Range Management for New Mexico (Catron County)

Natural resource management issues tend to dominate the day to day actives. Most of Catron County is public land managed by the US Forest Service or the Bureau of land management.
Drought and fire dominated most of the year. A very dry fall, winter spring and early summer led to record wildfires. These wildfires contributed to questions about the land management agencies management of our rangeland resources.
A combined effort of the Catron County Commission and the counties natural resource coordinator and the extension office led to the reorganization of the Carton County Land use planning committee. I have been appointed chairman of the committee and I am in the process of reorganizing the committees make up. The purpose of the committee is t get grass roots input from County residents on issues that affect the natural resources of Catron County. The current committee is made up of an overall committee and sub committees such as range, livestock, water, wildlife and mining.
The Catron County Acequias Association was formed this year. Owners of water rights associated with acequias came together to form the association. Under New Mexico law this group is recognized as a governing entity. The short term focus of this group is to apply of funding to do ditch improvements from the Arizona water settlements act.
Wolves continue to be a problem for county ranchers. Not only do ranches suffer from wolf impacts that are difficult to manage. But the wolves suffer as well. Wolf populations are not growing and many of the environmental groups are requesting that they be given more protections. Any increase in protections for the wolf could further put ranchers at risk financially. Work is ongoing to look at alternative management strategies to deal with wolf livestock conflicts.
Do to the drought bears were also a problem this year. Residents were educated about bear behavior and reasons that bears come to homes. Several bears ended up being trapped and relocated by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

Most of Catron County is public land. Most ranchers must work with public land management and other governmental natural resources management agencies. Above average precipitation tends to lessen agency rancher conflicts. However the Mexican Grey wolf continues to be a problem for Catron County Ranchers. Changes in policy have reduced the rancher’s available options to deal with depredating wolves. Several Ranches have removed all of their cattle in the past year as a result of wolf depredation.
I continue to work with producers and the County government to develop policies and management practices to lessen the impact of the wolf. Work was done with the County and the Range improvement task force to draft comments regarding the full endangered listing of the Mexican Grey Wolf.
I am working with a group of producers and resource management agencies and the county natural resource coordinator to develop a whole watershed management plan and apply for funding to implement it.
The County Natural resource coordinator and I are organizing the community Acequias in Catron County into a countywide group on order to provide them with better opportunities to apply for Arizona water settlement funds to enhance the efficiencies of their irrigation systems.

I have also worked with the Catron County Range Committee to develop watershed management strategies to reduce pinon and juniper populations. Work is underway to identify funding sources, project areas and treatment methods to improve the hydrologic functions of watersheds.

Work has been done to educate Catron County residents on their legal rights as they relate to the wolf. I am in the process of planning a program for ranchers to help them look at their ranches as a business and to look at the positives and negatives impacts of forming corporations. This is an ongoing project.

Problems associated with the Mexican Grey Wolf continue to increase as the population grows. At least two livestock producers have been forced out of business

Much of the day to day activity in the Catron County office is spent dealing with natural resource issues. Topics include endangered species, water, wildlife and land management agency regulations. The past few years have seen excellent forage production in most of Catron County. This has been a welcome change to six or so drought years that preceded them. Despite the abundance of forage many ranchers are still facing livestock reductions on their allotments. Regulatory issues along with the Mexican grey wolf reintroduction program continue to put pressure on ranchers who depend on forage from public lands. Work has been done to assist ranchers in developing management plans to deal with the impacts of the Mexican grey wolf. To date no changes in management have resulted in significant changes in wolf depredation. The problems associated with the Mexican grey wolf program will continue to increase as the wolf numbers increase. The possibility is very real that ranchers will be forced out of business. More time and research needs to be spent on this issue to be able to provide ranchers with the information need to make informed management and business decisions As a result of these efforts a program was organized to bring affected producers and the Range Improvement Task Force together to address the impacts of the wolves on livestock. Producers provided input on the development of data collection system. Two trainings were conducted to teach producers and others affected by the wolves how to complete and submit data to The Range Improvement Task Force. Hopefully over time this data can be used to develop management systems to reduce livestock depredations.