Red Lodge Clearinghouse - Quivira Coalition

Quivira Coalition

Photo courtesy of USDA Forest Service

"Most collaborations involve some sort of ecological restoration, but the tool box for restoration isn't very big," says Quivira Coalition Executive Director Courtney White. "We're discovering new tools to add to that box."

Location: The coalition is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with various projects located around the state.

Objective: To foster ecological, economic, and social health on western landscapes through education, innovation, collaboration, and progressive public and private land stewardship.

Participants: USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Fish and Wildlife Service, New Mexico Game and Fish Department, New Mexico State Land Office, New Mexico Environmental Department, Valle Vidal Grazing Association, Cerros de Taos Grazing Association, Amigos Braves, Earth Works Institute, Farm to Table, Four Corners Institute, Hawks Aloft, Jemez Pueblo, Malpai Borderlands Group, National Riparian Team, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Navajo Nation, New Mexico Natural History Museum, New Mexico Trout, Rio Puerco Management Committee, Taos Soil and Water Conservation District, The Conservation Fund, Trout Unlimited, numerous ranchers and other private land owners.

History: New Mexico's ranching history stretches back nearly 400 years. But the grazing techniques brought to this semi-arid desert from more temperate regions - combined with fire suppression and drought - led to dwindling grasslands and a steady encroachment of trees and shrubs. As cattle crowded into a shrinking base of grazing lands, the damage to meadows, savannas, and riparian areas reached epic proportions.

Federal land managers responded by forcing ranchers to cut back on cattle numbers at a time when beef prices were dismal and small ranching operations could little afford the financial strain of reducing their herd sizes. Meanwhile, the public was demanding more than just healthy land for ranchers and their cows. The public also wanted clean water and a healthy habitat for wildlife.

While some New Mexico counties and ranchers were joining the wise-use and county supremacy movements, environmental groups continued to haul federal land managers to court to force them to improve grazing management.

Señorito Canyon, 1990

In 1997, two environmental activists and a rancher from southwest New Mexico saw the futility of this "take-it-to-court" attitude and formed the Quivira Coalition. The coalition, which got its name from a Spanish term meaning "fabulous realm just beyond the horizon," began cutting through the acrid debate over public-lands grazing. Dedicated to finding solutions that lead to ecologically and economically sustainable ranching, the group seeks the "third position" or "neutral ground," as one of the founders puts it.

The earliest project undertaken by the Quivira Coalition was a riparian restoration effort along several miles of barren stream known as Macho Creek in southwest New Mexico. The coalition partnered with the rancher and a hunting group to construct electric fencing to keep cows out of the streambed during the growing season. The coalition also contracted with several organizations to monitor plant growth and bird populations. Armed with reputable science gathered from the project, the coalition not only demonstrated grazing tools that helped the rancher's bottom line, but that also brought about ecological recovery, including healthy wildlife populations.

Accomplishments: Through a number of successful partnerships and projects around the state, the Quivira Coalition has illustrated that the

Señorito Canyon, 1995

Photos courtesy of Bureau of Land Management

debate over gazing and healthy landscapes need not be painted in black and white. These projects, based on what's been dubbed the "new ranch method," have convinced both ranchers and members of the environmental community that land can recover while it's simultaneously used for grazing.

Partnerships include:

A grass bank in the Jemez Mountains of north-central New Mexico where grazing permitees can locate their cattle while their own land rests;.

A watershed restoration project to bring back native Rio Grande cutthroat trout populations and address water quality concerns; and

A private land-grazing restoration plan along the Pecos River to address sprawl, overgrazing, and drought that threatens traditional Hispanic communities.

Most recently, the Quivira Coalition purchased the Valle Grand Grass Bank east of Santa Fe from The Conservation Fund under very generous terms. The grass bank supports livestock from nine grazing associations from two National Forests in northern New Mexico. It has since been renamed the Rowe Mesa Grass Bank.

The coalition hosts an annual conference as well as a raft of workshops and on-the-ground tours that give ranchers, environmentalists, public land managers, and scientists a forum to exchange ideas on sustainable ranching and a first-hand look at what's working in the restoration of overgrazed rangeland. Nearly 500 people (a new record) attended the Fourth Annual Conference this past January. Participants included ranchers, conservationists, state and federal land managers, and many others.

In 2003, the coalition published The New Ranch at Work, a collection of papers that discusses everything from ranching for biodiversity to case studies of projects employing what's been dubbed the "new ranch method." This method uses practices like rotational grazing and monitoring changes in rangeland conditions. The Coalition received funding to assist land managers in implementing the new method in 2004, along with funding for two additional projects: restoring stream channel and wetlands along Cedro Creek in Cibola National Forest and thinning 600 acres of ponderosa pine forest on Rowe Mesa as part of a community forest restoration project.

Challenges/constraints: Criticism of the Quivira Coalition comes from both sides of the grazing debate. Many long-time, traditional ranchers argue that what's worked in the past continues to work for them today. Anti-grazing activists argue that an arid region that receives only five to seven inches of rain a year simply isn't a place to graze cattle.

The implementation of several projects has been slowed in the bureaucratic pipeline of federal land agencies. One project is poised to begin restoring 7,000 acres of degraded sagebrush country near the mountain town of Taos by using innovative herding methods. But the project participants are waiting for the regional Bureau of Land Management office to complete its environmental analysis, an effort that has taken much longer than expected.

The success of the Macho Creek project in southwest New Mexico unraveled when the landowner leasing the bulk of the state lands - who resided in another state - sublet his permit to his neighbor, a rancher reluctant to participate in the project. In 2002, that rancher sold his ranch to new owners who were not interested in cattle. Without the oversight of an active steward, the electric fencing fell into disrepair and trespassing cattle from other ranches started camping out in the stream bottom. The area, which had flourished with grass, is again overgrazed and barren.

For more information see:

Quivira Coalition Homepage

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Comments (0) Add Comment

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Last Updated ( Friday, 11 April 2008 )