Ranchers may seem unlikely environmental heroes. In the western United States, conservationist's and rancher's
have reputations for snarling at each other. But members of the Malpai Borderlands have a new approach.
they realize that a ranching ecomomy and a healthy ecology are not mutually exclusive.
In a society where the value of land is often determined by its productivity,
this new alliance of conservationists and ranchers gives hope to
preserving open spaces and the ranching way of life.
Matt Magoffin a rancher in southeastern Arizona, remembers when he could see hundreds of chiracahua leopard frogs in local ponds. Matt saw an opportunity to restore a species and avoid the restrictions that come with endangered species status. "I would like to see it become a species that you could go out anywhere in the area and see any time durning the rainy season."
When the ponds were drying up in 1993, Matt and his family rescued some 800 tadpoles and brought them to the nearby San Bernadino Refuge. When the entire population disappeared, Matt and scientists like Phil Rosen realized the Chiricahua were being gobbled up by non-native species of bull frogs brought in from the east. The frogs were further threatened by drying ponds.
The Magoffin family fought to save the frog, working with local scientists
to create a refuge for the endangered species. Over a span of three years, Matt Magoffin
and his family made a series of three hour trips hauling water to the frogs.
The Malpai Borderlands Group helped with the conservation effort. This alliance convinced the Arizona Department of Game Fish that Magoffin was serious, and the future of the Chiricahuan Leopard Frog is looking brighter.
The story of Matt Magoffin and the Malpai Borderlands Group is one of many stories documented in Survivors in the Sand, a video tracking human adaptation in the desert.
College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
New Mexico State University
phone: (505) 646-2701
e-mail: aaccount@nmsu.edu price: $24.95 plus shipping and handling Funded in part by the International Arid Lands Consortium
