Livermore, Calif. — The Nationwide Audubon Society is proud to announce the three Calhoun Sisters Ranch close to Livermore, California, has earned designation as an Audubon Licensed bird-friendly habitat. This certification, awarded via Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program, acknowledges lands managed with a deal with birds and biodiversity.
With this certification, the 3 Calhoun Sisters Ranch will use the Audubon Licensed bird-friendly seal to advertise its ranch model, Circle H Beef, signifying the bird-friendly land origin of these merchandise.
The ranch, managed by sisters Nancy Calhoun Mueller, Susie Calhoun, and Merry Carter, is steeped in historical past. The Calhoun household has been a fixture in California’s Livermore Valley for the reason that late 1850s, with a legacy of farming and ranching on Mines Highway for over a century.
Nancy Calhoun Mueller, who resides on the property together with her husband, oversees the cattle operations. “The biodiversity of our ranch, the open grassland, the oak woodlands, and the riparian areas create an setting the place birds and cattle can thrive. The Audubon Licensed bird-friendly recognition ensures shoppers that the cattle, the birds, and the setting are all being cared for. We’re privileged to be in partnership with the Audubon Conservation Ranching program,” she mentioned.
Since assuming administration on their household ranch in 2018, the Calhoun sisters have devoted themselves to enhancing the habitat worth on the property. With assist from native conservation organizations, they’ve upgraded the ranch’s infrastructure to enhance livestock rotations, restored native vegetation, supported native analysis initiatives, and constructed group round responsibly raised beef. That is all work that they may proceed to broaden on as an Audubon Licensed bird-friendly ranch.
Grace Ferguson, a Vary Ecologist with Audubon California, guided the Calhoun sisters via the bird-friendly certification course of – guaranteeing alignment on all program necessities in areas of habitat administration, environmental sustainability, and animal welfare – whereas Owen Sowerwine and Farley Connolly of the Alameda County Useful resource Conservation District (ACRCD) led the creation of a habitat administration plan for the property. Rotational grazing serves because the centerpiece of the Audubon certification, and this elementary doc guides grazing administration in ways in which create a mosaic of bird-friendly habitats.
Ferguson says the grazing sample fashions on how historic grazing ungulates as soon as roamed – biomimicry – to make sure plant range in species and construction, leading to habitats that assist extra hen species. “The grazing technique contains medium- to high-intensity grazing in smaller pastures to permit for prolonged relaxation durations. Beneath this grazing technique, the Calhoun sisters are in a position to preserve a mixture of brief and tall stature grasses for species like Western Meadowlarks and Lark Sparrows, patches of shrubs for the California Quail and Noticed Towhee, oak savannah that’s wanted for Western Bluebirds and Acorn Woodpeckers, and wholesome riparian vegetation for Ash-throated Flycatchers and Black-headed Grosbeak,” Ferguson mentioned.
The Calhoun sisters are already at work spreading the message of grazing being an necessary software for rangeland hen conservation. To have fun their latest certification, they hosted a gathering of conservationists, ranchers, foodies, native representatives, and extra to unfold the phrase concerning the work that Audubon is doing and the optimistic affect grazing for hen habitat can have on each birds and other people. “Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program is fortunate to have such enthusiastic and dedicated companions because the Calhoun sisters. We look ahead to seeing what they may proceed to perform on their ranch and past to assist rangeland birds and their habitats.”
Ferguson says it’s exhausting to overstate how necessary partnerships are to powering trendy conservation. She notes that the ACRCD, which beforehand supported the Calhoun sisters via a number of restoration initiatives and wrote a carbon farm plan for his or her ranch, introduced invaluable native information and expertise to the sisters’ certification course of.
“With the ability to companion with native Useful resource Conservation Districts to put in writing our habitat administration plans and outreach to ranchers is vital for rising our program’s capability to enroll ranches. It additionally will increase our skill to attach ranchers with their native conservation group. Constructing these relationships supplies our ranchers with long-term entry to technical help and funding assist to make sure they will handle their lands for hen habitat and biodiversity far into the long run,” says Ferguson.
For extra details about the Audubon Conservation Ranching program and the Audubon Licensed bird-friendly certification, please contact ConservationRanching@Audubon.org.
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About Audubon Conservation Ranching
A wildlife habitat initiative of the Nationwide Audubon Society with a novel market connection, Audubon Conservation Ranching goals to stabilize declining grassland hen populations in partnership with ranchers. Audubon Conservation Ranching’s enrollment contains over 100 ranches and practically 3 million acres which have earned standing as Audubon Licensed bird-friendly land. Incentivizing this habitat work for birds and biodiversity are shoppers with an urge for food for conservation, who assist it by buying merchandise grazed on these lands. Buyers see a particular bundle designation – the Audubon Licensed bird-friendly seal – that units these merchandise aside. For extra data, go to www.audubon.org/ranching.
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Media Contact: Anthony Hauck, anthony.hauck@audubon.org