serves as an indicator that better ecosystem management is needed if the region’s spectacular biodiversity is to remain intact (Warshall). Both groups are working to address all of these issues.
Livestock management Livestock grazing caused severe ecosystem degradation in southern Arizona and New Mexico during the latter part of the 19th century, in a time known as the “cattle boom.� In 1870 in New Mexico, there were approximately 41,000 cattle and 619,000 sheep. In 1885, there were 800,000 cattle and 5 million sheep. There was a similar pattern in livestock ownership in Arizona. (Curtin et al. 2002) Homesteading laws limited the amount of land a family could claim. This meant that most settlers relied on nearby, unregulated public land to graze livestock and the influx of animals lead to a tragedy of the commons of heavily overgrazed land. Formerly vegetated ground became bare, erosion and sedimentation rates increased around water channels that were made up of unconsolidated material not secured by vegetation, and arroyos formed. A vicious feedback cycle developed of eroded and bare landscapes becoming vulnerable to further erosion. (Curtin et al. 2002, Baker et al. 1994) In 1905, in response to the highly degraded range conditions (and the near collapse of the cattle industry) in the southwest, President Theodore Roosevelt created the Public Lands Commission. The Commission recommended a system of grazing allotments and permits on national forest land. A few decades later, the Taylor Grazing Act extended a similar allotment and permitting system to the rest of the federal lands in the West, which would eventually fall
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