A very important meeting was held at Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary School, near Breen, and sponsored by the Veterans Homestead Project (Herald, Jan. 11). Speakers included La Plata County and agency people telling of opportunities in agriculture for funding of projects. The main message came from Byron Sheldon of the Savory Institute who was invited to tell of plans to have a 13-day workshop, “Putting Grasslands to Work.” It is important to be building top soil and sequestering carbon in the soil of grass pastures and crop lands with an economically viable enterprise.

With the soil-stability issue in the Breen area, I think they are on the right track bringing in the Savory Institute and Byron Shelton (vhpholisticmanagement@gmail.com, 808-214-3214).

There is much to be learned about decision making in the “holistic-management” model. I encourage any land owner to take in this series of workshops. The General Overview of Holistic Management is Feb. 9. The additional workshops are for extended periods of time, and really worth it if you find yourself with soil that moves when the wind blows, or if you are questioning just what to do with your land of any size.

Dave James

Durango