Church-Affiliated Ranch Balances Agriculture and Conservation in Central Florida

[Music] have a look below soaring over a sanctuary of wildlife so varied any place else might be challenged to show this much natural diversity in a single gland and it doesn't stop here we operate in a natural system because we're in a natural system uh Mother Nature kind of requires you to operate in a way that's sustainable keep your eyes open during this flyover the land is about to change and change again and again all of this you see from the cranes and the cattle to the Gators and the greenery all of it resides within

the boundaries of a working Ranch and agricultural property that coexists with an expansive conservation operation that requires Hands-On attention to detail and experts in the field to manage these precious resources in a delicate dance with nature and the ever driving demands of a working Ranch and agricultural concern have you figured out where we are if you guess Florida you're right Central Florida to be more precise owned and operated as an investment Farm by The Church of Jesus Christ of L Saints Deseret cattle and citrus is located south of Orlando and west of cape canaval and

LIF more commonly known as the Space Coast here in the sh shadow of the occasional rocket launch Farmers Cattlemen and caretakers of what comes naturally have a diverse body of work cut out for themselves this is not something that was just a a one-time deal for us you know we greatly care for our systems that we have on place you know we talk a lot about our cattle operations and our wildlife and our treatment of our water as a whole it's all an integrated system deser cattle and citrus was acquired by the church and developed

in the 1950s David oay was the president of the church at the time and he believe the church would be wise to develop an Enterprise that would be both a good investment and an additional resource to feed people during times of need the church set out to find the right location in North America settling on this available land in East Central Florida some 65 years ago we open every management team meeting with with an opening prayer one thing that's common in the prayer is a thank for the land an opportunity we have to be stewards

of it and for the natural resources that we're blessed with part wildlife habitat part water Reserve part Citrus farm and park Cattle Ranch at nearly 300,000 Acres rotating herds is one practice implemented to preserve the future of the ranch a simple drive along this quiet Country Road on Florida's Highway 192 is just the smallest part of what has become one of the largest working cattle ranches in the country we we run about 45,000 cows and so it is a a big complex Ranch agriculture is advancing over the last 30 years uh We've made significant production

increases and so we've been able to work with a lot of universities on Research experiments on finding ways to be better in production and and how we can be better between farming row crops harvesting oranges from one of the most robust regions of output in the world raising lands for herds of cows producing food that heads for the table from this land requires a lot of space and attention and with an eye on long-term sustainability on the ranch that means taking care of the neighbors that call the ranch home too more than 350 species of

wildlife including almost 250 species of birds the ranch runs alongside the St John's river for 40 miles that's just one of the reasons why the ranch created Doug Island the Wetland preserve where storm water runoff is made cleaner through natural plant filters while giving birds and animals many that are endangered elsewhere a place to nest and flourish including one of Florida's largest rookeries where the treasured wood stor is making a stunning comeback from its once endangered status because of the stable production that we have on this Rookery here we're able to help in growing that

population and eventually getting them to where they can survive on their own I'm a natural resource manager but I'm a myologist by trading and the system the actual Act of creating what we did here there was one benefit in in mind but what the actual true benefits that we got out it were just exponential some of the wiing grounds for the migratory waterfall that we have here this is a destination for them but it's not just the wildlife that are looking for a home to Nest I started as a cowboy here and went it turned

into cattle foran and then worked with heavy equipment and now I'm working with Wildlife security and Forestry we put our life in it I mean we treat it like it's ours Ranch stewards understand their responsibility to look to the Future Florida's growth as an American state is unique and historically fast-paced that's why there's a new Direction in Civic planning emerging in Central Florida in favor of more thoughtful growth patterns and Deseret Ranch is helping to partner in that effort governor of the state of Florida issued an executive order asking for the ranch to plan jointly

with Oola County a sector plan on the ranch itself and as part of that he also asked for task force to look at what corridors should be protected across East Central Florida to allow growth to happen and be accommodated what that task force recommended in fact was that the Ranch Preserve corridors to make those kinds of connections that we've been able to include in our planning it's Unique in the history of Florida I believe for the county and an applicant to jointly work through a sector plan and be co- applicants if you will in the

application that's going before the county this sector plan takes a generational approach to large scale long range planning when it comes to land use transportation and Water Resources this is a 2,000 acre Reservoir really Central to the ranch there are a few things that are really remarkable about this Reservoir first going back to the history of it this was a state and federal project and the ranch deserette ranch actually donated the easements the ranch throughout its history has contributed to really some of these Regional water supply projects managers and cowboys know deserted cattle and citrus

has a bright future as a working Ranch their livelihoods depend on the ongoing health of these natural systems generally when people come out here they're awed by the beauty of the ranch by the wildlife that they see uh by the vast Landscapes they're surprised that we're in the cattle business in Florida so as we formulated plans for the ranch we've tried to stay focused on their environmental stewardship we're going to take care of them environment we're going to take care of people and we're going to do as good a job as we can in cattle

production how we handle how we treat and so for us that is the definition of sustainability [Music]