Horses for Future

In my tour round the world to learn about what others are doing with their land I especially wanted to visit with Jane Jackson. Jane lives in northern Vermont. She has six horses, including an off the track thoroughbred and an elderly insulin resistant pony. Jane’s horses all go out together on grass. None of them (I’m knocking on wood while I write this) are laminitic. None of her horses have to wear a grazing muzzle. That includes her elderly pony. They all get to eat grass! They all get to enjoy being horses out in a herd.

That may not sound all that remarkable. Horses are, after all, grass eaters. But if you have an insulin resistant horse, you may be working hard to keep your horse from having ANY grass. Not only does Jane have a rotational grazing system for her pastures that gives her an abundance of grass, she can let her horses enjoy eating it.

And she has song birds. More song birds than when she and her husband moved to the property eight years ago. Healthy grass, more biodiversity - clearly I wanted to find out from Jane what she has been doing.

This is part two of a conversation with Jane Jackson. Among other things we talk about dung beetle, teaching your horses to eat weeds, biodiversity, and fencing choices that aid in rotating your pastures.

We’re joined by Coralie Palmer who has been introducing us to the work of Dr. Doug Tallamy.

In my tour round the world to learn about what others are doing with their land I especially wanted to visit with Jane Jackson. Jane lives in northern Vermont. She has six horses, including an off the track thoroughbred and an elderly insulin resistant pony. Jane’s horses all go out together on grass. None of them (I’m knocking on wood while I write this) are laminitic. None of her horses have to wear a grazing muzzle. That includes her elderly pony. They all get to eat grass! They all get to enjoy being horses out in a herd.

That may not sound all that remarkable. Horses are, after all, grass eaters. But if you have an insulin resistant horse, you may be working hard to keep your horse from having ANY grass. Not only does Jane have a rotational grazing system for her pastures that gives her an abundance of grass, she can let her horses enjoy eating it.

And she has song birds. More song birds than when she and her husband moved to the property eight years ago. Healthy grass, more biodiversity - clearly I wanted to find out from Jane what she has been doing.

This is part 1 of an afternoon’s conversation.

If you’ve been listening to this podcast, you know I’ve been visiting with people who are the process of transforming the property they own. I want to see what others are doing to restore biodiversity and ecological function. Some of the people I visit have been at this for years. Their experience becomes a valuable resource for all of us. Others are newer to the process. Their questions can sometimes be just as valuable as the information the more experienced landowners provide.

In the previous episode I was visiting with Julia Field in Australia. Julia lives in a dry climate where water conservation is a must. In this episode we are zipping around the planet to a very different climate. I’m visiting with Amanda Martin. Amanda lives in Scotland, not far from Glasgow. Even in normal times Scotland is a wet climate, but the past year Amanda shared with me the rains never seemed to stop. There was barely a day when she wasn’t soaked to the bone taking care of her horses. Her pastures are bogged down with too much water. We’ve had years like that here. You wonder how anyone is going to manage to make hay. Fields that would normally be dry enough to cut in June or July are still wet enough to bog down a tractor in August.

Amanda has owned her property for three years, so she is just in the beginning stages of transforming her very windy, very wet fields into manageable pastures. Our conversation highlights the importance of research and networking.

In training our horses always tell us what they need to work on next. The same thing holds true for land. Amanda has been letting the land tell her what it needs. Amanda has been taking her time, letting her land tell her what needs to be done to create a viable horse farm, a working business, a beautiful landscape, and a wildlife sanctuary. Good management lets you have all of this and more. With good care of the land, horse people can make a difference. Together we are learning how.

In recent episodes I’ve been looking at the work of Dr Doug Tallamy. Dr Tallamy is an entomologist who has become alarmed at the loss of biodiversity due to climate change and habitat loss. He’s launched in his words “a grassroots call to action to restore biodiversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks.”

In these podcasts I want to share ways in which people are implementing the kinds of changes he is advocating. In the previous episode I began a conversation with Julia Field. Julia lives near Adelaide on the southern coast of Australia. She’s in a dry climate so water management is a high priority. Julia has been on her property for about fourteen years. She is well on her way towards restoring native plants to her land. At the end of the previous episode Julia was just beginning to describe the animals that have moved back to her property now that she has created wildlife corridors for them. We begin with a conversation about koala bears and hopping lessons for a young kangaroo.

Julia also talks about dealing with invasive plants, including some that are toxic for horses, water management in a dry climate, Jane Myers equicentral system, and wicking beds in place of conventional vegetable gardens. She provides lots of ideas and inspiration for anyone managing land in an arid climate.

If you’ve been listening to this podcast, you know I’ve been looking at the work of Dr Doug Tallamy. Dr Tallamy is an entomologist who has become alarmed at the loss of biodiversity. He’s launched in his words “a grassroots call to action to restore biodiversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks.”

