A Solution to Overgrazing What White and Winder realized 10 years ago was that cattle were not the West’s problem — proper management was. The organization showed both sides of the conflict that by implementing ecological ranching practices like rotational grazing and pumping water to troughs in order to protect streams, cows can actually benefit the land. Quivira took environmentalists on tours of ranches bordering national wildlife refuges and found that, because cattle can fulfill an ecological niche absent since the age of the bison, sometimes land that was grazed every year was healthier than land that hadn’t been touched by hooves in decades. Sid Goodloe, a rancher for more than 52 years, has been using sustainable methods of ranching since the ’60s. Though he was ecologically conscious, Goodloe resented the environmentalists — many of whom had never set foot on a ranch, let alone tried to manage one — who took a condescending view toward ranchers. “But when I saw that Courtney White was kind of a converted environmentalist, then I thought, ‘Well somebody is beginning to see the light and maybe [the dialogues the Quivira Coalition was promoting] is a way to tear down the wall between the environmental community and the ranchers,” he says. Now, as a Quivera Coalition board member, Goodloe works with both sides of the conflict to show how ranching and sustainability can coexist. The Coalition has grown in its ten years, and with its growth has come an expansion of its programs....