How does a grassland llano die?

posted by Editor on 08-12-2003 17:23

These drought times are parching the already dry western landscape, but it is the act of overgrazing that systematically devastates the fragile grasslands beyond simple redemption.

Cattle overgrazing can best be appreciated visually or when the wildfire comes at you in a panic - chose your level of appreciation.

In 1861 the Open Range Law was created to raise beef for the Union Army. Rich tejanos (Texans) coveted the lands to the north where sheep had traditionally been the animal of choice for husbandry. The Texans also knew that the New Mexicans had little money for barbed wire needed to fence out the cattlemen. This law provided the guise of legality, but it was no less a weapon of conquest as the rich cattlemen used it as a pretext to gobble up large tracks of land. 

Today the oak forests no longer stand tall with junipers and mesquites nestled in a rich mix of high country woods - the viejos or "old timers" cut it all down to make pasture and gather the firewood. The clay mantle above the Rio Grande Corridor changed from a forested area to a grassland with "progress".

Cattle replaced sheep as the staple herd. Now with the addition of the drought what was an intolerable situation has become even worse. The hawks watch as their grassland dies. Out there in his hunting ground lurks the developer eager to cash in on the wasting of the llano. The power company wants to deck the landscape with wires and meters. A power plant wants to come in from Chicago to puts its pollution here, as the lack of laws and regulation invite them to spoil the land further. And slowly every year they bring in the cattle and the llano dies a little more. None of the villagers ever come up here to visit or even sightsee - they could care less about the wasting of the environment and the loss of habitat in a fragile riparian area.

Serenity and timeless energy abides here in the vast silence of the llano. The lack of trees make the frail birds seek even the shadow of a fence stake in the heat of the day.

One side of the fence in the background is protected grassland that is obviously (by the golden color) suffering a drought.

The golden colored grass is Soldier Grass as it likes to grow in rings and clusters with empty space in between to gather water in a bowl-like configuration.  It is a hardy ancient grass, but once removed takes a long time to re-establish itself. 

The picture below is a partially grazed area, which is struggling to come back. Unfortunately the grass never gets to go to seed as the cattle usually consume it before it has a chance.

As we move away from the fenced area we can see the encroachment of the doomsayer called the "broom plant" as it likes to crowd out grass in areas where the rootstalk is severely threatened.

It then infests the area crowding out the grass completely by growing taller an cheating it out of its necessary sunlight during the early and late (cooler periods) of the day. During the day the grass will appear dead as it lays parched on the ground, but given a little cool down and moisture even a small amount in the air that same grass will wake up and appear alive. Eventually the broom crowds out the grass completely by stealing its moisture and cooling time and the sand begins to infiltrate the dead grassland. The broom plant is a convenient trap for sand as it is tall and the windswept plain moves tons of sand every year in Spring and Fall.

To the south about a mile and a half you can clearly see the focal point where the devastation came from. About ten years ago a cattleman came up here and made himself a round-up pen.

We knew at that time that our llano would suffer and repeatedly they proceeded to overgraze every year. Then with the advent of the drought the brought even more cattle in at a time when their own grass was suffering. They came to take the last of the llano and we could not stop them. We were told by the County and the deputies that descended upon our neighborhood that we could do nothing to enforce our convenes. There was no body in charge and as is custom in many neighborhoods in New Mexico in the form of a mayordomo (Steward). Now we have miles of broom sowing doom for the llano and no plan in place to regenerate it.

The Federal Government's District Court had sanctioned Horizon Corporation for fraudulently promoting this area as a scenic landscape retirement community with trees and streams running through it. The directors of the Corporation went to jail and the company was fined and the big beneficiary in the whole sorry mess was the otherwise rural and poor New Mexico Socorro County. They got a tax trove handed to them by the Federal Court and it left a big leadership vacuum by failing to appoint anyone to administer the convenes and to enforce them when necessary. Consequently the same deputy that would come out and tell you that nothing could be done to stop cattle grazing at large was running his cows out here and renting himself out to use someone else's land to raise someone else's cattle for a fee. Talk about fostering an environment of fear and intimidation - believe me it got real when they would come out and shoot someone's dog for bothering livestock. 

Now, years later, the destruction is pretty near total down by the cattle pen and all around it for a mile in any direction. The broom plant poses an extreme fire hazard after it dies and dries it can roll like a ball burning in the wind and head straight into a barn or a house. To rescue this place is going to take a large sum of money and seed as well as good timing and fortuitous rain. Anything less than a full scale assault on this problem will not do enough in time. Eventually as desertification is accomplished through this systematic process of neglect and abuse even protected properties with careful grassland management stand to loose their grip and become over-run by the disaster. Everyday we do something to build the integrity of our land these others lay waste to theirs by neglect and through greed until all the good is gone for everyone. The law stands by and does nothing while the ruin marches on.