The Babbitt Ranches
“Just Participate!”
Coconino County, Arizona · By Rose Houk
If you ask Billy Cordasco what sustainability is, he takes his time
answering. “It’s a hard concept,” he says, “because the environment is
always changing.” The best
explanation he’s ever heard is “living off interest, not principle.”
Billy is president of the board of Babbitt Ranches, a job he’s held for
nearly ten years. And though he may struggle with the word
“sustainability,” he has obviously spent a great deal of time thinking
and experimenting with the idea. The Babbitt Ranch holdings and leases,
close to 700,000 acres in northern Arizona, have been in the family for
almost 120 years. They include the CO Bar and Cataract ranches, which
stretch from south of the Grand Canyon all the way to the San Francisco
Peaks and east to the Little Colorado River alongside Wupatki National
Monument. They range from mid-elevation grassland, into pinyon-juniper
woodland, to high-elevation ponderosa pine forests, among classic
Southwest mesas and cinder cones.
In many ways Babbitt Ranches is a traditional outfit, running a cow-calf
and yearling operation. “There’s a routine built in,” says Billy,
“that’s grown out of years of knowledge and learning.” The Hereford
cattle are driven to high country in summer and back to lower range in
winter. Calves are born in the spring and branded. Fall is roundup
time. Calves are taken to a ranch, raised another year, and then sold.
“We try to run cattle at ‘drought levels,’” explains Billy, meaning
that they run a minimal number of head based on the average carrying
capacity of the range. In 2002, to weather the drought that has gripped
the West for several years, Babbitt Ranches had to take the costly step
of moving the cattle to several different pasture locations in the
southern part of the state and even into Texas, holding them there
until summer rains greened up the grama grass back in northern Arizona.
Like ranchers everywhere, Billy is concerned about the health of the
grass, the water supply, and his cattle. But native wildlife, like
pronghorn, also fascinates him. When he’s out in his truck, he stops
often, raises binoculars, and scans the endless platinum grasslands for
the animals. He’s concerned when he doesn’t spot any, and rewarded when
he does.
The larger view – evolutionary and ecological processes – also occupies
Billy’s thoughts and conversation. Among the most significant influences
has been the “land ethic” expressed by the great conservationist Aldo
Leopold. On the wall of his office is a poster that displays quotes from
Leopold’s classic book, A Sand County Almanac –
albeit
rearranged to reflect a landowner’s priorities. Billy was elated when
he got to go to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2003, near Leopold’s Sand County
farm. There, on behalf of the ranch owners, he accepted a wildlife
stewardship award from the International Association of Fish and
Wildlife Agencies for participation in grazing lease planning and
implementation. The award cited Babbitt Ranches’ efforts to provide
water, restore habitat, and install wildlife-friendly fencing for
native species.
Unquestionably, the most important person in Billy Cordasco’s life was
his grandfather, John Babbitt, who raised Billy after his parents died.
The elder Babbitt, who ran the family’s ranches for nearly fifty years,
was a “man among men,” says Billy. It was by his extraordinary example
that Billy learned about ranching and other valuable lessons in life.
After graduating from Northern Arizona University with a business
degree, Billy worked during the 1980s in several Babbitt enterprises,
including a summer on the ranch surveying fence line. In 1992, at age
thirty, he became president of the board. Billy Cordasco utters the
word “blessed” many times as he talks about his life.
As a businessman, Billy is fully aware that he must answer to his board and
shareholders. But whenever the board makes decisions about the ranch,
he urges them to consider three things – economics, community, and
environment. As he sums it up, “It’s always about relationships,” both
natural and human.
During Billy’s tenure as head of Babbitt Ranches, the company has
pioneered a variety of projects that fall under the rubric of
sustainability. A biological assessment of the company’s land was
completed and compiled into a publication. A new name was adopted –
Coconino Plateau Natural Reserve Lands – which connotes the obligation
and responsibility Babbitt Ranches holds. The company established the
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Foundation at Northern Arizona
University as a conduit for landowners, agencies, and organizations to
collect data and practice solid science on lands in the region. Babbitt
Ranches also donated forty thousand acres of conservation easements to
The Nature Conservancy and county, implemented holistic range
management, and launched a watershed assessment project.
Billy is always looking for ways to raise and sell beef directly,
rather than shipping off the cattle to distant feedlots to be fattened.
Babbitt Ranches has produced beef jerky and hamburger patties, but to
expand that endeavor, Billy notes, consumers must show their support by
buying meat that has been raised organically and sustainably. A few
years ago Babbitt Ranches also brought in bison, and “six girls – big
ones” still roam the range, Billy notes.
“Ranching can be viable out here,” Billy asserts, as he looks out on
land that receives about nine inches of rain a year. If the environment
were the only challenge he faced, Billy’s job would be easier. But his
task is far more complex – managing a huge landholding in a traditional
family business, amid pressures of public issues and development that
can quickly make cattle-raising less than economical.
So, rather than use the word “sustainable” to describe his land ethic,
Billy Cordasco preaches the gospel of “just participate!” For him, the
phrase embodies the belief that we can’t manage or control land or the
environment. To join, share, and be a part of ecological processes, he
says, “we can only learn and understand.”
___________________
This is one of many stories from the Four Corners region that were printed in A New Plateau: Sustaining the Lands and Peoples of Canyon Country, edited by Peter Friederici and Rose Houk. This book was a project of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University and Renewing the Countryside, with assistance from the Museum of Northern Arizona. A New Plateau can be purchased at the Renewing the Countryside online bookstore or the Northern Arizona University bookstore, or request it at your local bookstore.
Billy Cordasco
Regions:
ArizonaOrganization type:
Business - mid-sized (>21 employees)


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