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The Deseret Ranch: an Environmental History

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The Deseret Ranch: an Environmental History I I THE DESEREI' RANCH: AN ENVIRONMENTAL IDSTORY Shawna Morrissey I Department of History Utah State University I Logan, Utah I Abstract This paper outlines the project I am undertaking for my thesis. My thesis will examine the ecological histOiy of the Deseret Land and Livestock Ranch. It will integrate quantitative and qualitative data to interpret a centmy of environmental change. While my research focuses on the period from 1891 to the present, it will also I briefly review the long-term natural history of the region. This thesis will provide an opportunity to integrate traditional historical sources with new technologies. I will apply Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing technology to graphically chart environmental change. These innovative historical sources, in I addition to primaiy documents, will enable me to interpret the relationship between environmental change and such factors as evolving management practices and environmental ideologies. I Background protecting land and wildlife, it should study a Mormon Church-run ranch."2 This statement The Deseret Land and Livestock Ranch referred to the Deseret Ranch, which is one of I is located in northeastern Utah and Wyoming. the agricultural properties currently owned and The region is known for its cold climate. operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter­ Nighttime temperatures often fall below freezing day Saints (LOS Church). Under the care of all year round. Because the rcmch encompasses Manager Bill Hopkins, the ranch has become I 201,000 acres, precipitation levels vm:y greatly self-sufficient and has genemted income-a with the aspect and elevation of a specific site. sustainable prosperity uncommon to western However, precipitation throughout the ranch is rangeland environments. The term "sustainable I genetally low. Due to the cold climate and low prosperity" suggests that management practices annual rainfall, the ranch's average growing enable the environment to continuously produce season is only sixty days. Much of the ranch is resources that, in turn, yield economic returns. characterized by mountainous teriain. The majority of western rangeland environments I Vegetation types, of course, vary throughout the · are either owned (as BLM and Forest Service region. The eastern portion, which spills over Land) or are subsidized by the government into Wyoming, contains juniper stands and Even with significant subsidies, profits from I sagebrush fields. The rest of the ranch consists western. rangelands remain minimal while of gmsslands) bmsh, and occasional clumps of degradation escalates. 3 Although the Deseret aspen and fir trees. The westernmost boundary Ranch currently yields a profit and displays is rugged terrain characterized by deep canyons. remarkable health, such has not always been the I Because this environment is naturally case. Therefore the ranch's history can be inhospitable for use as a rangeland, the historical instructive in the areas of rehabilitation and interaction between terrain and land use is sustainable rangeland use. I imperative to understand.1 Because the Deseret Land and Livestock was established early in Utah's state history, it was intimately connected with both the Importance environmental and the religious culture of the I Monnon people. The motivations, needs, and A 1998 Associated Press article opened beliefs of these settlers were written on the with the statement: "ff the Forest Service needs landscape. Since that time, nearly all of the I a model for self-sufficiency that excels at owners and managers have belonged to the LDS I I 1 I Church. Therefore, evolution in Mormon Joseph E. Hotung, a Hong Kong businessman I environmental ideology will be traced over this with no background in range management, time. Management practices also evolved owned the ranch. The final chapter will consider significantly over the 20th centmy. Therefore the period from 1983 to the present In this this thesis will trace the evolution in range period the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day I science and its environmental ramifications. Saints has owned the ranch and implemented This project is important because it innovative management practices. applies innovative sources of historical data. For the first two eras of ownership, I GIS and Remote Image Sensing technology have which lasted from 1891 to 1974, I plan to use only recently been applied to historical inquiry. journals, correspondence, inventory reports, This project will contribute to strengthening minute books, financial records, legal confidence in the use of new technology in the documents, photographs, deeds, oral histories, I humanities. This project will also inform rudimentary maps, and some secondary sources western landscape management practice. The on Mormon culture, range science, and the larger recent economic success of the Deseret Ranch environment I will view management practices makes it an optimal site for study and emulation. and their economic and environmental I There are currently a number of research projects ramifications both by studying these records being conducted directly on the ranch in directly and by reading between the lines. For conjunction with Utah State University, Brigham the second two periods of ownership, lasting I Young University, the Forest Service, and the from 1975 to the present, I will use many similar Bureau of Land Management Current projects sources. I will, however, augment these records include research on coyote reproduction, GIS­ with Geographic Information Systems analysis aided examination of vegetation change, inquiry and Remote Sensing images. While these latter I on the effects of specific management programs sources can be compared with and applied to on wildlife populations, and studies on the earlier periods, they are only available for post- importance of outdoor recreational therapy. 1972 research. These sources will enable me to I, While I plan to incoipOrate data from these establish visible environmental change during at studies, my thesis approach adds an important least the last two periods of ownership. historical context often missing from technical examinations. I Research Questions Orpnization and Methodology For the purposes of my research I have I developed the following list of questions. From 1891 to the present, ownership of the Deseret Land and Livestock Ranch has 1. passed through the hands of four different I corporations. Each change of ownership brought with it new priorities, management techniques, 2. What historical factors have led to the and environmental ideologies. The periods of current prosperity of the Deseret I ownership are not uniform in duration, however Ranch? they serve as natural categories in which the information has already been distributed. While 3. How have theory and practice in range the earlier periods of ownership were the longest, science and management interacted on I more data sources are available for the latter the landscape of the Deseret Ranch? periods. Therefore, dividing my thesis into four main chapters is logical. The first chapter will 4. What sociological factors have affected I cover the period from 1891 to 1953, during both resource management and which time the Deseret Live Stock Company ecological change? was a joint stock corporation which experienced numerous economic and environmental I exttemes. The second chapter will include the Broader Scholarly Context period from 1953 to 1974, during which time three men gained control of the corporation and My thesis is :influenced by several expanded economic programs. The third chapter traditions in environmental history. The Annales I will cover the period from 1974 to 1983 when School, which was introduced by French I 2 I I I historians, concentrated on long-term ecological Environmental Histoty Resources change as an important historical process. 4 Annales historians also sought to understand Bailes, Kendall E. Environmental History. New how the environment-the forces acting on a York: University of America Press, 1985. I population-informed people's ways of knowing and being. I will weave a strand of the long-term Crumley, Carole L., ed. Historical Ecology: natural history throughout my thesis. I will also, Cultural Ecology and Changing Landscapes. I in keeping with the Annales tradition, Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American concentrate on the social impacts of ResearchPress, 1994). environmental change. While Annales historians focussed on aspects of culture-the human Jacobs, Lynn. Waste ofthe West: Public Lands I component and how it was shaped by nature, Ranching. Tucson, Arizona: L. Jacobs, 1991. other historians, largely of the American environmeittal histocy tradition5 gravitated Nash, Roderick, ed. Environment and I towards issues of science--changes affected by Americans: The Problem with Priorities. New humans on the physical and biological York: Robert E. Krieger Publishing, 1979. environment The cmrent scholarly literature lacks both aspects of history skillfully woven Pisani, Donald From Family Farm to I together. I will attempt to place due credit in the Agribusiness. Berkeley, California: University accounts of human and environmental causation of California Press, 1984. in my thesis. I will display how the human population affected short-term change on the Rowley, William. Reclaiming the Arid West I Deseret Ranch and how the environment its Bloomington, Indiana· Indiana University Press, forces and limitations, affected culture. 1996. I ---:.. U.S. Forest Service
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