After Africa: Finding Home Again: How I became interested in rangeland management

Abstract

A llan Savory changed my life. But I didn't realize that until I stepped onto the tarmac of the San Francisco International Airport. As I walked to a 19-minute express flight to Sacramento after 2 days of travel from Johannesburg, South Africa, thoughts of the 2 months I spent in Africa played through my mind like an old film. I couldn't believe it was over. I'd spent a year and a half researching, saving, and planning to get myself to Africa for a Holistic Management internship. All this was because of a soft-spoken man who drank hot tea with lunch, who said graws, not and who over the course of an afternoon interview, planted the idea of healthy, sustainable land in my mind. As the heavy glass door pushed open and I filed out behind other travelers in a neat line to the little plane, I inhaled a deep breath of ocean air. California, at last. Home. But home had changed, too. After the open high veld (rangeland) that borders the Kalahari and the abundant bush veld (filled with impala, kudu, warthogs, mambas, and baboons) that I had walked through just days before, my Sierra Nevada mountain valley home appeared small and a little less alive. The permanent fences crisscrossing the valley stood out like weathered statues against the weak green of the early spring grass. The land looked totally occupied. Before Africa, I saw a picturesque landscape when I looked at the valley: tall grass, thick forests, abundant wildlife, and happy cows grazing the open meadows. But that was only a glance. When I got home I knew how to take a closer look. While studying Holistic Management in Author at age 5 w it a Author at age 5 with lamb.