Third generation rancher Jim O’Haco of Jim O’Haco Cattle Company working on the Chevelon Butte Ranch has been selected as one of six regional honorees of the Environmental Stewardship Award Program (ESAP) by the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association. The ESAP was established in 1991 by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association to recognize ranchers and cattle growers who are outstanding land stewards. The award winner will be announced during the annual Cattle Industry Convention in Phoenix in February 2018. O’Haco, along with all eight of his siblings, inherited the Chevelon Butte Ranch from his father, who took it on from his father, who started it as a sheep ranch in 1898. Currently, it occupies more than 60,000 acres of land 30 miles south of Winslow with Black Angus cattle and a Hereford/ Angus cross breed called Black Baldy. O’Haco is being recognized for his continued dedication to conservation of the land and wildlife inhabitants surrounding his ranch. He has been credited with improving grasses and grazing conditions by removing encroaching juniper. He is also commended for keeping Chevelon Butte Ranch accessible to hunters during various hunting seasons and building fencing that allows wildlife to pass more easily surrounding the ranch, most notably installing elk jumps. Perhaps most widely known in the stewardship of Chevelon Butte is the High Point Well, located on the highest mesa on the property to ensure gravity is able to do its job. The well holds 100,000 gallons of water at any given time and is able to pump it to 35 drinkers located throughout the property. This system allows the ranch to continue working even through years of continued low precipitation numbers and drought. The water system, consisting of 42 miles of buried pipeline, took Jim and his hand Kevin Fritz approximately 10 years to complete. The tank is cleaned and maintained regularly, and serves not only O’Haco’s cattle, but other wildlife in the area as well.
