Silver Hills Ranch is holding its 6th annual biodiversity tour on Friday September 6, 2013.
The tour is Silver Hill Ranch's way of bringing together people who have common interests in agriculture or the environment to their back yard for good conversation and a walkabout. The Hesketh family's ranch is located on the edge of the Monashee Mountain Range. The ranch is along the Upper Shuswap River across from the community of Cherryville. This location borders near the confluence of the Okanagan, Shuswap and Kooteney watersheds, and provides a unique landscape that supports a wide variety of biodiversity. While you are there, you can take a walk, or perhaps a hayride, and look at how Silver Hills Ranch is making efforts to work with Mother Nature, versus against her, as they go about the business of raising commercial beef cattle. Silver Hills Ranch uses a Holistic Management style in looking after the land because the primary resources of the ranch are water, grass, and trees, and they realize that everything hinges on these resources' success for the ranch to be successful.
The Hesketh family have invited a few friends and associates to present some of their words of wisdom on subjects like Agroforestry. This year’s keynote speakers are George Powell, Project Development & Communication Services Manager for BC Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative and Lisa Zabek, Interior Agroforestry Specialist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture. Have you heard about maple wine, or birch syrup, or have you considered growing Christmas trees? George and Lisa are a wealth of information on these and other emerging sectors and opportunties to integrate agriculture, rural diversification and conservation practices.
Other topics that will be discussed include range management, watershed management and an update on the reintroduction of fish passage to the upper river. Discussion and participation are encouraged by all attendees as this tour is about sharing knowledge while learning from other points of view in a 'hats off' type of environment.
This year the focus will be on the need for collaboration between stake holders. In his roll with the Farmland Riparian Interface Stewardship Program (FRISP), delivered through the British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association (BCCA), Lee Hesketh has relied on his rural perspective when mitigating or moderating conflicts between stake holders. Far too often a misunderstanding and conflict is created by lack of knowledge, poor communication, and the concern for one’s self-gain. Lee's ranching background has taught him that more hands make less work. By encouraging people to work together and to look for answers versus problems during challenging times, a lot can be achieved even with diverse interests.
Lee's ultimate goal is to have attendees leave with a greater understanding, appreciation, and respect for the ranching sector's ability to protect and contribute ecological diversity on the landscape through integrating ourselves with the environment while preparing food for our plates.
In hosting this event on a Friday, Silver Hills also encourages those of you who are travelling some distance for work the opportunity to add some personal time to the trip. The Heskeths encourage people to bring family or friends along and enjoy the hospitality of the ranch by staying over night. As in past, they’ll be opening their backyard to free camping and will have a community fire for those wanting to sit and relax under the stars after the day's events. Those who have musical talent are encouraged to feel free to entertain. Lee and family encourage sustainability, which means they supply the location, access to barbeques, and outhouse, but you bring the rest.
For those wanting to make it a weekend event, the Wild Salmon Music Festival is being held in Lumby over the weekend as well. It is a great grassroots music festival featuring local bands and promoting the return of Salmon to the upper reaches of the Shuswap River. For those just wanting to take a break and relax, the river should still be warm enough for swimming if we have sunny skies, plus the ranch has lots of hiking opportunities for those with a little extra energy. There is even a 9-hole golf course across the river in Cherryville in walking distance if you don’t mind wading the river.
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This tour is part of the extension series, "Riparian Stewardship Through Agroforestry". Partial funding for this work has been provided by the BC Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative (AGF1304)