EMERGENCE OF ALEGACY
Barbara Kana reclaims the health of her family's homestead through sound wildlife management
West Kerr Ranch looked like a war zone when Barbara Kana first began managing the property in 1990. The land had been continually over-grassed and there were few cross fences limiting the range of domestic livestock such as goats and cattle: the deer stood along the ranch roads, hungry and listless, and watched her truck pass by. "The wildlife were hurting and undernourished," she said. "That' s when I started looking for a way to change things."
The West Kerr Ranch, comprising approximately 10,000 acres, is located 45 miles northwest of Kerrville. Barbara's father purchased the land in 1976, and although she had no background in wildlife management, she had a strong tie to the land and the desire to learn. "1' d, looked at this ranch as a play- ground," she said. "I took pictures, I took hikes, I hunted and I shared long rides with my daughters, Kelcie and Ashley. When I started managing this ranch I could see what was wrong, but I had no idea how to fix it. It was over whelming.
Kana first removed all livestock from the property and discontinued grazing leases. With assistance from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD). She conducted a white-tailed deer census, using the spotlight survey technique. "It was the first official census I'd ever done," she said. "And it was great. I didn't know how useful it would be until three or four years later when I began to see a pattern in how the population management programs were working."
Fielding Harwell, a technical guidance biologist with TPWD, worked with Kana and developed a wildlife management plan. With that plan, Kana learned how many deer, livestock or exotic animals the land could support and techniques for improving the habitat. "She has been extremely aggressive in following the principles of wildlife habitat management," said Harwell. "I'm working with III ranches involving over 540,000 acres and she is at the top of those ranches. Last October, she received the Texas Society of Range Management's Award for Excellence In Rangeland Management, which reflects her commitment to the land."
My most difficult challenge has been controlling the invading cedar," said Kana. "If someone in Texas can figure out how to keep cedar from taking over their ranch without breaking the bank, that will be a real accomplishment." Many ranchers believe that goats control invading cedar, and their Edwards Plateau ranches have a manicured look, as though someone used hedge trimmers to prune every live oak's lower branches. "Goats eat the cedar only after they've eaten everything else - plants that a deer needs to survive," she said. "You will see some pieces of land in this area that don't have cedar. But on their live oak trees, you won't see a leaf below five feet because the goats stand on their hind legs and create a definite browse line. I believe it would be possible to manage goats in a way that wouldn't be harmful to wildlife; however, it's hard to balance many types of domestic animals with the needs of whittailed deer and other grazing animals such as axis and fallow deer."
Kana attended workshops and seminars to expand her knowledge of wildlife management and range management. One of those was "prescribed burning." Prescribed burning discourages the cedar growth, and acts as a natural fertilizer for new forbs such as clovers and other legumes. "My first reaction was, 'Gosh, that's crazy!'" said Kana. "I pictured everything going up in smoke. But I knew from prior experience that if I cut the cedar and didn't do anything else, the cedar would come back and my money would've been pilfered away. That's why it was attractive. It scared me, but economically it made sense. You have to do something to keep the cedar from coming back. We burn safe, and under the right conditions during the winter, and never have had any problems." "Safe" depends upon the individual area to be burned and weather conditions. A good rule of thumb is 30-35 percent humidity with a wind 5-10 m.p.h., and the temperature between 60-70 degrees. If there is ground cover of heavy slash, the flat cut cedar, the burn is con- ducted with a higher humidity of 40 per- cent because the fire burns much hotter. The humidity protects the soil. "We never burn under 20-percent humidity," said Kana. "And we've never burned with the wind over 12 m.p.h. They say never burn with wind over 15m.p.h. and I wouldn't. A healthy amount of fear is a requirement when you're burning. If you lose your fear on a burn you're in trouble."
The biggest change I've noticed is in the amount of forbs production and the amount of browse that has come back as a result of burning," said Kana. "In late spring, there is a foot or two of high grass in our pastures, and shin oak and hackberry flourish. Our deer are fat because they're in the gourmet section of the supermarket. They've got the best quality food available to them."
Kana's management plan successfully combines basic, essential management practices. The first is the livestock management program. "We're on a rotational grazing system of cattle only, and we're very lightly stocked," said Kana. Grazing is deferred for up to one year in pastures in order to grow fuel for prescribed burns, and Kana now regularly uses fire as her second management tool, burning 10 to 15 percent of the ranch each year. "Population control is the third big one," she added. "We try to make sure that the numbers of domes- tic animals, white-tailed deer and exotic populations are in balance with the range carrying capacity. We try to keep our buck-to-doe ratio at one-to-one.
Kana continued attending seminars and experimenting with the new information "At first, I'd sit there and not ask questions, because I really didn't know what questions to ask," she said. "So I listened. I made phone calls. And I was able to get a lot of books and started reading. Some were too technical - books to fall asleep by - but I didn't need to concern myself with the technical aspects. I left that in Fielding's hands." Kana's mentors are too numerous to mention, but she credits all those who assisted her, from the TPWD to the Natural Resources
Conservation Service, for their patience and willingness to help.
"Being a woman and stepping into a man's world was an obstacle in the beginning," said Kana. "I don't like to talk about gender issues but I have to admit that I was fortunate to work with people who weren't intimidating. I was not afraid to ask 'stupid' questions because they never looked down on me. Managing this ranch began as an almost insurmountable project and now, some- times even I can't believe how far the ranch has come in such a short time. Within two years, we began to see a dramatic change in antler development and the body size of our deer. And I never would have believed that in the beginning. The vegetation has made a dramatic return and the deer are healthy."
