“A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.” —John James Audubon The Cooper family celebrated Earth Day 2015 by planting 1000+ seedling trees along a riverbank that my sister Katie recently designed and reconstructed. As many of you know, our ranch includes approx. 500 acres along the Jefferson River, below the town of Willow Creek. Modifications made to this river’s bank upstream from our property had resulted in the river slowly and discretely altering its course over the past 5-10 years. Each year, bit by bit, pieces of our bank gave way. The most dramatic changes occurred over the last couple years and resulted in a huge loss of acreage which in turn required that we remove 2 sections of our pivot to accomadate for the loss of land. This prompted my dad and sister to begin the steps necessary to complete a riverbank restoration. After jumping through several hoops, Katie (our licensed in-house professional engineer) obtained all the required permits and earthwork began in early spring. We hauled in 200 tons of rock which a local company strategically placed to create a stable bank upon which we could plant grass and seedling trees. The entire family turned out…with work gloves, shovels and smiles. It was great to see three generations working together to help preserve our land for future generations. 

Tad, “gloved up” and spraying the newly planted seedlings with an interesting mixture consisting mostly of deer tick blood (rumored to deter deer).