Malpai Borderlands

Malpai Borderlands, Arizona/New Mexico - Vegetation in this region is diverse, dominated by desert grasslands and shrublands at lower elevations and conifer woodlands and forests in mountainous areas. Land ownership is a mosaic of private lands, state lands of Arizona and New Mexico, BLM, USFS, and US Fish and Wildlife Service. Livestock production is the dominant land use alongside the management of threatened wildlife populations. Our project area and associated data catalog lies largely within Major Land Resource Area 41 (Southern Arizona Basin and Range) within the Western Range and Irrigated Region. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 300 - 600 mm. Soils are largely thermic, typic aridic to aridic - ustic aridisols and mollisols, often volcanic in origin.

In response to concerns about rangeland fragmentation associated with exurban development, ranching families, agency representatives, and conservation groups have organized to address management concerns through the Malpai Borderlands Group (see: http://www.malpaiborderlandsgroup.org). This group promotes large acreage conservation easements throughout the region as means to promote rangeland connectivity. Shrub encroachment and long-term loss of grass productivity are primary natural resource concerns. Fire, which is facilitated in areas free of exurban development, is a key conservation practice. Additional practices include mechanical brush management, prescribed grazing, and erosion control structures. The conservation challenge in this area is to maintain perennial grass cover and livestock production in the face periodic drought conditions via prescribed grazing and regular use of fire to limit shrub encroachment.

We have collected data sets from multiple sources of both a public and a private nature to assist in landscape scale analyses of the effects of management practices and landscape dynamics over time. Access to privately collected and held data sets require prior permission and registration (to be available soon).