At Badger Creek Ranch Community our mission is stewardship. We envision the restoration of the land back to a healthy ecosystem. We practice regenerative agriculture, a philosophy based on improving the land health and integration of people and the land. 

Rotational Grazing

We live on the land with our animals, moving livestock regularly throughout our pastures in accordance with the needs of the animals and the land alike. This grazing practice supports the growing season of the grasses with adequate time for rest and rejuvenation. The benefits are plentiful.

For the herd: Rotational grazing allows us to actively lay eyes on each animal and ensure each one is sound and healthy. This practice promotes our philosophy of low stress stockmanship.

For the land: Rotational grazing, with the utilization of our new EQIP Water Points Project, decreases the disturbance and impact on the riparian areas. Planned grazing is a beneficial way to manage land health.

Riparian Restoration

The riparian area has been an ongoing project at the ranch working under the leadership of the Central Colorado Conservancy and other partnering organizations. Our goal is the prepare the land to catch and retain more rainwater, slow down flashfloods to reduce erosion. The results are improved our pastures for grazing and improved habitat for wildlife.

Riparian Demonstration area

Erosion Control

Erosion control structures were built through hands-on instruction and learning how to read the landscape to better understand surface water flow and the erosion process. One such structure is the Zuni Bowl which is a riparian restoration technique involving rocks, water, biology and time. It’s a great way of dealing with a small headcut (or erosion which is about to become a headcut) in order to prevent it from continuing along farther.

 
 

Achievements in 2023:

  • We completed a rotational grazing and pasture monitoring program for 2023. This grazing practice supports the growing season of the grasses with adequate time for rest and rejuvenation.  

  • We received the esteemed Certificate of Compliance from the Audubon Ranching Program which recognizes lands managed to promote birds and biodiversity. It certifies that the livestock raised at Badger Creek Ranch was grazed on bird-friendly land that enhances the habitat for local bird species and other wildlife. Our ranching practices conform to forage consumption protocols that allow cattle to graze on open pastures, adhere to the compassionate treatment of animals, and ensure environmental sustainability that results in cleaner streams, healthier soils, and functional ecosystems.

  • We completed a two-year-long National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) water points project to add several water points across the ranch's lands. This project included infrastructure for prescribed grazing, as well as grazing planning and monitoring.

Goals for 2024:

  • In the next phase of our ongoing Badger Creek riparian restoration project, we are transforming a pond on the creek by our horse corrals back to its natural state as a creek bed. This will return the creek and its wetlands to its natural state, maximizing water flow, so that it can better nourish the land and animals. At the same time, we will restore a century-old irrigation ditch that parallels the creek in order to spread more moisture back onto the land along the creek.

  • We will be conducting baseline soil testing to determine current soil nutrient levels so that we can monitor the progress of our land restoration efforts.

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