We had a fantastic season this year. After six years of management, including some real hardships and struggles, we came through to the other side. About mid-way through the season in 2021, about a year and a half ago, something clicked into to place.
The grass just started to produce, and since then, I have had a growing swell of grass. I now have big fields of clover growing where I thought legumes would never grow. I have been here long enough that I know in my bones when the fog will move in, when I need more cattle because the grass is about to get away from me, and when I need to get cattle off because the river is about to flood. The relationships and connections that take so many years to cultivate are starting to come to fruition. My little kids, two of which were born in the bedroom behind me, know this place in a way I never can. They know what I mean when I say “the raccoon tree” or “the steep road.” My wife and kids have very close friends here.
And now I’m leaving. I’m moving to Kenya.
I will be taking up management of a vast landscape where the impacts of savanna degradation are obvious and need immediate remedies. Many thousands of head of livestock will be managed without fences and entirely by people on foot. All the organisms in the whole landscape, and thousands of people, desperately need better grazing management. I will be surrounded by the most complete megafauna ecosystem on the planet and at the epicenter of its conservation. For these reasons and many others, this decision is a no-brainer. But that does not make it easy.
I want to tell you about the good times, and battles won here, mourn for an alternate reality that will never be, and about all the adventures yet to come. So stay tuned.