Conservation Biology students tour John Cross’s ranch. We tend to think that conservation is about grizzly bears and oil sands, forgetting that there are lots of ways in which people can conserve their environment. John Cross is one of these people who, while not being dogmatic, uses holistic management to improve the health of his cattle and at the same time, improve his land and the ecosystems on it. He explained that one of the important changes he made on his ranch was to use gravity to fill watering troughs and move his fences to keep the cattle out of the creek. This improved the pasture by decreasing grazing intensity in some areas & increasing it in others. It also significantly reduced damage to the riparian zone which in turn, improved water quality in the creek and therefore fish habitat.