Kana also suggests that an individual land owner's personality can strongly influence their success in implementing a management plan. "Trust your instincts," said Kana. "And then you'll need a lot of patience. I remember that during the first year or two, I wanted to do it all at once. I want- ed to see changes, and I wanted it yesterday. It takes a lot of patience to wait for results." Finally, landowners must be willing to take risks and not second -guess their decisions. "I love sharing what I've learned but it's not an exact science," she continued. "There's a lot of guess work in the management of a piece of property. There are a lot of decisions that need to be made and you don't always know if they're the right decisions until a year or two later."
The TPWD hopes to make West Kerr Ranch a demonstration area, an example for other landowners of what is possible. "She's making the land more productive from an economic standpoint, but she's approaching it from an eco- logical perspective," said Harwell. "The ranch is a source of income, and it's a renewable resource that's improving and becoming more productive. The land continually sustains quality deer and now attracts hunters from across Texas and other states."
The West Kerr Ranch has earned recognition from the Texas Big Game Awards for bucks scoring 130 or higher on the Boone and Crockett system for scoring trophy deer. "Our largest buck harvested grossed 154, Boone and Crockett," said Kana. "It had 12 antler points." Kana grew up hunting and, as a single mother, raised both her daughters as hunters. Her oldest daughter, Kelcie, learned to spot deer by the time she was a year old. "I was taught to respect the land, and it's been a dream of mine to work on the ranch, managing the land and the wildlife," said Kelcie. "I love to hunt, and that will never change. I'm lucky, because I was given the opportunity as a child to have a place to hunt. My mom is giving me a chance to fulfill my dream." Kelcie now serves as one of the ranch's most popular guides. Although men also guide during the busy fall hunting season, most of the guides are women. "I've been hunting all my life," said Kana. "I've guided my children and I've learned about the outdoors. I knew what I was doing, but I was apprehensive about guiding guests in the beginning. But I've never had anyone say, 'Oh, she's a woman, she doesn't know what she's doing.' It's always been the opposite."
Most hunters associate hunting with fall and winter, but the West Kerr Ranch also offers an active spring season with turkey and exotic hunts. "You can harvest exotics year around," said Kana. "Of course, our most popular season is white-tailed deer season. The deer hunter is going to come back year after year after year to go from an eight-point to a 10-point to a I2-point, and from a IS-inch spread to a 17-inch spread toa20-inchspread. We really focus on the quality of our white-tailed deer, and everything we to do to provide a healthy environment for our native deer helps our exotic population too."
Kana prefers to host small groups of six or eight hunters during package hunts. "We want each hunter to feel like the only hunter on the place," said Kana. The hunts are guided, and while Kana and her staff make every effort to accommodate the individual's hunting style, deer hunts are conducted from blinds only. "It's partly a safety factor, because we have so many people coming through during fall season," she said. "Also we find that more hunters are happy, and fewer animals are wounded."
Kana believes honesty and integrity are important when leasing and for hunting. "We love hunting," she said. "Why else would we be doing this? I go to great pains not to misrepresent my ranch and what I have to offer here," she said. "I let hunters know they're not coming to a luxury hotel. They often ask, 'What's my deer going to score?' and I give them a range of deer we see here. I think it's important to not misrepresent you product, and I don't try to sell something I don't have. That hurts hunting as a sport and hurts your relationship with your clients."
Kana works closely with Michelle Gloger, a converted' city girl' who brought her computer skills and endless enthusiasm to the ranch. "It did not take me long to realize that 1 preferred sunlight in the outdoors to fluorescent lights in a six -story building," said Gloger. "Barbara and this ranch have taught me nature skills and the meaning of land stewardship." Gloger, who did not hunt as a child, now is an avid hunter who serves as a guide, proving that an urban childhood is no reason to be shy about the outdoors. An exciting encounter with nature waits just outside the city limits. In the future, Kana plans to expand her operation to include other recreational activities. "I hope hunting is around for along, longtime, but there are other recreational activities that we could offer here, such as birding, camping and camera safaris," she said. "People love to come out and sit in a blind to observe the wildlife, or ride in a vehicle and take pictures. Some like to come out and just camp, grill hamburgers and take hikes."
More than anything, she hopes her efforts will preserve the land for future generations. "I've seen artwork depicting the tall grass prairies that once covered the Hill Country, and I want to restore this ranch so my kids have a place they can be proud of," said Kana. "That's why I started doing this. We've watched our wildlife flourish. They've changed from hungry animals that stood by the road to animals that are healthy and wild." The rugged hills silhouetted against a clear morning sky can lull visitors and landowners alike into a false sense of well-being, while the sun- rise paints a rose-colored glow over the challenges that lie ahead for the Texas Hill Country. Kana studies the landscape every day and her plan is simple. "My ultimate goal," she said, "is to leave this land better than I found it." *
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Visitors to West Kerr Ranch may choose to hunt white-tailed deer, turkey, blackbuck antelope, axis deer, fallow, sika, mouflon rams and aoudad I sheep. In addition to guiding hunts, Kelcie Kana also owns and operates Kana's Taxidermy., offering a wide variety of taxidermy services.
For additional wildlife management information on West Kerr Ranch, a complete description of the West Kerr hunts and fees, or taxidermy information, write: Kana Ranch Co., LLC, 160 Four Bears Trail, Kerrville, Texas 78028,or call 830-329-5171 Or visit their website: