Ricky and Chad Seelhof of Woodjam Ranch near Horsefly, B.C., are the 2020 winners of the Environmental Stewardship Award presented annually at the Canadian Beef Industry Conference.
They were selected from among four provincial winners across Canada.
The Seelhofs have a 500-head, cow-calf operation on a 2,100-acre ranch, with access to another 80,000 acres of Crown land grazing.
“We ranch in a really, really unique part of the world, so to be recognized for doing a good job, it really means the world to us,” said Chad Seelhof in his video-streamed acceptance of the award.
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Woodjam Ranch is in the Cariboo district of B.C. and runs along about 10 kilometres of the Horsefly River. The river is fed by 16 creeks, all of them fish-bearing, where sockeye salmon come to spawn.
The Seelhofs have fenced off riparian areas, implemented off-site watering for their cattle and installed wildlife friendly range fencing, among other environmentally themed efforts. A feature with further details on their operation appeared in the Aug. 6 issue of The Western Producer.
Also in competition for the award were three environmental stewardship winners from Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta, which Seelhof deemed “a pretty stiff bunch of competition.”
They included Paul Dejong of Ontario, Thomas and Felicity Hagen of Manitoba, and the owners of Deer Creek Ranch in Alberta, who include Richard Visser, James Bekkering, Kyle Turner and Jeff Smith.
