COLORADO DIVISION OF WILDLIFE NAMES 2009 ‘LANDOWNER OF THE YEAR’ RECIPIENT
COLORADO DIVISION OF WILDLIFE NAMES 2009 ‘LANDOWNER OF THE YEAR’ RECIPIENT
DENVER, Colo. – The Colorado Division of Wildlife named Russell, Tricia, Lyle and Jackie Davis recipients of the 2009 "Landowner of the Year" award. The Davis family received this award in recognition of their outstanding contributions to wildlife conservation, community service and innovative management of the Wineinger-Davis Ranch.
"We are proud to recognize the Davis family for their exemplary management of the Wineigner-Davis Ranch," said Ken Morgan, Division of Wildlife private lands coordinator. "The Davises have exhibited the highest degree of land stewardship and have shown that agriculture and wildlife conservation can coexist."
Located in Lincoln and Crowley counties, the Wineinger-Davis Ranch is comprised of two separate, land parcels, totaling more than 12,000 acres. The ranch’s native shortgrass prairie and riparian ecosystems are home to diverse wildlife species including pronghorn, swift fox, western burrowing owl, mountain plover, massasauga rattlesnake, plains leopard frog, bald eagle, ferruginous hawk, plains native fish and other reptiles and amphibians.
As a working cattle ranch, Russell Davis and his wife Tricia, with help from Russell’s father and mother (Lyle and Jackie) and brothers, manage day-to-day operations, running nearly 1,000 cattle on the property annually. While livestock production is key, the Davises have developed the ranch into an environmentally friendly and diverse enterprise, keeping wildlife conservation a primary focus.
In cooperation with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Davises implemented several habitat improvement projects on the ranch to benefit wildlife. Accomplishments include fence improvements and the use of "flash grazing" to protect riparian vegetation from overgrazing. In addition, the Davises constructed new stock tanks to help mitigate adverse impacts to habitat adjacent to livestock watering areas.
The Davises also take an active role in monitoring ranch wildlife by allowing conservation agencies and organizations access to conduct surveys and research on their property. For the past eight years, Division of Wildlife and Colorado Natural Heritage researchers performed mountain plover and other species research on the ranch.
"Russell Davis has been instrumental in allowing access to researchers to study the dynamics of the shortgrass prairie ecosystem," said Casey Cooley, Division of Wildlife conservation biologist. "He and a handful of other Karval landowners allowed researchers to collect important demographic data to assess the conservation status of the plover and other shortgrass prairie species."
In 2006, the Davis family helped to establish the Karval Community Alliance, a public outreach program designed to promote wildlife education and activities. To date, the Alliance has hosted four Mountain Plover Festivals, inviting bird watchers and wildlife enthusiasts from across the state to view plovers and other native wildlife species on ranch property. In addition, participants receive an active, hands-on, learning experience, helping them to better understand the role ranchers and agricultural producers play in wildlife conservation.
To ensure the long-term protection of the ranch’s wildlife resources, the Davis family converted the Wineinger-Davis Ranch to a perpetual conservation easement in 2004. Funded in part by Great Outdoors Colorado (Colorado Lottery) and supported by the Division of Wildlife’s Species Conservation program, the easement requires present and future landowners to maintain native ecosystems by following land management practices beneficial to both wildlife and agriculture production. The easement also protects the ranch from future development.
"The Davises were extremely patient and persistent in making the easement happen," said Morgan. "They spent countless hours in the field, on the phone, in public meetings and working with the Division to complete this transaction."
Each year, the Colorado Wildlife Commission and the Colorado Agricultural Commission select a private landowner who has made outstanding contributions in providing beneficial habitat to Colorado’s wildlife and/or providing public hunting and fishing access on private lands. This award is part of the Division of Wildlife’s Landowner Recognition program, which works to improve communication between landowners, sportsmen and the Division.
For information about the Division of Wildlife Landowner Recognition Program, please visit the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s Web site at: www.wildlife.state.co.us/LandWater/PrivateLandProgram/LandownerRecognitionPrgm/
To view a photo of the Davis family, click here:
http://wildlife.state.co.us/apps/ImageDB/ImageDownload.aspx?ImageId=25633&ImageSize=Print&ImageType=JPG
PHOTO CAPTION: The Colorado Division of Wildlife presents the "Landowner of the Year" award to the Wineinger-Davis Ranch for their outstanding contributions to wildlife resources.
Pictured left to right:
Tom Remington –Director, Colorado Division of Wildlife
Brad Coors –Chairman, Colorado Wildlife Commission
Russell Davis
Lyle Davis
John Stulp –Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture
For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.
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