The Formation And History Of The Malpai Borderlands Group
by Bill McDonald

The Malpai Borderlands Group is attempting to implement ecosystem management on nearly a million acres of virtually unfragmented open space landscape in Southeastern Arizona and Southwestern New Mexico. The area involved is roughly pyramid-shaped, with the base of the pyramid beginning just east of Douglas, Arizona along the Mexican Border to just west of Antelope Wells, New Mexico. The apex is just south of Animas, New Mexico.

The elevation in this area ranges from about 4500 feet, which is characterized by desert scrub and tobosa grasslands, up to over 8500 feet, which features Arizona Ponderosa Pine and Douglas fir. Within this diverse area of mountains, canyons and valleys are numerous riparian corridors with Sycamores, Cottonwoods and other obligate riparian species. Several rare, threatened or endangered plant and animal species are found here. In addition, it is the only area in the United States where Gould's turkey and white-sided jack rabbits naturally occur. It is also home to such popular big game species as Coues deer, mule deer, pronghorn and Desert Bighorn sheep. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about this huge landscape is that less than 100 human families reside on it. Except for two small wildlife preserves, this is cattle ranching country.

The diversity of the land ownership is nearly as great as the country itself. The patchwork of ownership includes 53% private and 47% made up of state trust land in New Mexico and Arizona or public land managed by the U.S. Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management.

On the surface, little has changed since the homestead days of the turn of the century when our families established ranches in the area. It was a time when a regime of survival of the fittest established the carrying capacity of the land for people and their livestock, although not without cost to the land. Since that time, it might appear that not much has changed, but change is in the works.

In 1991, several of the area ranchers met at the Malpai Ranch in the San Bernardino Valley. The ranch is so named after the volcanic malapai rock which is prevalent in the area. We met to discuss what we saw as a deteriorating situation. Cattle ranching in the West, especially grazing on Public Lands, was under attack and on the defensive. Additionally, we were concerned about the future of the resource we depended on for our livelihoods. The grasslands with some shrubs were moving inexorably to shrublands with some grass. As individuals living on our remote ranches, we felt ill equipped to deal with all this. It seemed as though the "dig in your heels" approach was doomed to failure, so we decided to embark on a different approach, to reach out to our critics and find common ground.

For two years, a small group of ranchers and environmentalists, together with scientist Ray Turner, met to discuss our mutual concern for the health and the open space future of our land. We called ourselves the Malpai Group and after two years, we drafted a Malpai Agenda. It addressed two major concerns. One was the threat of fragmentation of the landscape. Already some ranches on the fringe of our area had been subdivided. Fragmentation would permanently limit future options for a desired sustainable condition for the land. The second concern was for the declining productivity and loss of biological diversity accompanying the encroachment of woody species on grasslands. The consensus of the group was that more government regulation was not going to help. At best, it would replace one set of problems with another. The inevitable result of the free market would seem to be 20 acre ranchettes. This was not the future we wanted to see for this land.

While not sure what we needed, we felt, whatever it was should be driven by good science, should contain a strong conservation ethic, be economically feasible and be initiated and led by the private sector with the agencies coming in as our partners, rather than with us as their clients.

Two subsequent events took us to the next step. One was the suppression of a small brush fire just inside our area. The fire was suppressed by the land management agency in authority over the objection of the private landowner whose land intermingled with that managed by the agency. The fire was burning in some three-awn grass interspersed with creosote brush. The fire was bounded on one side by a road and on all other sides by bare ground and creosote brush. It wasn't going anywhere. The ranchers felt strongly that this fire should not have been put out. Fire suppression was believed to be a major factor in the accelerated encroachment of brush in this century and many ranchers, as well as others, felt it was time for fire to regain some of its naturally occurring role in the ecosystem. Another meeting was held at the Malpai Ranch, this time with some 30 ranches represented. Out of that meeting came a request for the land management agencies to work with the ranchers on a Comprehensive Fire Plan for the area.

The response from the agencies was quick. A followup meeting with the Coronado Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management in Safford, Arizona and Las Cruces, New Mexico, the State Land Departments of New Mexico and Arizona and the Natural Resource Conservation Service represented, was held at the Gray Ranch. This two day meeting with representatives from the ranching community produced a commitment by all parties to work toward coordinated ecosystem management for the whole area. After all, fire crosses land ownership boundaries and fire is just one tool in managing landscapes. Clearly, it was time to figure out how to work across political boundaries to improve the land.

The second event which transformed our group was the purchase of the huge Gray Ranch by the Animas Foundation from The Nature Conservancy (TNC). The Conservancy had purchased the Gray from a rancher who was a Mexican national who was willing to subdivide part of it in order to maximize its worth. Following the purchase, TNC began to look for a buyer. The community, fearful that the buyer might be the federal government, went to the Hadley family, twenty year owners of the Guadalupe Canyon Ranch, and asked them if it might be possible for them to purchase the Gray. The Hadleys, who have substantial resources beyond their cattle operation, were able to create a private organization, the Animas Foundation, with which to purchase and manage the Gray. It was important to TNC that the Gray be sold to a party which would keep it in open space and preserve and maintain its natural beauty. The ranch was purchased, therefore, with conservation easements on the private land guaranteeing that it would never be subdivided and with conditions establishing monitoring procedures to record the health of the range and habitats. To help manage the Gray, the Animas Foundation has invested in a Geographic Information System and has offered to extend its use to ranches involved with the Malpai Group. It has also provided some seed money to the group to help start up its operations. The Nature Conservancy became interested in the group and its goals and assigned a senior vice-president, (the same man who negotiated the Gray Ranch purchase with the Animas Foundation), to work with the group and the Foundation at the request of the ranchers.

The upshot of all of these events was the establishment of the Malpai Borderlands Group as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, capable of accepting tax-deductible contributions and of holding conservation easements. Our Board of Directors include local ranchers, and scientists and other stakeholders. The goal statement of the group reads as follows: 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.