TEXAS' TOP LAND STEWARD
G. ELAINE ACKER

Rebirth of a Hill Country Ranch
 

Barbara Kana is a private person. A soft-spoken mother of two, she grew up in South Texas, roaming the Matagorda seashore, and discovered a love of hunting as she crawled through the salt grass marsh to take a closer look at a flock of geese. "Goose hunting was my first 'call of the wild,'" she says. "I still get goose bumps every fall when I hear the first flock of geese. heading to Matagorda County from the skies above the West Kerr Ranch." Now a resident- dent of Kerrville, she pushes aside the past and prefers discussions of the present: her daughters, Hill Country vegetation, controlled burns, or guided hunts. But it is the journey from the past to the present that shaped Barbara Kana's passion for the land, and made her this year's most outstanding Lone Star Land Steward.
 

Each year, landowners in 10 ecological regions statewide are recognized as outstanding land stewards, but only one receives the top honor. Fielding Harwell, a TPW technical guidance biologist, has worked closely with her throughout the long process of creating and implementing management plans that are changing West Kerr Ranch from a rocky wasteland to vibrant grassland. "Barbara has carried out a well-rounded habitat management program," says Harwell. "She's increasing the quantity, quality and diversity of range plants, and this not only helps the key species such as white-tailed deer, but other wildlife indigenous- to the Edwards Plateau. She's good about setting goals, developing procedures, evaluating the program as it progresses and making modifications as needed."
 

West Kerr Ranch is situated 45 miles northwest of Kerrville in an area often characterized by scrub brush, rocky pastures and invading cedar. According to Harwell, it is not unusual for ranches in Kana's area to be overstocked with cattle, sheep and goats, and overpopulated with deer. "In a lot of that country, we're losing plant diversity, and the higher quality plants are the first to disappear," says Harwell. "Good quality grasses such as Indian grass, side oats gramma and little bluestem are on the increase on Barbara's property. She's seen an increase in trees, shrubs, and vines - the browse plants that are important to a deer's diet. There is a rapid recovery of live oak, shin oak, redbud, hackberry, greenbriar, chittum and Spanish oak.

"What impresses me most," Harwell continues, "is her ability to work with fire, and conduct winter burns. Fire is a very good management tool, but 1 know a lot of people who shy away from using it because they're scared of it. It demands respect because it's something that can get out of hand."

The obstacles to Kana's success were numerous. The past that she rarely discusses ultimately shaped her future. Painful events included the death of her husband when her girls, Ashley and Kelcie, were only four and eight years old, and conflicts with a father who believed ranches were to be managed by "good-old-boy ranchers" who had spent their lives with cattle and goats. He looked at the land primarily as an investment.

As Kana renewed her strength, she began to work closely with Michelle Gloger, a converted 'city girl' who brought her computer skills and endless enthusiasm to the ranch. Kana looked at the land with her heart and saw what was possible, both for the land, and for herself "The personal challenges changed my perspective," says Kana. "1 began to create an identity for myself, and part of that identity was the ranch. 1 saw I through a different pair of eyes and was
able to understand what was really happening to the ranch." Kana then reached beyond her fears and found the courage to make a change. Through a family land swap, she acquired 2,800 acres of the family's 11,OOO-acre holdings, and began researching ways to restore the land.

But more obstacles lay ahead. She and Gloger began in 1989 during a drought period, and one consulting biologist warned them not to expect too much, too soon. "We were just starting out, and we had the feeling that we were too late," says Kana. "That feeling stayed in the back of our minds for the next year and a half as we discontinued the grazing leases, removed goats and cattle, and began trying to control the cedar. Then the rains returned, and the spring of 1991 was awesome."

Kana remembers staring at a painting of the tall grass prairies that once characterized the Edwards Plateau and thinking, "So this is what this land looked like. How can it possibly look like that again?" Driving across the ranch that spring, she stopped and watched a cedar cutter. He was working in grass up to his waist, and it was her first victory.

Another victory came in 1994 when Kana's father trans- transferred management of the family's entire holdings into her now proven, capable hands. "For four years, 1 had to drive by the other family pastures that were still being over- grazed, and it was so sad," she says. 'Td look across the fence at a sea of goats still on the ranch. The wildlife was suffering." Once management was entrusted to Kana, she instituted a system of rotational grazing, reduced the number of cattle, and removed the goats altogether. She now tries to ensure that the numbers of domestic animals, white-tailed deer, and exotic animal populations are in balance with her range's carrying capacity, and she offers guided hunts in season throughout the year. Some of her most popular hunts include turkey and axis buck in the spring, and white-tailed deer (that have earned recognition from the Texas Big Game Awards) in the fall.

Kana's philosophy of land ownership reflects her respect for native American populations who believed that the land did not belong to man, but rather, man belonged to the land. "For some reason, this piece of property has been entrusted to me, and it's my responsibility to take care of it," she says. The emotional bond Kana feels with the land is shared with her children, Ashley and Kelcie. Together, the three spent countless hours driving the ranch roads, hunt- hunting, and watching the wildlife just outside their door. "Mother Nature never leaves you with nothing to look at," says Kana. "And sometimes she shares a once- in-a-lifetime experience, like the time we saw two turkeys mating. The girls were 11 and 14, and that was a big deal." Ashley is now attending college, and Kana says she is beginning to "pass the torch" to Kelcie, who has assumed many of the management duties: supervising ranch hands, checking fences, windmills and stock tanks, filling feeders, meeting with biologists, and guiding hunts.
Kana deeply appreciates being recognized as one of the state's rap land stewards, though she seems uncomfortable in the limelight.

She acknowledges that awards can be a good thing if they offer insight info the methods and techniques other landowners have used, and highlight the technical resources available through agencies such as TPW. "Some people may not know where to begin, but I hope they'll recognize that there are tools they can use. They can read, learn, and begin to improve their land," she says. "Maybe they'll hear about this award and think 'if she did it, I can do it."