Fields at Ridgetop Ranch are in recovery from years of abuse and neglect. Over grazing, planting crops with no replenishment of nutrients had taken their toll. A former owner told me “we grew corn till the soil wouldn’t even grow weeds”. Erosion, nutrient depletion and compaction from livestock left broad areas of bare dirt where weeds in fact would not grow. Add to this the introduction of non native species like serica lespidiza, autumn olive and fescue and the results were less than beneficial for wildlife and native grasses and forbs.
Removal of non native vegetation, increased nutrients and replanting of native grasses and forbs have started to return the fields to a more natural state.
Ridgetop Ranch 