Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Home on the Ranch

Katie grew up on the Blunk family’s farm and ranch northwest of Hardtner, Kansas, but spent many of her childhood days visiting her grandfather on the Oklahoma ranch.

“He had a great influence on who I became growing up, being a horse freak, horse lover, veterinarian…it all fell into place. I’ve always had fond, fond memories of this place,” says Katie.

In 1995, Katie’s mom, Rose Blunk, inherited the Oklahoma ranch but was overwhelmed with the infestation of Eastern red cedars. While native to Oklahoma, they do not belong in many of the areas where they now grow. Eastern red cedar is spreading for a number of reasons, including the lack of fire on the landscape. Prior to settlement, lightning-caused fires or fires set intentionally by Native Americans swept frequently across forest and plain. These periodic fires restricted the spread of eastern red cedar, confining them to canyons, limestone outcrops or other places where fire intensity was low. In 2000, it was estimated that red cedars cost Oklahoma $218 million dollars annually through catastrophic wildfires, as well as loss of cattle forage, recreation, water yield and wildlife habitat.  

However, with financial and technical assistance from programs available through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Rose was able to cut cedars and get prescribed burns on the ground, eventually seeing her way out of the cedar forest.

“Mom burned it in 2005 and 2007, and then Michael and I spent several more years continuing to prep the land, clearing cedars, building proper firebreaks, and finally began burning again in 2016. It’s an ongoing process that we can never relax on,” says Katie. “That’s why we are going to continue with the burning cycle, burning about a third of the ranch every year, to stay ahead of the cedars and benefit the rangeland.”

Starting a New Legacy

In 2012, Katie and Michael moved back to this Oklahoma ranch from Nevada and carried onward with what her trail blazing mother, Rose, had been doing for the past 15 years to restore the range. Since then, it has become more than childhood memories and is now an everyday reality. Managing the ranch has also become a story of collaboration.

Not only is Katie practicing prescribed burns on the family’s ranch, but she is also active in helping others do the same. She volunteers her time, currently serving as President, for the Cimarron Range Preservation Association (CRPA), the local prescribed burn association with about 60 members who are local landowners around Freedom, Oklahoma. CRPA landowners are able to pool both equipment and skilled labor to allow members of the association to safely and effectively conduct prescribed burns on their property. Katie also serves as Chairman of the Woods County Conservation District which provides technical and funding assistance to local landowners, including firebreak assistance and prescribed burning.

“It’s a classic example of neighbors helping neighbors,” says Katie. “We have some members that are very seasoned and experienced, and we have new members that are excited to bring fires to their lands as well. We need the young members because when we are gone from here, it will just be a matter of four years before there will be six-foot cedars growing out here again. It’s a never-ending battle.”

Resources to Help

In 2016, the ranch was enrolled in the Monarch Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), a voluntary conservation program available for agricultural producers provided by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS). EQIP helped to develop a prescribed burn plan, build firebreaks and apply prescribed fires to their lands, as well as develop a grazing plan in conjunction with proper cattle stocking rates and rotational grazing to let the land rest and regrow.

“We practice grazing management through the use of patch prescribed burning where we burn a third of the ranch every year to rotate the livestock,” says Katie. “We don’t have a lot of cross fencing on this ranch. Our burn practices are the main way we move the cattle around.”

In addition to revitalizing native grasses that cattle are attracted to, prescribed burns are also productive for other native plants such as milkweed—the monarch butterfly’s host plant. So far, Katie and Michael have found two native milkweed species on their ranch: broadleaf and antelopehorn. Even though they are listed as a poisonous plant, it would require a large amount of consumption to be toxic to livestock. The cattle don’t like the taste and will only resort to eating milkweed if no other forage is available.

“If you have proper grazing management and stocking rate, the cattle are generally going to eat the good forage and avoid the toxic weeds,” says Katie. “It boils down to good grazing management...don’t overgraze the land and leave plenty of forage for your cattle.”