Figure 12: (Left) Model of the Borderlands ecosystem. The green line indicates the hypothesized direction of savanna ecosystem change in response to high grazing intensity and fire suppression (from Curtin 2005, 246). (Right) Monitoring plot locations in the Borderlands (from Curtin 2005, 241).
Prescribed Fires in the Peloncillo Mountains The Malpai wanted to restore a more natural fire regime to the Borderlands. To do this, the Group wanted to conduct large prescribed fires to test their assumption that fire was a key natural process to maintaining grassland health. The vision was to orchestrate a series of burns in the Peloncillo Mountains with before and after vegetation monitoring to assess the impact of burning on grass and brush species, hydrology and sedimentology. In 1993, a Memorandum of Understanding was created among the Malpai and nine federal, state, and county agencies establishing new fire management policies that would allow prescribed natural fire or wildland fire use for resource benefit. Five large prescribed fires have taken place in the Borderlands since then: Baker 1 (1995), Maverick (1997), Baker 2 (2003), Cottonwood (2007), and Thomas Tank
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