THE HOLISTIC APPROACH
ISN’T
FANATICAL
Dear
HCN:
We would like to respond to an article in
your April 3 special issue on the Great Basin which included
comments about Holistic Resource Management made by rancher Tony
Tipton. We are concerned that readers may be left with the
impression that Holistic Resource Management is some sort of
“religion” when, in fact, it is not. No one from this organization
has ever pushed anything on the Tiptons.
Less
than two years ago, the couple’s relative who, according to the
article, “works as a facilitator with consensus groups’ wrote an
article for our newsletter highlighting the work at the Tipton’s
ranch as very successful and as very much designed using Holistic
Resource Management. If there is now a feeling of “disillusionment”
with whatever process it is that they have been using, that is no
reason to lash out at Holistic Resource Management and paint a
picture that is not in any way justified. Whatever the challenges,
they are not the result of some sort of religious fanatics tied to
Holistic Resource Management forcing the family to do something
they did not want to do.
Additionally, we are
concerned that readers will be left with the impression that it
“costs more” to practice Holistic Resource Management. There are,
in fact, numerous documented cases where this process has resulted
not only in improving the biological resources, but also in greatly
increasing the families’ financial stability overall. Because we
have not been directly involved with the Tiptons and the work with
the Toiyabe group, we would not even attempt to guess what the
management challenges are there. We simply wish to clarify what we
feel are misleading comments about Holistic Resource
Management.
Shannon A.
Horst
Albuquerque, New
Mexico
The writer is executive
director of the Center for Holistic
Managment.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The holistic approach isn’t fanatical.
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