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A MODEL FOR COOPERATIVE LAND MANAGEMENT: THE MALPAI BORDERLANDS GROUP -- Wendy Glenn
Our goal is to restore and maintain the natural processes that create and protect a healthy, unfragmented landscape to support a diverse, flourishing community of human, plant and animal life in our Borderlands Region. Together, we will accomplish this by working to encourage profitable ranching and other traditional livelihoods which will sustain the open space nature of our land for generations to come.
Mission statement of the Malpai Borderlands GroupThe Malpai Borderlands Group (MBG) is located near the Mexican border in extreme southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. It is made up of a nine-member board of directors and many cooperators including ranchers, scientists, agency personnel, and others. At the Society for Conservation Biology's 1996 annual meeting, MBG was given the SCB's Distinguished Achievement Award "for innovative efforts to restore and maintain the natural character and biological diversity of rangelands through collaborative ecosystem management." We are very pleased and appreciative of the recognition we have received. Some of MBG's projects include restoring grasslands with fire, seeding native grass, protecting threatened species, developing waters for wildlife and livestock, and responsible grazing. The group holds five conservation easements on local ranches. The easements will keep the lands from being subdivided for homes. The work area that MBG encompasses is made up of approximately 30 ranches. These ranches include state and federal (U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service) lands and private property. Some of the ranch owners are active in our projects, some are observers because our ideas are new and they are waiting to see what we accomplish, and some are working on their own to manage their resources, without asking for our support or participating in MBG projects. The terrain is high desert upland with one small year-round stream. There are very few natural water sources. Volcanic mesas are in the valleys with limestone and granite mountains in the higher forests. The forests are mostly piñon, juniper, oaks, and manzanitas. Cactus and thorn bushes abound in all areas. Many of the ranchers here hold an outside job to help sustain their rural property. The area has been in the clutches of extensive drought for many years; therefore, the ranches don't always generate enough income to support the family on the ranch. Some of the ranchers or their spouses have taken second jobs as teachers, National Wildlife Refuge employees, hunting guides, secretaries, school bus drivers, or other positions. These jobs supplement the ranch income. Most of the ranchers' closest neighbors are at least five miles away. Neighbors help neighbors by trading work. The areas's written history is documented back several centuries. Ranchers here are third and fourth generation families that know the land like few others. Many trace their ancestry to the Mormon Battalion and earlier travelers. Spanish artifacts including spurs and horseshoes have been found. The MBG shares its observations with historians, biologists, and scientists. There are families that are dedicated to preserving species that would be gone without their help. One family found they had a population of threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs on their property that had not been invaded by bullfrogs. They have worked with scientists to identify the frogs and are helping them survive droughts by making sure they have permanent water. This project involves collaboration between the ranch family, MBG, and the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Other wildlife and livestock are benefiting as well. The Malpai Borderlands Group came together to work on mutual problems. Besides dry weather, some of the problems we have to deal with are poaching of plants and animals, unauthorized wood cutting and dumping of refuse, and vehicular damage to off-road areas. There is little or no law in these vast expanses without the people living on the ranches daily observing what is happening. In the process of our work, we have enlisted scientists who are helping us find, identify, catalog, and monitor the area's plants, soils, amphibians, mammals, birds, and reptiles. We are finding species that were rare or thought to be extinct here. One of these species is the Arizona Jaguar (Panthera onca onca), a subspecies of the Mexican Jaguar (P. onca). There have been 64 documented jaguar sightings in the United States in the last 100 years. Of these, 62 were killed. The other two were photographed in 1996. One of the latter two jaguars was photographed by a rancher/hunting guide in the borderlands area. The occurrence of this jaguar in our vicinity has excited people around the world. Many had thought that the jaguar was extirpated from the U.S. MBG is working with local residents on the U.S. side of the border and the Mexican ranchers to the south to assure that the jaguar will be safe in our environment. We feel that if we weren't managing the land in the right way, we wouldn't have as many species here as we do, including the occasional jaguar. Jaguars currently are listed as endangerd in Mexico. They appear to be doing well. Because our borderlands area is not heavily settled by people, jaguars use a corridor from the rivers south of us to come up the Sierra Madres of Mexico into Arizona and New Mexico. There have been confirmed jaguar tracks in the MBG area since April 1995. The animals appear to be making a circle into our area every month or two. Populations of their prey, including peccary and deer, are healthy and are managed by state game departments. There have been lawsuits filed to force a listing of jaguars under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Because there are relatively few jaguars, and they have large ranges, many people in Arizona and New Mexico feel that the two states can protect these cats and work closely with residents to ensure that the frequency of jaguar visits increases. It is very important that no species is perceived as a threat by land holders. They will take care of species if they know there is an incentive to do so. A proposed Arizona-New Mexico Conservation Agreement has been carefully assembled by state agencies, with public input, for the protection and study of the jaguar. This is a crucial step that could make federal listing unnecessary and would encourage local involvement in the protection of these cats. The MBG has established a fund to be used in the Malpai Borderlands Region to compensate livestock owners in the event of confirmed depredations by a jaguar, to protect the habitat of the jaguar and other native mammals, and for use toward other wildlife projects. We feel that if we can help the livestock owners in this way, they will gladly co-exist with these magnificent creatures. Some of the jaguar fund has been donated by interested hunters, ranchers, scientists, and school children. A large part of the fund has been donated from part of the proceeds from a privately published book of jaguar photos that was written by the man who photographed the jaguar in the MBG area in 1996. We have embarked on a new and different way of land protection. It seems to be working well here in our borderlands, thanks to help from all types of interested people. One thing they believe in, whether they are scientists, hikers, conservationists, birders, ranchers or anti-ranching, hunters or anti-hunting, or any other party: there is less open space every day, so we must cherish what we have and care for it daily as we live our lives here. For more information on the Malpai Borderlands Group or to order a book of jaguar photos, contact:
Malpai Borderlands Group
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