Local tech entrepreneur Jeff Buckingham and the whole Buckingham family were presented with the Conservationist of the Year Award from the Coastal San Luis Resource Conservation District (RCD) on March 22.
The award is for making, “outstanding conservation related improvements to the family’s ranching operation,” but Buckingham is quick to point out that they weren’t alone in the effort, getting help from the RCD itself and from Cal Poly.
The SLO County Board of Supervisors also awarded the Buckinghams with a Certificate of Recognition for work on the 540-acre cattle ranch on Turri Road.
“I really appreciate Jeff and Joan’s openness to new information and new ways of doing things,” said Nicole Smith, RCD’s conservation programs manager in prepared remarks. “We started working with them to install riparian pasture fencing, and they were interested in doing more. We are now helping them to improve the soils for grazing, reduce creek bank erosion and restore riparian vegetation. I expect them to continue to adapt and improve their land management far into the future.”
Sustainability is the key to their efforts, Jeff Buckingham told the Tolosa Press after the award ceremony, and to keep his rural lifestyle thriving through a drought he’s got no qualms about turning to back the technological field that’s served him so well in the rest of his career.
“Keyline plows and composting,…all forms of land management is a technology,” he said. “The keyline technique, for example, allows the water to seep into the ground to the roots of the plants and supports perennials taking hold over time.”
The before and after photos on their property show dramatic differences he added but the students from Cal Poly have also been out with clipboards and survey tools to take actual scientific measurements and compare to plots set as control.
They were also happy to have, “all manner of folks,” from Cal Poly, the RCD, and national conservation bodies out there on grant funding, because well, “compost is expensive,” and they got high quality stuff on the property as part of the study.
Buckingham said they’d continue to keep up the other practices, such as cross fencing to control over grazing, and the keyline plowing which can yield dramatic improvement all over the property managed over time.
Next on the agenda will be projects to improve the quality of the creeks flowing through the property.
“We are learning a lot as we work with the RCD and partners to improve our forage production and make the range more drought resistant” said he said in a statement for the RCD after the award “We are already seeing dramatic improvements in the test areas and look forward to expanding the new practices to the entire ranch.” – Camas Frank
