20 Years of Collaboration

20 Years of Collaboration
Bill McDonald
Executive Director
www.malpaiborderlandsgroup.org
Where we live and work
1 million acres •  59% Private •  23% NM/AZ State •  11% Na5onal Forest •  7% BLM With elevations ranging from 3,500 to 8,500 feet, the
Malpai is a diverse area of mountains, canyons, valleys
and riparian corridors
Subdivision at Silver Creek
Astin Springs 1875
(grass in the foreground)
Astin Spring 1994
(shrub encroachment)
Malpai Ranch Meeting 1993
Diamond A Ranch (formerly known as the Gray Ranch)
Malpai Borderlands Group Board and Staff
Cooperators
! Ranching Community of Hidalgo and Cochise Counties
! U.S.D.A Forest Service, Coronado National Forest
! U.S.D.I. Bureau of Land Management, Safford and Las Cruces Districts
! U.S.D.I. Fish and Wildlife Service
! U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Ranger Experiment Station
! Arizona State Land Department
! New Mexico State Land Department
! Natural Resources Conservation District, Arizona and New Mexico
! Hidalgo Soil and Water Conservation District
! Whitewater Draw Natural Resource Conservation District
! New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
! Arizona Game and Fish Department
! The Nature Conservancy
! The Animas Foundation
! The Desert Lab at the University of Arizona
Unique Agency Partnerships
Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service
Liaisons to the Malpai Borderlands Group
MALPAI BORDERLANDS GROUP
GOAL STATEMENT
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.
Baker Burn II 2003 47,000 Acres
Malpai has
protected 78,000
acres in 15
conservation
easements
Together with a
nearly 300,000
acre TNC
easement
70% of private
land in the area
is protected
Watershed Management
Climate
Geology
Economics
Vegetation
Fire
Grazing
General tips for starting and maintaining a
community-based conservation effort
•  Have a written goal against which you gauge your actions and
measure your progress.
•  Do not try to force things on people. Make opportunities available
to them.
•  Communicate, communicate, communicate.
•  Teach and learn. There is ample opportunity to do both.
•  Obtain and use the best science available.
•  Don't start what you can't finish. Under promise and over deliver.
•  Be aware that people work hardest when it is in their best interest
to do so. They work hardest together when it is in their mutual
best interest.
Land steward in training