Doctors Orders: How Prescribed Grazing is Saving Endangered Frogs and Livelihoods in Western Washington

Jake Yancey had all but given up hope of owning a farm.

After an early career managing ranches from Montana to Northern Oregon, the cost of owning land was out of the question in 2003, prompting him to take a full-time job in public safety.

That is, until a “really weird opportunity” arose, paving the way for grazing cattle on lease property.

This inspired him to take up prescribed conservation grazing, a method that not only sustains his beef operation, Tracking Y Ranch, but also regenerates the land and improves wildlife habitats in the process.

Making it Work

In 2015, Jake Yancey got a call from a friend in need. His parents had sold the family farm and had 30 days to get the cows off the property.

Jake came to the rescue, bringing the 6 cow-calf pairs back to his small five-acre property in the middle of winter.

“My wife turned to me at that time and said, ‘Man, how the heck are we going to make this work?’. I like to say, she made two big trusts in me. The first was marrying me, the second was believing in this dream. So, I had to make it work.”

To harness this new opportunity, the first step was to acquire more land to graze their cattle. However, they quickly realised they didn’t have the financial means to buy property in Western Washington.

Pastures were being increasingly subdivided into new developments raising the price per acre beyond affordability for new ranchers.

Instead, Jake and his wife, April, went door to door looking for lease property to graze their cattle.

 

 

“Some of the first people we reached out to were the conservation groups. We saw that they were spending a ton of time, effort and money on vegetative management, controlling invasive vegetation and clearing wildfire hazards all by hand with lots and lots of man hours. So, we saw the opportunity of grazing as a management tool to help these conservation programmes.”

That insight and initiative paid off.

Today, Tracking Y Ranch manage a herd of over 150 head across 1,000 acres, all of which is leased. A third is owned by private landowners and two thirds by Conservation and Land Trust organisations, happy to host Jake’s cows in a symbiotic relationship.

Finding Frogs

A priority for the Centre of Natural Lands Management (CNLM), one of Jake’s primary conservation partners, is protecting the habitat of the rare Oregon Spotted Frog (OSF) in Mima Creek Preserve, Thurston County.

The state endangered frog has suffered dwindling populations due to the invasion of its wetland habitat by reed canary grass. The dense non-native plant clogs the waterways, making it unsuitable for egg laying (oviposition).

 

 

Sanders Freed, the Pacific Northwest Restoration and Preserve Manager for CNLM, began discussions with Jake about alternatives to the mechanical removal methods of the invasive vegetation.

“I thought ‘I don't want to keep cutting this grass every year with a brush cutter, I might as well figure out a different way to do it.’”

Grazing cattle could create openings in the dense vegetation for the frogs, but water quality around the area was of major concern.

Jake Yancey was up for the challenge.

Working with his conservation partners, he prescribed 2-3 weeks of rotational grazing, between August and September, with many of the rotations only allowing cattle on an area of pasture for 2-3 days out of the whole year.

“In those wetland areas, we graze really short at the tail end of our summer season just prior to the rains coming in. Then we're off it all of Fall, all Winter, and then in Spring those frogs can lay their eggs.”

By removing the cattle before the wet season, the manure has time to decompose before the rain arrives, avoiding run-off into the creek and maintaining reasonable water quality.

Sanders says the results were impressive enough to expand to other sites.

“The two factors that matter most for where the frogs oviposition is hydrology and vegetation, they've got to be right. After the experiment started and we were getting results that showed really no impacts of the cattle on water quality, we wound up managing another site for spotted frogs.”

Considering Wildlife

Beyond livestock, Jake is committed to finding ways to positively impact wildlife habitats on the properties he grazes. 

Bears, elk and deer travel through a wildlife bypass where 100 feet of electric fencing is tilted 12-foot-high into the air during the off-season. Avoiding the need for the animals to jump or climb underneath when crossing.

Western Bluebirds, an Oregon Conservation Strategy Species, perch and nest high in the bird boxes installed on 6-foot-tall, exposed fence posts.

"At the very most, we’re only on these properties for a couple of months out of the year, so the majority of the time it’s really about the habitat. We’re looking to not only run a good grazing program but also have either a negligible or even positive effect on the wildlife of that property."

A Natural Solution

Despite the potential benefits of conservation grazing, it is not without its critics.

The Center for Biological Diversity calls conservation grazing “the most widespread source of wildlife endangerment”.

But while livestock can damage natural habitats if left unmanaged, what sets prescribed grazing apart is its specificity to the needs of each property and ecosystem.

“We set a prescription for every single property that we're at. And that's driven by the property owner's greatest desires and what the land can sustain.”

“Our focus is to match up the needs of the property owner and environmental concerns, sometimes even before we end up looking at what’s best for the gains for our cattle.”

Whether the goal is reducing fire load or controlling invasive grasses that encroach on habitats like the reed canary grass, the prescription encompasses the grazing area, fencing solution, the ideal time of year and duration.

Sometimes only a few days at a time are needed to achieve the desired outcome.

Though Jake admits there’s “no magical wand” that solves everything without impact, prescribed grazing is a natural solution that often doesn’t cost the property owners and makes every effort to have as positive, or as little, impact as possible.

His work with the CNLM is carefully measured, monitored and evaluated against the ideal conditions for the Oregon Spotted Frog. Meticulously studying the effects of the prescribed grazing on thatch depth, vegetation heights, soil compaction and water quality.

Sanders Freed is so confident in the results that he is actively working to influence other frog sites to adopt the grazing method.

“I've been trying to convince the state and federal agencies to initiate grazing projects so they don’t have to do as much manual labour on their oviposition sites. [They] could be grazing and benefitting our local economy, ranching and agriculture. It’s a win, win, win type of ecology.’”

Tracking Beef

The cows aren’t getting a bad deal either. Every few days or weeks, a truck pulls up to take them to fresh grass. But which grass they go to is determined by their cattle class: Cow-Calf pairs, Stocker and Finishing Cattle.

“Between managing those 3 herds, we’re able to match up the nutritional availability of those pastures with the needs of our livestock.”

 

 

Each cow’s movements and treatments are meticulously documented and shared with buyers. This transparency allows Tracking Y to secure good returns on their beef and is a cornerstone of their business, helping them maintain trust with their buyers.

“We really pride ourselves on sharing stories of agriculture and production and what that looks like: the good days and the bad days. Our customers love knowing about the beef they’re feeding their family.”

Building The Dream

Managing the regular rotation of stock between pastures, selling grass-fed beef directly to consumers, and providing transparency reports for each cow is not a one-person job. Jake’s wife, April, and twin daughters, Kaidence and Cloey (16 going on 17) are involved in the business.

“I don't think there's a week that goes by that all of us are not out there. If it wasn't for a family operation, this would be dang near be impossible to do as a one man show."

Growing up on the farm teaches major life lessons to his kids.

 

 

“Everything from concern for the environment, always looking out for what you can do, even such things as driving out to a property and taking value in a flower in bloom or an eagle that's up in the trees. I think those are all great moments for them to take away.”

But without owning any property, handing down the farm to his children is not on the cards yet. Even holding onto the leased land is a challenge, they’ve lost 200 acres of property since 2015 to developers, “They’ll never plough under a house to plant or graze a cow, so those acres are gone forever…”

Despite this adversity, Jake’s grateful to have a loyal following of customers who care about where their beef comes from.

“We're just happy when customers decide to buy direct from producer 'cause that really helps as we start to build and continue with that dream.”