Red Lodge Clearinghouse

"All kinds of wildlife move through here," said Donaldson, whose 1,500 head of cattle share forage with pronghorn, mule deer and other ungulates. Mountain lion, javelina and black bear also migrate through the area, which links mountain ranges to the south and north. A mile or two away, the creek supports several threatened or endangered species, including the Gila top minnow, southwestern willow flycatcher and the lesser long-nosed bat.

"The plant and animal community in this part of the country is absolutely amazing," said Karen Simms, ecosystem planner for the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area.

Congress designated the 42,000-acre conservation area in 2000 with the intent of protecting this wildlife highway -- the largest binational wildlife corridor in the United States -- while ensuring that grazing, hunting and other uses would continue.

"We're going for holistic resource management," said Donaldson, who is part of a local collaborative group that provides input on the management of the lands, formerly part of the Empire Ranch.

And yet the conservation area, sprawling between two mountain ranges about an hour's drive southeast of Tucson, is something of an orphan among public lands. The area is part of BLM's National Landscape Conservation System, established by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 1996 to denote BLM's most ecologically and historically important lands. But the system, which also includes Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, Headwaters Forest Preserve in California, the Lewis and Clark Trail and more than 800 other conservation areas, historic trails, national monuments and wilderness areas, could be dissolved by a future Interior secretary. With that in mind, Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva (D) and New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D) have introduced legislation in their respective chambers to make the system permanent.

BLM's 'best kept secret'

"Here we are with a bunch of nonunified conservation units that need unification," said Denise Ryan, legislative representative for the National Wildlife Federation, one of 74 environmental, religious and recreation groups that have formed the Conservation System Alliance to push for passage of the bill.

Elena Daly, director of the NLCS program, calls the loose assemblage of BLM's "crown jewels" the agency's "best kept secret." Aside from its collective aesthetic appeal, the system also serves as a laboratory for a new approach to management within BLM that emphasizes local collaboration, minimal facilities to allow for a more "rustic" visitor experience, and ecological monitoring, she said. Daly touts Las Cienegas NCA, which was designated with local support, as a model of community involvement that could be replicated in other NLCS units.

"This is what the conservation system is all about," she said during a tour of Las Cienegas. "It's about sustaining healthy ecosystems, respecting all the uses of the land, and having a common vision."

Daly has testified before Congress in support of the legislation, which she said would not change how the individual units, most of which were created through presidential proclamation or legislation, would be managed. The bill also does not provide new funding for the 26 million-acre system, which comprises 10 percent of BLM lands.

"That's not what this legislation is about," NWF's Ryan said.

But Chuck Cushman, executive director of the American Land Rights Association, is concerned that once the system becomes permanent, new management restrictions will follow.

"Our view is that this would greatly enhance the regulation of large areas of land and make these less available for multiple use," Cushman said. "We're going to do everything we can to defeat this bill."

Rep. Bob Bishop (R-Utah) expressed similar concerns during a hearing on the measure last June in the House Subcommittee on Parks, Forests and Public Lands, of which he is the ranking member. The legislation could curtail access on BLM lands in the system and would add "another layer of bureaucracy," he said. "This appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to insert restrictive National Park Service management methods in order to lock up public lands, which were intended to be multi-use," Bishop said at the hearing.

More resources needed?

Supporters of the bill, on the other hand, would like to see more resources allocated to the system, which now receives its funding from a hodgepodge of sources within BLM's annual budget.

Daly said the NLCS budget, which came in at $50 million for 2008, is adequate. "We do very well with our budget," she said.

But some of the units show signs of wear and tear. At the historic Empire Ranch site, within Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, for example, walls are crumbling, and a sign hanging in one room warns visitors that no more than four people at a time should cross the unstable floor. The ranch buildings are being restored, but largely through the efforts of the Empire Ranch Foundation, a nonprofit volunteer organization.

And Donaldson said an infusion of money would help support the conservation area's "lofty goals" for resource management, including adaptive management and monitoring. "For sure, funding is a big need," he said. "Without the managers having the money to implement these things, it all falls apart."

Emily Brott, project manager for the Sonoran Institute's desert program, said insufficient funding is one of Las Cienegas' biggest challenges, along with maintaining migration corridors, which are threatened by development to the south and north.

With development pressure increasing at many BLM units in the fast-growing Southwest, providing the system with adequate funding is more important than ever, Brott said.

"The more people who move here, the more important protecting these last places becomes," she said. "We're needing more resources to manage these areas."

One thousand miles to the north, at the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana, the dearth of funding shows in a lack of infrastructure and enforcement personnel, said Mary Jones, a coordinator with the Friends of Missouri Breaks National Monument in Lewistown, Mont. "There's only one law enforcement ranger for the whole area," she said. "And there's a lot of off-road use, even though there isn't supposed to be."

Jones added that she supports making the system permanent. "Just knowing it has a permanent place in BLM would make a difference," she said. "That would make sure it's not going to be brushed under the carpet by another administration."

The bill, which passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in June, now awaits a vote by the full Senate. The House Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to mark up the House version, which has 65 sponsors, on March 12.

Click here to view a map of the National Landscape Conservation System.

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