Social, Cultural, and Economic United States Aspects of Livestock Ranching Department of Agriculture Forest Service on the Santa Fe and Carson Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical National Forests Report RMRS-GTR-276 June 2012 Alice M. McSweeney Carol Raish McSweeney, Alice M.; Raish, Carol. 2012. Social, cultural, and economic aspects of livestock ranching on the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-276. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 199 p. ABSTRACT We examined the cultural, social, and economic aspects of livestock operations of ranchers who have Federal grazing permits (called permittees) on the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests of northern New Mexico. This study was an expansion of the 2003 pilot study and was designed to provide much-needed information concerning the culture and economic practices of the northern New Mexico region for USDA employees, policy makers, social science researchers, and the general public. The research focused on both the economic and noneconomic contributions of livestock ownership to local families and communities, and we explored ways in which ranching maintains traditional values and connects families to ancestral lands and heritage. Sense of place, attachment to land, and the value of preserving open space were common themes throughout the interviews. The importance of land and animals as means of maintaining culture and way of life figured repeatedly in permittee responses, as did the subjects of responsibility and respect for land, animals, family, and community. This report will assist agency land managers in the effective administration of forest lands by promoting greater cultural understanding of the local ranching community. It will also serve as an educational tool for the public, as many visitors and residents of New Mexico are unfamiliar with the primarily Hispanic culture and traditions of the region. Due to the history of land ownership in the region, many ranching operations rely on public lands for livestock grazing. Recognizing the importance of these small livestock operations to area communities and families is crucial to comprehending and resolving disputes over public land and resource use. Keywords: northern New Mexico, permittees, ranching, livestock, ancestral lands, land grants, values, tradition, heritage, culture, knowledge, sense of place, querencia AUTHORS Alice M. McSweeney is a Range Scientist and Social Science Analyst with the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Albuquerque, New Mexico. She completed a B.S. degree in Agriculture and an M.S. degree in Range Science at New Mexico State University. Carol Raish is an Anthropologist with the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Albuquerque, New Mexico. She completed a B.A. degree in Spanish at Washburn University, an M.A. degree in Anthropology at the University of Nebraska, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. DEDICATION To the ranching families who generously shared their stories with us... Cover photos: Corral on the road to Gallina, New Mexico; limousin cattle near Coyote, New Mexico; grazing land on Hamilton Mesa, Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico. Alice M. McSweeney. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We express our sincere appreciation to the ranchers we had the pleasure of meeting during this project. Their willingness to take time from busy schedules to share knowledge, reminiscences, and concerns with us made this study possible. This study has benefited considerably from the thoughtful comments and detailed suggestions of several reviewers from the academic community. We gratefully acknowledge the following for their time and assistance in reviewing the draft of this report: Dr. Kelly W. Allred (Ret.) of the Department of Animal and Range Sciences, New Mexico State University; Dr. Clyde Eastman (Ret.) of the Department of Agricultural Economics, New Mexico State University; and Dr. José Rivera of the School of Architecture and Planning, University of New Mexico. We also acknowledge Kathleen Sanderson for her tireless review chapter by chapter and her enthusiastic interest in the people, animals, and places of our project. We thank Christopher Allison, Gerald Chacon, Edmund Gomez, Patrick Melendrez, Patrick Torres, and Ray Torres of New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service for their valuable information and explanations on livestock production. We acknowledge the members of the Northern New Mexico Stockmen’s Association for their hospitality and support of our work, and thank Palemón Martinez, Joe Romero, and David Sánchez for their helpful comments, reviews, and advice over the years. We acknowledge Gonzalo Varela of Pecos, New Mexico, for his kind assistance with historical background information on the Pecos High Country. We also thank James Atencio and Antonio Medina, grazing permittees on the Santa Fe National Forest, for contributing their perspectives on the world of the northern New Mexico ranchers in such beautiful prose. Many Forest Service employees contributed their time, effort, and good counsel to this research, including: David Stewart, Director of Region 3 Rangeland Management; Lawrence Atencio, Range Staff, Coyote Ranger District; Jim Eaton, Range Staff, Cuba and Jemez Ranger Districts; Mike Lujan, Range Staff, Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District on the Santa Fe National Forest; Melvin Herrera, Range Staff, Camino Real Ranger District; and Wayne Yonemoto, Range Staff, Tres Piedras Ranger District on the Carson National Forest. We also thank Chris Chavez, Land Surveyor, Santa Fe National Forest Supervisor’s Office, for assistance on land grants, and Pete A. Martinez, Cartographer, USDA Forest Service, Region 3, for map design. The staff of the Conejos Peak Ranger District in La Jara, Colorado, provided meeting space in which to conduct interviews with permittees from southern Colorado. Information on range figures from the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests was obtained from range data tables provided by Sylvia Valdez, Resource Assistant on the Santa Fe National Forest, and Dan Rael, Resource Staff on the Carson National Forest. Rudy King (Ret.), Dave Turner, and Scott Baggett, Rocky Mountain Research Station Statisticians, deserve special thanks for their excellent work throughout the project concerning statistical methods and techniques. We acknowledge the helpful and extensive contributions of Melinda Larson in editing this report. We also acknowledge the financial support of the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Human Dimensions program and the Grassland, Shrubland, and Desert Ecosystems program. Contents Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Historical Background ............................................................................... 2 Methods ..................................................................................................... 6 Prior Research .......................................................................................... 10 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................ 12 Ranching on the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests ............................ 16 Personal and Family Portraits ................................................................... 17 The Ranching Career ................................................................................ 18 Ranching and the Family .......................................................................... 19 Ranching and the Community .................................................................. 24 The Business of Ranching ......................................................................... 25 Livestock and the Ranch ........................................................................... 28 Land, Vegetation, and Wildlife Changes ................................................... 39 Federal Land and Allotment Management ................................................ 42 The Environment and Environmentalists .................................................. 47 Responsibility to the Land ........................................................................ 51 Land, Livestock, and the Rural Ranching Culture ..................................... 53 Land Ownership and Sale ........................................................................ 55 Land Grant Loss Revisited ........................................................................ 57 Consequences of Loss of the Ranching Way of Life .................................. 59 Knowledge and Experience to Share ........................................................ 63 What the Public Should Know ................................................................. 65 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 67 References ............................................................................................... 72 APPENDIX A ........................................................................................... 77 APPENDIX B ........................................................................................... 78 APPENDIX C ........................................................................................... 85 APPENDIX D .......................................................................................... 185 APPENDIX E ..........................................................................................