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A Paper for People wbo care about tbe West One dollar andfiftY cents

'..':"'\': :::"..:::::::" ..:".:::.:~ • The continuing saga of New Mexico's Gray Ranch

by Bruce Selcraig Mexico border; enthralled biologists; within its boundaries are believed to be 718 species of plants, an estimated 75 species hree years ago I met some and subspecies of mammals, and 52 kinds of reptiles and ranchers in the remote south- amphibians, including three on the federal list of endangered western bootheel of New Mex- species. Some 150 types of birds breed here, and more than 70 ico who were distraught over plants are rare or endangered. Bill Waldman', director of the the sale of a famous local Conservancy's New Mexico office, said at the time: ranch. They were suspicious of "More separate species and subspecies of mammals are the new owners and fearful found on the Gray Ranch than on any existing national wildlife that the dreaded public - a refuge or national park in the continental United States," word they often spat out like So why is the Conservancy now willing to turn the Gray tobacco juice - would soon Ranch over to private interests? come to ruin the ranch and What has the Conservancy accomplished in three years? their solitude. And what does Jane Fonda have to do with all of this? "Come back in 10 years," , Ah, the mysteries of the Gray. What-appears to be the one rancher's wife told me bit- impending sale of the ranch to a non-profit organization headed terly, "and see what's hap- by a rancher is only the latest plot twist in what has been a pened to this land ... There'll three-year saga of confusion, controversy- and high-stakes be people from the East and preservation politics. people from universities who have read some books coming , From ranch to refuge -~~ ~ down here telling us how to -Our story starts in late 1989, when word trickled through conserve things." Hidalgo County that Pablo Brener, the reclusive Mexican billion- ~~~!!5~~e=!!:!II As you may have guessed, aire who owned the Gray Ranch, rnightfmally sellit to The Nature ....Jhe new landlord was neither a "'l.! Conservancy. Waldman. had been pursuing Brener for years and rancher nor the government, but the world's largest private finally struck a deal, as Waldman tells it, just before some less land-conservation group, The Nature Conservancy, which had conservation-minded buyers began making serious proposals. just spent $18 million to buy New Mexico's immense and bio- Many New Mexico ranchers weren't thrilled about the logically exquisite Gray Ranch. news. Few of them seemed to know what the Arlington, Va.- The Conservancy's purchase of the 502-square-mile prop- continued on page 10 erty, about 200 miles west of EI Paso and east of Tucson on the ,I

Hatc;d E, Molde Animas Mountains at sunset The $18 million ranch is like Grand Canyon - Virtually impossible to appreciate with our limited senses lineR un~

Dear friends,

New intern . New intern Ernie Atencio and his wife Elsbeth arrived in Paonia to spend the winter after a year of far- flung wanderings. Leaving Yosemite in late 1991, they spent last winter in Nepal and India, then landed happily IDGH COUNTRY NEWS on the North Rim of the Grand (ISSN/0191/5657) Is published Canyon (the side without a McDon- bfweekjy, except for one issue during ald's), where they worked as park July and one Issue duringJanuary, by rangers for the season and reveled in the High Country Foundation, 119 their return to the Southwest Grand Avenue, Paonia, CO81428. Sec- ond-class postage paid at Paonia, Ernie comes originally from Colorado. New Mexico, where tangled family POSTMASTER, .Send address roots go back centuries. He studied changes to HIGH COUNTRYNEWS, anthropology at the University of Box 1090, Paonia, CO81428. New Mexico and has spent the years Subscriptions are $28 per year for since working as a park ranger, out- Individuais and public libraries, $38 door