The Ladder Ranch

Recently my husband and I and another couple did a half-day tour of Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch in New Mexico situated about a half hour drive south from Truth or Consequences. For our half-day tour, we had the pleasure of guide Ken Stinnett who is biologist, botanist, geologist, archaeologist, birdwatcher all wrapped up into one. We promptly arrived at the ranch entry gate around 7:15 am and then the wonders began. We saw numerous dirt mounds deposited by prairie dogs, which played a critical role in mixing soil nutrients and creating a solid base for the grasses and herbs to grow in the wilderness. Ken began initiating us into the nutrition of the various ranch grasses and shrubs, comparing the destructive chewing habits of range cattle with the bison, who nibble away only at the top two/three inches of the plants while the range cattle pull up the entire plant. The ranch folks had numerous pens showing the immediate differences in range productivity so were able to draw strong conclusions about the efficiency of the large herd of bison. Ken also showed us areas of human habitation going back to around 4 AD by the Mimbres people and other native American settlers. We were also treated to petroglyphs scattered all along the trail. We ran into a large herd of elk, which offered some of the best photo opportunities Ken had ever seen. There were many mini diversity projects and recovery programs developed and supervised by the 4 biological scientists resident on the Ranch. What a great educational tour! We were also very impressed with Sierra Grande Lodge Front Desk Supervisor and Turner Tour Programs Scheduler, Amy Mollison –one of the most helpful, cordial and smart professionals we’ve had the pleasure to meet in our many travels.

A guided tour was an amazing look at habitat preservation in process even on a cloudy rainy morning.