Sebring’s
Rafter T Ranch Recognized By Darden Restaurants
Charles Lee of Audubon Florida presents the Sustainable Rancher of the Year Award to Rafter T Ranch. Pictured (L to R): Brandon Tidwell, Darden Restaurants; Eric Draper, Audubon Florida; Bob Mayworth, Rafter T Ranch; Casey Wohl, Rafter T Ranch; and Charles Lee, Audubon Florida.
On Aug. 20, Darden Restaurants hosted a luncheon program with the Florida Cattlemen’s Association, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Florida Audubon to discuss the environmental sustainability of the Florida cattle industry. During the event, representatives Bob Mayworth and Casey Wohl of Sebring’s Rafter T Ranch were recognized as the ranch received Audubon Florida’s 2013 “Sustainable Rancher Award.”
Audubon and Darden Restaurants are recognizing ranchers who take noteworthy actions to help restore the Northern Everglades. Rafter T Ranch has been a leader in the efforts to store and clean water on ranchlands in the Northern Everglades. Audubon produced a short video promoting water storage and water quality projects undertaken by ranchers, which features Rafter T Ranch. This video can be seen at: https://vimeo.com/61143683. The video, as well as Audubon’s efforts in the Northern Everglades, is supported in part by a grant from Darden Restaurants Foundation. “Jimmy Wohl and Rafter T Ranch are setting the standard for ranchland stewardship in the Northern Everglades. We at Audubon believe that innovative water management projects undertaken by ranchers and ranchland preservation are the key to restoration of ecosystems north of Lake Okeechobee,” said Eric Draper, executive director of Florida Audubon.
Wohl has exemplified stewardship on lands in the Northern Everglades. Through the Florida Ranchlands Environmental Services Project (FRESP) and the Northern Everglades Payment for Environmental Services (NE-PES) Program, Wohl has installed improvements on Rafter T Ranch to store and clean water before it runs into the watershed to
58 Heartland InTheFieldMagazine
Arbuckle Creek. His work shows how ranchers can make simple adjustments on working landscapes to maximize benefits for the environment.
The Darden family of restaurants features some of the most recognizable and successful brands in full-service dining: Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V’s and Yard House. Through subsidiaries, Darden owns and operates more than 2,100 restaurants, employs more than 200,000 people and serves more than 425 million meals a year. For more information about Darden Restaurants, visit www. Darden.com. Owned by the Wohl Family, the 5,200-acre Rafter T Ranch is located in Sebring, FL and has received numerous awards including Environmental Stewardship Awards from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the Florida Cattlemen’s Association (FCA) and the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (FDACS). During the award year, members of the Wohl family represented the U.S. cattle industry in meetings with the New York Time, Time, Life, Newsweek, United Press International and the National Audubon Society to discuss environmental stewardship practices and land management in Florida. The ranch has been featured on FOX News, PBS, Daytime TV Show and in the Palm Beach Post for its environmental stewardship practices. For information about Rafter T Ranch, visit www. RafterTRanch.com. For information about Audubon Florida, visit www.AudubonOfFlorida.org. October 2013