Since the establishment of forest reserves in the late 19th century, the practices and policies of the United States Forest Service both have dramatically altered the ecology of ponderosa pine forests in northern New Mexico and the subsistence economy of rural villages dependent on forest resources. This research project focuses on the implementation of a sustained-yield timber production unit on the El Rito district in New Mexico's Carson National Forest. El Rito rangers argued in 1947 that replacing subsistence production with industrial, sustained yield forestry would restore overgrazed ranges and improve local livelihoods. Preliminary research indicates that neither outcome has occurred. Recent research in ecology, range science, and conservation geography posit that human intervention in ecosystem processes that produce agro-diverse landscapes can serve to support biodiversity while also producing beneficial local economic outcomes. To evaluate the ecological and economic impact of industrial forestry in northern New Mexico, the investigator will conduct archival research to reconstruct the historical ecology prior to federal lands management and the legal history of local Mexican land grants that were not recognized by the United States following the annexation of the territory in 1848. Such work offers a means to understand the economic and ecological changes wrought by sustained yield forestry. To evaluate the ecological and economic impacts of current forestry practices, the investigator will conduct a comparative study of forest and rangeland management. Some land grants in northern New Mexico survived the U.S. annexation and are still managed for subsistence production. These comparisons will enable the investigator to differentiate both economic and ecological outcomes between various land use practices and policies. The investigator will compare the sites by conducting ethnographic research of current range management, silvicultural, and timber harvesting practices. Ethnographic methods will include interviews, surveys and participant-observation. The investigator will evaluate the economic benefits accruing to local users operating within various management regimes. Concurrent with the economic research, an ecological assessment and monitoring program will be conducted during the 2005 growing season. This component of the comparative study will evaluate Forest Service management regimes against subsistence regimes. The investigator will assess the ability of various management strategies to produce agro-diverse landscapes capable of sustaining species diversity while also offering economic self-sufficiency to dependent local communities.
This project will contribute to recent theoretical extensions in ecology that recognize the benefits to biodiversity of socially-produced agricultural landscapes. The research will add to empirical research in land grant studies, and human-environment studies in geography, that explore the social and ecological services provided by agrodiversity. The project will contribute to scientific knowledge related to the ecological and economic impacts of various management regimes in northern New Mexico forests by focusing both on the ecology of Southwestern ponderosa pine forests and the economy of rural villages dependent on forest resources. The project will influence alternative management strategies that could overcome a recent history of intractable environmental conflict in the region.
