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Science and Monitoring
Since it's inception in 1993, the Diablo Trust has been receptive to and supportive of research and monitoring as vital aspects of good land stewardship. Prior to 1993 the Flying M and Bar T Bar ranches had, for many years, maintained active monitoring, along with the United States Forest Service (USFS), Arizona State Land Department (ASLD), and the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS).
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Photo by Tischa Muñoz-Erickson |
Also, the USFS, ASLD, Arizona Game and Fish (AZG&F) and Diablo Trust ranches have been active participants in the Forage Research Study Group (FRSG). This is the longest consistent utilization monitoring program in Arizona and continues three times a year. In addition, monitoring plots established by the Forest Service in the 1940's have been systematically revisited during the past five years. Instrumentation has included rain gauges, utilization cages and mapping, photo plots, condition and trend transects and wildlife census.
The Diablo Trust Proposed Range Management Plan for the Diablo Trust ranches, prepared in collaboration with agencies and other Trust members over a one-year period, includes provisions for monitoring a variety of on-the-ground projects for land and wildlife improvement. Some of these projects are under way and monitoring is in place.
The Trust has also supported and encouraged more focused research projects, particularly when they augment knowledge about resource condition and offer new insights for management. For example, Since 1987, researchers at Northern Arizona University under the direction of Prof. Tom Sisk have been conducting an experiment studying the effects of livestock on grassland ecosystems. The researchers collaborate with ranchers in moving cattle among replicated 2.5-acre study plots. Results from this effort, one of the few research studies that combine ranchers and researchers to test ideas of interest to both, are providing important insight into the complex effects of grazing and rest that are too-often oversimplified, as well as the interaction between climatic variability and livestock grazing.
Another project, undertaken by Northern Arizona University Professor John Bailey and colleagues is focusing on patterns and cycles of pinion-juniper seeding establishment in grasslands and how this invasion is influenced by soil type.
The Trust continues to support and participate in an innovative approach to monitoring developed by NAU graduate student Tischa Muñoz-Erickson that integrates indicators of social as well as ecological wellbeing and acknowledges their interrelationship. This award-winning project received support from the EPA and several organizations fostering collaborative, quantitative approaches to environmental assessment (read more about the IMfoS Project).
The Trust has accepted an invitation to become a field site for the Merriam-Powell Research Station at Northern Arizona University. Criteria have been developed to guide research projects, which may take place on Diablo Trust lands. They are as follows:
1. Projects must be consistent with the Diablo Trust mission and statement of desired conditions.
2. Projects must not make financial or time demands on the Diablo Trust or its ranches without appropriate compensation.
3. Preference will be given to projects that focus on or directly contribute to:
a) long term sustainability of the land and the economic viability of the Diablo Trust ranches.
b) assessment of and/or appreciation of the open space values provided by ranching
c) land management decisions.4. Preference will be given to projects that study large rather than very small land areas.
5. Preference will be given to projects of a holistic as opposed to fragmented design
By supporting and participating in research and monitoring efforts, the Diablo Trust helps to unify an often divided community. Rather than using science to support preconceived ideas about ranching and range quality, the Trust works to bring the best information to bear in collaborative efforts to improve land management and resource conservation.
Learning from the land and sharing our knowledge...
So there will always be a West.