Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2022)
about the same as conventional farming, Davies says, but it reduces the amount of fossil fuel used by 25 percent. He emphasizes that this project is a small part of the ranch’s operations, but they are going to document and learn and adjust as needed. Davies says they freely share information and research with other ranches who want to know it. “We give tours. And some of the rangelands stuff we’ve done is being copied across the West,” he says. “I think we are the only people in Harney County that have advanced regenerative ag to the point we have, and we are just getting started.” Roaring Springs employs a full time wildlife biologist, something Davies says is not common at big ranches in Oregon. The biologist’s job is to help figure out how to best sustainably manage the wildlife and landscape including populations of up to 500 pronghorn antelope, 200 elk and 150 bighorn sheep. Davies says his views on sustainably running the land come both from his religious background as well as his experience working for other ranchers and with agencies throughout the years. “For me personally, it does have roots in our religion, that we are to be good stewards of the land and people and communities,” Davies says, adding that it has been a lifetime of learning these strategies and ideas from others. At his kitchen table on the other side of Blitzen, Miller explains when it comes to ranching, he has a different holistic view of the land, one influenced by the genera- tional knowledge passed down to him. Rock Creek Ranch prides itself on traditional methods. They don’t use motorized vehicles to drive the cattle — they use horses, because Miller says it's better to understand the capabilities of an animal and learn from an animal than to use an ATV. “One of the hardest lessons to learn is how much your horse can give you,” Miller says. “You know how much an ATV can give you by the gas gauge.” Overall, sustainability is a priority for many ranches in Harney County these days, says Marc Hudson, the rangeland program director with Oregon Agricultural Trust. Hudson works with about 25 ranches in Harney County — none of which are Roaring Springs or Rock Creek — and says that overall there are a variety of deci- sions ranches can make to manage the land in a way that's environmentally friendly. “Roaring Springs is pretty unique,” he says, because of how big it is. “They probably have a lot more opportuni- ties and a heightened sense of sustainability.” At Roaring Springs, we get back in the car, head south, and Davies turns east off of the Catlow Valley road up into an area called Skull Creek. He explains on the drive up that there is a bighorn sheep population that lives near A HUNTING CABIN UP SKULL CREEK AT ROARING SPRINGS RANCH GARY MILLER IN THE FAMILY KITCHEN the ridge. On our way back, we spot a group of at least 10 of them in a pasture by the highway. The creek bed is dry this time of year, but we follow the narrow gravel road that snakes up a valley between the hills until we reach a small white hunting cabin and a meadow of lush green grass, quivering lightly in the breeze. We make a brief stop at the cabin, which Davies says is used on occasion by people working at the ranch or by the owners. The cabin has one small central room and two tiny bedrooms stuffed with bunk beds. Two large buck heads hang in the back, and a walk-in pantry is filled with non- perishable food like hot sauce and cans of soup. Davies drives us up the road towards the low lying hills until we have a view of the green valley and the bare Pueblo Mountains in the distance. We stop at a curve in the gravel road and I look to my right, across other hills and buttes, and at the cloud shaped shadows giving them depth. “How far does Roaring Springs go?” I ask. “As far as you can see from here,” Davies says. Cowboy Mormon decor One day, Davies brings us to his home at the headquar- ters. The modern four-bedroom house is where he and Elaine Davies raised a majority of their kids, each room filled with several beds. Animal heads crowd the living room walls. Davies says one head from every species on the ranch is on display — a deer, an elk, a bobcat and even a river otter. A taxidermied cougar that once stole live- stock from the ranch prowls a ceiling beam. On the next wall hang plaques commemorating the Davies children and their completed Mormon missions. Davies says that the other ranch staff usually gets Christmas and New Years off, leaving the Davies family to manage the ranch on the holidays. The rule was that the animals had to be fed before presents were opened. They would return mid-morning to begin the festivities. “Living remote and living on the ranch, that's some- thing you do,” he says. “Take care of animals first, and people second.” As we make our way into the kitchen, furnished with cabinets made from juniper trees cut on the ranch, Davies says he doesn’t usually eat lunch, but offers a can of Nalley beef stew. Immediately, I recall a magazine I read as a kid that described life as an American cowboy. “They sleep under the stars and eat food from a can,” it said. Davies takes off his hat as we sit at the wooden table, revealing a balding head. As we eat the canned stew and bread, he talks about his dreams for retirement in four years. He says he and Elaine Davies bought a ranch in nearby Diamond, Oregon, in 2000 and put it into a sepa- rate LLC. Under a deferred compensation plan with Roar- ing Springs’ owners, the Davies gain 4 percent ownership of the ranch in Diamond each year, so that by 2026 they will own it outright. Their son will manage the ranch and eventually purchase it, the payments going towards Elaine and Stacy Davies’ retirement. In retirement, the Davies plan to use their time and money to do mission work, he says, traveling to places people may be afraid to travel to — Africa is mentioned — and helping those in need. From can see to can’t see Half a dozen young men live in the bunkhouse at the Roaring Springs Ranch headquarters this summer. They work hard, long days on the ranch to keep it running. Some are starting their careers in ranching, and others are just following a dream to be a cowboy. Will Duffy, 23, a well-mannered ranch hand with short- cut blond hair, was born and raised in the heart of Port- land. Two years ago, he decided he wanted to get out of the city. A close family friend asked if he ever heard of Frenchglen, Oregon. Duffy hadn’t. “I just wanted a cowboy job where I could ride every day and check cows and stuff and that’s what this place offered,” he says. The first day, he says, they moved cows from one part of the desert into another pasture. He was hooked from the start. Duffy liked it so much that he came back this summer to work for a few months again. 10 S E P T E M B E R 1 , 2 0 2 2 E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M
