Texas land is in high demand. These ranchers found ways to preserve and profit from it
Blue skies and power lines stretch as far as the eye can see in Wise County, home to generations of ranchers and thousands of acres of native prairie.
But the area’s rural roots are giving way as Wise becomes the next frontier in Dallas-Fort Worth’s rapid population growth. Hundreds of rooftops have sprouted along the Tarrant-Wise county line, including in Rhome and Fort Worth. More than 10,000 people moved to the county between 2010 and 2019, according to U.S. census data.
Texas still leads the nation in number of farms and ranches, with about 248,000 of them covering 127 million acres, according to the state’s agriculture department. Yet the list of ranches up for sale gets longer every year as landowners capitalize on rising property values and housing demand.
In comes the Decatur-based Dixon Water Foundation, a nonprofit on a mission to make ranching sustainable — and profitable — for as many landowners as possible.
With three “demonstration” ranches to prove its techniques work in North and West Texas, the Dixon Water Foundation wants to inspire more landowners to take advantage of “environmentally sound” ranching practices that restore native prairie and conserve water, according to Melissa Bookhout, the North Texas education program coordinator and a board member for the foundation.
Ranch hands in Decatur move animals from pasture to pasture every 60 days, mimicking the patterns of roaming bison. None of Dixon’s ranches uses artificial fertilizer, and native grasses bloom across more than 1,000 acres of ranch land, restoring wildlife habitat that was once lost.
“We’re healing the land, we’re building up the macro-life and our soil,” Bookhout said. “We want to show people that it’s very doable, you can be very sustainable, and there’s other sources of income you can always look into.”
Dixon ranches are also leading the way on another issue: All three properties are under conservation easements, which permanently ban land from being sold to a developer, because of the group’s commitment to native prairies. The foundation, started in 1994 by Decatur rancher Roger Dixon, is financially supporting a North Texas outreach director employed by the Native Prairies Association of Texas.
“We just want to show an example of what our prairie looks like and how healthy it can be,” Bookhout said. “With all the development coming this way, you lose a lot of the insect life and the bat population. Our healthy prairie and our carbon sequestration is helping combat some of that.”
Saving ranch land from future development can be one of the most “rewarding, satisfying things in the world,” said Robert Potts, the CEO and president of the Dixon Water Foundation. But it takes commitment and overcoming anxieties about what signing the agreement might mean financially.
“Now you’ve made a difference in keeping this really special place special for forever,” Potts said. “Part of owning land is knowing that the decisions you make are going to have implications long, long beyond the time you’re gone.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2021 at 5:30 AM.