Kat Taylor is excited to talk about carbon sequestration and perennial grasses, but one of her favorite topics is the “full assemblage of predators” that now calls TomKat Ranch home. “It’s an indicator of [ecosystem] health all the way down the food chain, because you can’t support mountain lions and bobcats…unless the rest of the world is pretty healthy, too,” she explains.
Taylor knows this because while voters across America watched her husband — billionaire Tom Steyer — run for president on televisions across the country, researchers at the ranch had been tuning into a very different broadcast for some time. Footage from web cameras placed near cattle water sources revealed thirsty coyotes and badgers sneaking in to hydrate.
It’s one tiny picture of how everything that happens on the ranch, which serves as a living laboratory, is monitored. Data collected by cameras, sensors, and on-site scientists are then used in studies and incorporated into larger, multi-site research projects, all of it in service of figuring out not just how to make agriculture more sustainable, but how to utilize farm practices to…
