Meet our Guests: Betsy Devin Smith, Casey Smith, Johnnie Duguay-Smith

Betsy Devin Smith, Casey Smith and Johnnie Duguay Smith

Owners and Operators, BCS Livestock

Twisp, WA

9/1/2021

Betsy Devin Smith and her husband, Skip, started BCS Livestock, a farm that sells grass-fed lamb meat and wool products in the Methow Valley in Washington state. The business became a full-family endeavor when Casey, their son, and Johnnie, Casey’s wife, graduated college and moved to the Methow (BCS stands for “Betsy, Casey, Skip”). Together, the family practices regenerative agriculture. They focus on using mob-style grazing; placing many sheep in an area for a short period, which they believe improves soil health.

BCS grew from the family’s realization that the traditional cow-calf operation was no longer financially viable for them. Betsy believes that “the producer isn’t capturing enough of that dollar value [of the beef sold]” to break even. After taking a holistic ranch management class with Washington State University, the family realized that they could change the way they thought about agriculture.

Betsy says that they asked themselves: “’Are we really cattle ranchers, or are we grass farmers — land managers?’” After some discussion, they decided to raise sheep, which can be sold more quickly, and to focus on understanding the environment in which the sheep graze.

Now, the family works within the Methow Valley community and provides local services. BCS Livestock sells directly to the Valley’s occupants, mostly through word-of-mouth. They also rent many irrigated properties in order to graze their sheep and “mow” lawns for events.

“The ranch today is not going to be like your father’s ranch,” Betsy said. “The agriculture of tomorrow is not going to be necessarily like your father’s or your grandfather’s agriculture. It’s new and different.”

By Emma Fletcher-Frazer

Meet our Guests: Jeff Fields and Randi Movich

Jeff Fields and Randi Movich

Zumwalt Prairie Preserve Project Director, The Nature Conservancy

Nurse Care Manager, Winding Waters Clinic

Enterprise, OR

8/22/2021

Twelve years ago, Jeff Fields and Randi Movich moved to the small town of Enterprise in Wallowa County, Oregon, and began to connect with disparate groups within the rural community.

Jeff is The Nature Conservancy’s Project Director for the Zumwalt Prairie Preserve, a 33,000-acre section of land in northeastern Oregon that represents the largest intact bunchgrass habitat in the Pacific Northwest. Jeff is in charge of the management of the prairie, which includes grassland monitoring and working with local landowners to manage livestock grazing on the prairie. He has also recently worked with several tribes whose traditional homelands include the prairie, including the Nez Perce (Niimíipuu), to open access to First Foods.

  When The Nature Conservancy first bought the land in 2000, anxiety soared as local community members questioned whether the environmental group would continue to allow cattle to graze on the land. To assuage those fears, The Nature Conservancy partnered with local ranchers to make the preserve available for grazing while attempting to retain healthy native grasses. According to Jeff, this grazing is critical to working in Wallowa County, saying that saving land purely for biodiversity reasons is “[a luxury the] majority of the planet, at this point in time, doesn’t have.”

Randi, a nurse at the community health clinic and Jeff’s wife, says that many local voices are often not present in these ecological management conversations. As a part of her job, Randi gets an intimate glance at a different set of Wallowa County residents’ lives. Many Wallowa County residents remain below the poverty line. Randi says while The Nature Conservancy works with local stakeholders with land or family ties on the prairie, those without — including those that she works with on a daily basis — aren’t represented in groups like those currently working with the Zumwalt Prairie .

“What voices do we bring to the table, and how do we get them to the table?” she asked.

Jeff and The Nature Conservancy are currently hoping to incorporate more ideas and viewpoints within the management of the Zumwalt.

“The human capital we have in this community… is really amazing,” Jeff said. “If you can get all that energy harnessed in a common vision, that supports both the economy and culture — then that’s amazing, that’s where we’re trying to go.”

By Emma Fletcher-Frazer