Last week, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts joined the Sand County Foundation, the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska (AFAN), Cargill and the Nebraska Environmental Trust to name Jim and Lora O'Rourke, owners of the RuJoDen Ranch near Chadron, as the 2018 Nebraska Leopold Conservation Award recipients.

The honor, which recognizes ag land owners for voluntary conservation and stewardship, is named after Aldo Leopold, a conservationist and author of “A Sand County Almanac.” The recipients are given a crystal award depicting Leopold and $10,000.

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Both Jim and Lora come from backgrounds in rangeland management. Lora worked for the Bureau of Land Management in Utah before working at the Nebraska National Forest near Chadron. Jim is a retired professor at Chadron State College, which has a nationally ranked rangeland management program. Together, they manage RuJoDen Ranch in the Pine Ridge and mixed grass prairies of northwest Nebraska.

"If you want to know how they think about this, just go look at the sign that leads into the ranch that says, 'O'Rourke Family — RuJoDen Ranch — Wildlife Habitat.' That's how they think about it," Ricketts said. "What they've been able to do is take the things they've taught and learned and put them into practice on their ranch."

This includes practices like cross fencing, dividing up pastures to concentrate cattle in smaller areas, and grazing any given paddock an average of 10 days, leaving the paddocks the remaining 355 days of the year to recover.

"We monitor these pastures, and we'll move cattle at about 50% to 60% utilization. It isn't long before Jim has trained the cows to move themselves," Lora said. "Range condition has improved significantly."

The ranch has been in Jim's family since the 1950s. After Jim and Lora moved back to the ranch in 1988, one of the first things they did was convert marginal cultivated ground to permanent grassland, using native seeds like Bouzoisky-Select Russian wildrye and NewHy hybrid wheatgrass.

"We planted foundation seed, and then we harvested certified seed from those grass fields to sell to people, because these two grass species are very competitive against noxious weeds, especially leafy spurge," said Lora, adding that this has also helped improve the soil health of these pastures, and provide nesting cover for species like turkey and sharp-tailed grouse.

Trees have been planted on the ranch since Jim's grandfather Joe first started in the 1950s. This includes native trees like ponderosa pines, which provides habitat for turkeys, pygmy nuthatch and bighorn sheep. However, they also work to reduce stands of invasive eastern red cedar trees, and thin the native pine trees to reduce fuel loads and allow for healthier stands.

Recently, the O'Rourkes partnered with a neighbor and began raising pastured broiler chickens on lowland meadows. Lora said this year they’re raising 800 chickens, which provide nitrogen to the meadows. “It's unbelievable how those meadows come back," she said.

The O'Rourkes also host guests, including fishermen and hunters, on their property in sheep wagons on their ranch. They also host educational demonstrations and tours for FFA members, Chadron State College students and University of Nebraska-Lincoln students through Nebraska Range Short Courses.

Jim notes their ranch, small but diverse, represents similar small tracts of land in Nebraska and throughout range country in the western U.S.

"Those small tracts are growing fast, and they're growing daily. The acreage they represent is enormous. But the income from those small tracts makes those operations not economically viable," he said. "The ranch income from the property itself in our case pays for property tax, liability insurance and maybe some improvements in some years. Another source of income is needed to pay for the family living expenses. On a small operation, there is no room for error."

"How does one regard land conservation, land stewardship as a top priority on a piece of property when the ranch income alone probably is not going to pay the bills? The answer is that has to come from the heart," Jim said. "Owning a piece of property has to bring along with it a sense of responsibility for the land. With that also comes pride in knowing that we have all benefited the general public by creating clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, aesthetics and a place for outdoor opportunities."

The award was made possible by contributions from Cargill, the Nebraska Environmental Trust, Nebraska Cattlemen, AFAN, Farm Credit Services of America, NRCS, the Nebraska Audubon Society, Green Cover Seed, Nebraska Land Trust, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture, the Sandhills Task Force, the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and the World Wildlife Fund.