi-thousand acre burn site to observe post-burn recovery of oak woodland savanna; working ranch preserves and a multi- generational family ranch that produces sheep, grapes, organic tomatoes, rice, and other crops; conservation easement land and a large jurisdictional wetland/riparian mitigation site; a vernal pool reserve that is managed as a working livestock operation and a wetland ecosystems reserve; and diverse forage and crop ground of uplands, alluvial fans, valley bottoms, and riparian zones. The trip will be led by a rangelands soil scientist/plant scientist who will discuss approaches to land utilization that are based on the recognition of diverse soil landscape factors and the rich biological heritage of the region. There may be soil pits and grass trails, opportunities to get your boots muddy, and encounters with endangered species. Come prepared for all of the above.

Annual Rangeland Management and Challenges

Wednesday, February 4th (All Day Tour)

On this tour you will experience the unique qualities of California’s annual rangelands, which have largely been transformed from pre-Spanish-contact conditions to the vegetation complex of today. The phenology and quality of introduced annual grasses and forbs that dominate California’s rangelands determine livestock grazing cycles, rangeland management, and ultimately livestock production, all of which are complicated by drought, fire, weed invasions, and land use changes. The tour will cover a diversity of rangeland management perspectives from private landowners, livestock producers, and non-governmental organizations.

Targeted Grazing Tour

Wednesday, February 4th (All Day Tour)

Meet with experienced practitioners and researchers to see and discuss a variety of targeted grazing practices, planning approaches, and monitoring methods. Organized by the SRM Targeted Grazing Committee, which includes several authors of the Targeted Grazing Handbook, and Targeted Grazing webinar presenters (targetedgrazing.wordpress.com)

Grazing for Multispecies Habitat Development in the Watershed

Wednesday, February 4th (All Day Tour)

This tour will visit open space areas in the Sacramento Region to discuss grazing as a tool for multispecies habitat development and dealing with different land use needs. The sites will have various representatives (grazing operations, environmental groups, and city officials) to discuss the benefits, challenges, and more of grazing these dynamic systems.

An Introduction to the National Vegetation Classification, and its Value for Range Management

Wednesday, February 4th (All Day Tour)

The U.S. National Vegetation Classification (NVC) provides a standard defensible classification system for all natural, semi-natural, and cultural vegetation throughout the United States. Over the past several years a large multi- agency effort coordinated by the Ecological Society of America and the Federal Geographic Data Committee has built a hierarchical classification system which provides definitions, descriptions, and keys to vegetation. The vegetation classification system is being applied for many purposes throughout federal and state governments, local land conservancies, watershed groups, and organizations. Because it establishes a quantitative basis for vegetative land cover, it is readily usable by land managers to describe ecological states and transitions due to grazing, fuel, and timber management and is useful to quantify and map habitat for game management, livestock management and sensitive species. This field-oriented workshop will demonstrate the way vegetation is classified and will focus on several different kinds of rangeland in the Sacramento Valley and adjacent foothills of the Sierra Nevada. We will visit working landscapes and ecological reserves that will serve as a backdrop for a discussion of the terminology of the NVC and discuss real world applications to range management in the Mediterranean ecosystems of California. The workshop will be led by ecologists who have helped develop the NVC for California and other parts of the nation, and who have practical land management experience. They will emphasize the value of the standard definitions as they apply to detecting status and trends of rangeland conditions. Instructors expect participants to engage in the discussion of the uses of vegetation classification in their daily use.

Ecological Site Descriptions in Blue Oak Woodland

Wednesday, February 4th (Afternoon Tour, complimentary to morning on-site sessions)

Jack Alexander, founder of Synergy Resource Solutions, Senior Resource Specialist, Certified Range Management Consultant and Certified Professional in Rangeland Management, will walk the group through the Ecological Site Description process in a Blue Oak Woodland setting. We will have demonstrations on ecological site concepts, factors that make up an ecological site, featuring abiotic and biotic components. You will look at what an ecological site means to a land manager and how they can be used for resource management planning efforts and restoration projects. The group will also look at what makes up a reference plant community in the annual grasslands of California and how to develop a reference sheet and ecological site evaluation matrix. Plan to spend half a day in the field enjoying the California rangelands and learning about ecological sites.

Stockmanship: Managing Rangelands with Effective Low-Stress Livestock Handling

Wednesday, February 4th (All Day Onsite)

This workshop will provide rangeland managers and ranchers information on how to incorporate stockmanship, the skillful handling of livestock in a safe, efficient, low-stress manner, into range and pasture management for economic and environmental benefits. Presenters will provide an overview of stockmanship in the morning session and how to build on these basics to incorporate it into grazing planning and rangeland management during the afternoon. You will also discuss opportunities for how stockmanship can reduce predation on livestock.

Social Tours

California State Capital

This is offered as a guided tour on Monday, February 2nd.

10th and L Streets. Directly across the street from the Hyatt and Convention Center. Weekend hours 9-5, Weekday 8-5. Free admission. See County exhibits, old Governor’s’ office, Senate Chambers, Assembly Chambers, etc. Must go through metal detector. If the weather is nice, there are large gardens surrounding the Capitol. capitolmuseum.ca.gov

California Museum

This is offered as an organized tour on Tuesday, February 3rd.

10th and O Streets. 10-5pm Tues-Sat, 12-5 Sundays. Closed Mondays. $9 for adult. Signature Exhibits include California Indians, Remarkable Women, Hall of Fame, Constitution Wall, Japanese Americans During WWII, and Sesquicentennial Quilt. californiamuseum.org

Jelly Belly Factory

This is offered as an organized tour on Wednesday, February 4th.

Located west of Sacramento in Fairfield. 9-5pm daily. Free guided tours are available departing roughly every 10-15 mins and last 40 mins in length. Free Jelly Belly sampling. Opportunity to buy Belly Flops at a discount – bags of misshapen and double Jelly Bellys. See a portrait of President Reagan made out of Jelly Bellies. A Chocolate and Wine Tasting is also available for purchase, minors are welcome and given non-alcoholic drinks for the tasting. Five local wines, a Jelly Belly wine glass, and decadent chocolates are provided. After the tasting a “Front of the Line” opportunity for the factory tour is available. jellybelly.com

San Francisco

There will be an organized tour to the Ferry Building and Fisherman’s Wharf on Saturday, January 31st.

The city has a multitude of options for tourist, anything from Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Union Square, Embarcadero, China Town, Alcatraz, and many others. Information will be available in Sacramento. sanfrancisco.travel

Lake Tahoe skiing

There will be an organized tour to a resort on Friday, February 6th.

Lake Tahoe offers a variety of ski resorts with anything from downhill skiing, snowboarding, to other snow toys, or even just enjoying the snow from the lodge with a cup of hot chocolate. Ski Lake Tahoe offers a look at the different resorts and what they have to offer. SkiLakeTahoe.com