By creating this alternate form of support for ranching, Tony and Jerrie believe that they can convince at least some of their peers to manage in the same way they manage. They believe that if they can prove that they can be agents of restoration and stewardship, they will be joined and rewarded by the same people who spend money to stop the overgrazing and desertification of the West. Many will write this off as a scam, as self- serving chicanery. But they have not seen what the Tiptons have been able to do. On this high, dry, severe land where rainfall averages as low as four inches a year, the Tiptons' unorthodox methods have reduced plant spacings in some places from 16 inches to five inches.
Water persists longer in streams flowing from watersheds where they have applied their methods.
And they have expanded the size of at least one meadow sufficiently that a road had to be moved because it became too boggy to travel. Not all the reviews have been positive. Dan Heinz, a free-lance grazing consultant for a number of environmental groups, continues to have reservations about what is happening on the Tiptons' ranch. Heinz also makes no bones about his skepticism of the collaborative process. The people that come to the table with such enthusiasm now wouldn't be there if there hadn't been confrontations.