{Music}
[Jack Cato] Did you notice a little bluestem?
That rain that we got making it come back green underneath it.
It's so quiet hear.
But it's quiet with no human noise, but there's lots of wildlife, natural noise.
{turkeys gobble}
That's what I like about it.
[Jan Cato] Hon, did you hear the golden cheeks today
when you were on your run?
[Jack Cato] Everywhere.
[Narrator] Just north of Uvalde, Texas, Jack and Jan
Cato with their dog Paddy, have created a hill country haven at Buck Hollow Ranch.
[Jan Cato] This whole area was covered in little Cedars.
All of it.
[Jack Cato] It looks good.
[Jan Cato] I know, we worked really hard.
I just want him to get a picture of that to see that we're actually doing some work, that
we're not just going around saying, look isn't that pretty?
{Music}
{Jack laughs}
[Narrator] Joviality aside, Jack and Jan take their stewardship
seriously.
[Jan] That's ash juniper.
That's what we're trying to get rid of.
{ATV engine rumbling}
[Narrator] Everywhere they go their clippers and their
canine go with them...
[Jan] You have to have your own technique, have
great technique.
[Narrator] ...in their relentless quest...
[Jan] Persistence pays.
[Narrator] ...to beat back invasive vegetation.
[Jan] Dead, dead, dead.
{Laughter}
{Music ends}
[Joyce Moore] Jack and Jan Cato are the perfect role models
for land stewardship in Texas because they have an enthusiasm and excitement.
This is a passion with them.
[Jan] Scott guess what we did see...acorn woodpecker.
[Scott] Here?
[Jan] Yes!
[Joyce] They're masters of conservation wherever they
go.
[Jack] See y'all later!
{Music}
[Jan] But again, this isn't anything we did.
It's what we didn't do.
So now we've come to see that a lot of the places that are the most special are the places
that we've never touched.
And we also wrote our conservation easement so that the ranch cannot be subdivided.
That's not happening.
[Andy Kline] It's one of the most natural environments
in the hill country that I've ever seen and being able to protect a place this size is
incredible.
And it's protected not just now, but down the road.
[Joyce] They're improving this habitat for a diversity
of wildlife species...for songbirds, for bobwhite quail, for the plant life, the endangered
snowbell that they've planted.
[Narrator] Jack and Jan have a long term goal to preserve
and even increase the natural flow of water.
But when Mother Nature needs some extra help, the Cato's have stepped up with eight water
guzzlers, scattered throughout the property.
[Jack] What it is is just an inverted wing, catches
any kind of water or moisture, channels down this pipe, goes underground to a 1500-gallon
tank, and then piped down here.
And then up, and then there's a horse trough float so that when it gets low, it opens up
and in comes the water.
Just simple gravity.
It's working right now.
Cause there's that deer scat on the ground.
Proof is in the pudding.
{Laughing}
{Water splashing}
[Jack] I don't think we realize there's a finite
amount of water.
You know whether it's global warming or not, it doesn't matter, you just shouldn't waste
stuff.
You just shouldn't waste it.
I'm preaching, hon.
[Jan] Oh you are?
[Jack] Yeah.
{Music fades}
{Engine rumbling}
{Music picks up}
[Narrator] But Buck Hollow is only one half of the story.
The Cato's other ranch is the Stockard-Sirianni located in South Texas.
[Rick Taylor] In the wildlife business, I've never had landowner
as enthusiastic and heartfelt about the properties that they own.
[Narrator] The two ranches are in two distinct ecoregions
with two totally different land management plans.
{Music fades}
[Narrator] The Stockard-Sirianni is the family ranch,
passed down from Jan's father.
Their success is a collaboration of the long-term family ownership by the Cato's, along with
the long-term land management by the Gonzales family.
[Oscar Gonzales] Ten years ago this part of the ranch's guajillo
was roller chopped for regrowth.
That way the soil could also absorb more moisture.
[Narrator] Oscar Gonzales is the third generation of
his family to run the Stockard-Sirianni Ranch.
And this is his Uncle Gilbert, the foreman here for over thirty years until he passed
away in January of 2013.
[Gilbert Gonzales] Over here on my right is the area we burned.
[Rick Taylor] Gilbert was there for his whole life pretty
much and you know Gilbert loved the ranch.
He loved the habitat, he loved his cows, he loved, he loved what he did.
[Kenneth Gonzales] This is the best thing you could ever ask
for.
Just doing what you love and enjoying it.
And the passion that he had for it, the horses, the cattle, the ranch in general was his biggest
pride.
[Jan Cato] Jack and I want to thank the Gonzales family
for the privilege of honoring Gilbert and his service to our family and to this ranch
and to Texas, um, thank you for this opportunity.
[Jack Cato] And it's a wonderful part of Texas, how the
heritage continues on and we're just honored to be a part of it.
{Music fades}