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Panel: Land Use and Preservation

Thu, 08/09/2012 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm

Adell L. Amos, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and an Associate Professor in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program moderates a discussion on ranching and environmental issues with panelists Gerda Hyde, Billie Roney and Lois Stevenson.

Gerda Hyde (born 1930) owns and operates the 5000-acre Yamsi Ranch near Chiloquin, Oregon. A recipient of the 1992 Alexander Calder Conservation Award, she and her family have long been proponents of using environmental protection and habitat conservation to raise chemical-free beef. Yamsi Ranch is a multigenerational operation, involving the efforts of Hyde’s sons and eight of her seventeen grandchildren.

One of Billie Redemeyer Roney’s (born 1952) first memories is taking apart carburetors with her dad. She was something of a tomboy, growing up on the Roney Ranch in Chico, California. That changed—a little bit at least—when she eased into her teenage years and became a town-and-country model. Today, she lives on a working cattle ranch. She takes seriously the impact of politics and public policy on her way of life and works as an advocate for the ranching community, serving on an agriculture council through her local Chamber of Commerce and lobbying in Sacramento. She also works on curriculum development with faculty members in the agriculture department at the university. She spent a month in the Middle East under the auspices of the Agriculture Educational Foundation—leadership training. “I would go back there in a second,” she says.

Lois Stevenson (born 1928) owns and operates Knee Deep Cattle Company outside of Eugene, Oregon.