Across the American West, the health of public lands– and their potential as economic and recreational assets– rests on the balance of soil, vegetation, and water. Their relationship to one another is symbiotic, so much so that if one of them is missing or impaired, the other two will be also, soon if not immediately. In the absence of living soil, plants struggle to take root, and precipitation evaporates quickly or runs off. Without plant cover, soil can cook or freeze to death, at which point water quite literally heads for greener pastures. And without water…well, there’s a reason we all say, “Water is life.”
In New Mexico as elsewhere, public land users often value these three vital resources for different reasons. Conservationists and recreationists may see a lush meadow as habitat where bugs, mice, and deer can find plenty to eat, where stored groundwater feeds trout streams to keep them cool.
Ranchers and farmers love green meadows too. Tall grass means food on tables and roofs over heads. Grass is more than just money to rural New Mexicans; in this poverty-challenged state, it provides an opportunity to create wealth where such opportunities are slim.
From these differing perspectives have emerged different goals, which have resulted in painful conflict for many years. Each user group – ranchers and farmers on one side and conservationists on the other – have come to view its counterpart as benefitting at their expense. Both sides have valid arguments. Conservationists have documented negative impacts on habitat from cattle, especially near streams and riparian areas. Ranchers have been forced out of areas where their families have worked profitably for many generations. Lawsuits have been filed, at a substantial cost in money, time, and the continuation of flaring tempers.
Beginning in 2024, Trout Unlimited (TU) initiated the Bridging Culture in Cattle Country project with the aim of diminishing this conflict in northern New Mexico. The basic idea was simple: bring rancher and conservationist volunteers together on public land improvement work. Through 2024 and 2025, TU led nine collaborative work days, in which fences were repaired, water pipelines and drinking troughs installed, camping areas cleaned, protective flight diverters affixed to barbed wire, and protective exclosures constructed. Importantly, meals were shared between erstwhile adversaries.
These seemingly simple projects will have important effects on the quality of public lands in a portion of the Santa Fe National Forest in the Jemez Mountains, an area popular with recreationists and productive for ranchers. The focal area is inhabited by three federally endangered species, – the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, Jemez Mountains salamander, and Mexican spotted owl – not to mention Rio Grande chubs and cutthroat trout, which Trout Unlimited is striving to prevent from being listed.
Perhaps the most important effect of these work days was the sense of common purpose they engendered among participants, a total of 58 volunteers. That’s a lot of perspectives and opinions on public land stewardship. Nevertheless, during work and over lunch, conversations generated healthy rapport around volunteers’ lives and histories. Conservationists asked ranchers about growing up on ranches, or shared stories about doing so themselves. Ranchers asked for fishing tips, and recounted stories of catching trout while tending their families’ herds.
Certainly a gap might still remain between those who desire a fat trout on the line and others hoping for a fat check at the sale barn. But if Bridging Culture in Cattle Country shows anything, it’s that the gap can be narrowed if we put our collective minds or, as the case may be, our backs to it. Who knows, we might just get enough of what we want. That’s what public lands should be about.
Bridging Culture in Cattle Country was conducted with the generous support of the U.S. Forest Service and was funded by the National Forest Foundation, which was created to bring people together to restore and enhance National Forests and Grasslands.