Dr Tallamy isn’t looking at public lands. Instead he is calling on private land owners to join what he calls “the largest cooperative conservation project ever conceived or attempted. The goal is 20 million acres of native plantings in the U.S.” 

Sound impossible? What I’ve learned from the horses is major change begins with small foundation steps. So what are the land management steps we could all be taking? That’s what I want to explore. In the coming weeks I’m going to visit with friends from around the planet who are making changes to the land under their care. Dr Tallamy is the expert. You can go to homegrownnationalparks.com to learn more about his work.

In these podcasts I want to share ways in which people are implementing the kinds of changes he is advocating. Our first stop is truly a trip around the planet. We’re headed to Australia.

You’re about to meet Julia Fields. Julia lives near Adelaide on the southern coast of Australia. The climate is characterized by hot, very dry summers. It’s a very different environment from the one in which I live.

Julia has been on her property for about fourteen years. She has had to learn how to deal with high winds, an arid climate, and invasive plant species. She is now well on her way to restoring native plants and animals to her land. A teacher is someone who started before you. I have always loved that definition. Julia has a lot to teach us about restoring native plants in a Mediterranean type climate zone.

Enjoy!

Our discussion of homegrown national parks continues. This refers to the work of Dr Doug Tallamy. He has launched in his words “a grassroots call to action to restore biodiversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks.”

Dr Tallamy isn’t looking at public lands. Instead he is calling on private land owners to join what he calls “the largest cooperative conservation project ever conceived or attempted. The goal is 20 million acres of native plantings in the U.S.” 

Sound impossible? What I’ve learned from the horses is major change begins with small foundation steps. So what are the land management steps we could all be taking? That’s what we’ve been looking at in this current series.

I am joined in this discussion by Coralie Palmer. Coralie is a director of the Indiana Wildlife Federation, and she’s on the council of the Indiana Native Plant Society. So far we have talked about several key elements that are needed to create what Dr Tallamy refers to as homegrown national parks - shrinking the lawn, planting natives, especially the keystone species, and controlling invasives. In this episode we’ll learn about neonicotinoids. Buying seeds and plants is not as simple as you might think.

We also discuss the merging of landscape design and ecology. When you add plants to your garden there is so much more to consider than simply the appearance and size of an individual plant. Now we are considering plant communities and ecosystem services.

Our discussion of homegrown national parks continues. This refers to the work of Dr Doug Tallamy. He has launched in his words “a grassroots call to action to restore biodiversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks.”

Dr Tallamy isn’t looking at public lands. Instead he is calling on private land owners to join what he calls “the largest cooperative conservation project ever conceived or attempted. The goal is 20 million acres of native plantings in the U.S.” 

Sound impossible? What I’ve learned from the horses is major change begins with small foundation steps. So what are the land management steps we could all be taking? That’s what we’ve been looking at in this current series.

I am joined in this discussion by Coralie Palmer. Coralie is a director of the Indiana Wildlife Federation, and she’s on the council of the Indiana Native Plant Society. So far we have talked about several key elements that are needed to create what Dr Tallamy refers to as homegrown national parks - shrinking the lawn and planting natives, especially the keystone species. Now we turn our attention to the other side of the coin - removing invasives.

Our discussion of homegrown national parks continues. This time we look at another core element of Dr. Tallamy’s work - keystone species. It turns out that not all native plants have an equal impact on restoring biodiversity. There are certain general of plants that support many more ecological functions in a community.

It’s a bit like that one person in your neighborhood who serves on the local PTA, turns up for all the town meetings, is always there to look after an ailing neighbor, and finds your cat when he goes missing. These plants support many more species of insects that produce those all important caterpillars which the birds depend upon to raise their young.

So this week Coralie Palmer introduces us to the five top genera of trees that Dr Tallamy considers to be keystone species.

One of the most hopeful approaches to addressing the loss of species diversity that is part of the climate change crisis comes from the work of Dr. Doug Tallamy. In last week’s episode I invited Coralie Palmer to help me introduce his conservation initiative - homegrown national parks. This was the start of an on-going series for the Horses for Future Podcast.

Last week we presented an overview of Dr. Tallamy’s work. Now in this episode we’ll be getting into the details. We’ll begin with one of his key elements - shrinking the lawn. Why a smaller lawn? What is wrong with having an expanse of green grass surrounding your house? That’s the first question. Then once you’ve decided to shrink your lawn, what does that look like, and how do you go about doing it?

You can’t take something away without putting something else in its place. So what will we be planting as we shrink the lawn? Those are some of the questions we’ll be considering beginning with this series.

What can horse people do to help in the climate change crisis? It turns out quite a lot. One very hopeful action we can take is we can join Dr. Doug Tallamy’s conservation initiative to create a network of Homegrown National Parks.

In this episode I am joined by Coralie Palmer, a director of the Indiana Wildlife Federation. Coralie will be helping me to learn more about this very important work.