Five Star Stewardship Program Takes Proactive Approach

There is a group of ranchers in Southeast Washington’s Whitman County who are taking a proactive approach to measure and monitor their properties’ riparian health with a non-regulatory, non-conflict program which is improving soil and water quality, vegetation recovery and riparian/stream restoration and monitoring on their acreage.
Washington’s Whitman County rancher John Pearson gives more details
Pearson: “The five-star program is a producer-driven group that is trying to be proactive when it comes to water quality and livestock riparian area management. Actually we think about the total watershed.”
The group begin developing the program two years ago and Pearson shares an update of their progress
Pearson: “So we’ve just finished our constitution and by-laws and we all want to get back into the field and start doing our testing and monitoring and get moving forward with our grazing plans.”
The Five Star Program provides participating ranchers with lifelong learning and technical assistance in planned grazing and stewardship; assist ranchers in improving their record keeping and monitoring, provide credible educational and certification offerings with professional criteria and standards for record keeping and monitoring; assist producers in improving soil and water quality and quantity on private land and riparian areas. It also acts as a support group for participating ranchers.