Planned Grazing Restoring Chihuahuan Desert Grasslands in Mexico

As you travel south from far West Texas, crossing the Rio Grande, you encounter the huge grasslands of the Northern Mexico area of the Great Chihuahuan Desert. This country is very similar to the Circle Ranch, and has experienced the same degradation from human impact that we see across the desert Southwest.

This beautifully photographed video discusses how cattle, as part of a biodiverse animal community, can restore degraded desert grasslands.

Memorable observations of the Mexican rancheros include the following:

“The more diverse your wildlife, the healthier your ranch and your ecosystem.”

“If we do not change our attitude towards nature, and continue to view it as we always have, instead of looking at it as a whole, we can’t change. We first need to change in order to manage the ecosystem.”

“It is not the number of animals that you have in one spot that damages the pasture: it’s the amount of time those animals are on the pasture.”

“Not knowing how to work with nature is very costly. People prefer to fail conventionally rather than succeed unconventionally.”

Unfortunately, the big picture thinking expressed by the rancheros is absent from the industrial-agriculture practices that the agribusiness-agrochemical giants, agencies and universities promote. Instead of big picture solutions, their agendas, based on the bogus invasive species crisis, consist of destocking, eradications and range poisons: attacking biodiversity in order to ‘save’ biodiversity.

For more on this topic, including inexpensive, common-sense alternatives to this mass destruction – actions that, unlike costly boondoggles actually work  – click on the tags below and alongside this post.

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Author:
Ranching, wildlife management, finance, oil & gas, real estate development and management.
Comments
  • Sadly this invasive species policy seems to be the law of the land. I am dismayed at the destruction that is so clearly demonstrable yet ignored because the right thing to do, does not fit with current agency agendas.

    We are seeing this attitude all over the world as greed uses this outlook to make arguments for removal that will further their personal agendas of exploiting the land for their own purposes.

    We are seeing this in Bonaire a Dutch Antilles Island that has hosted donkeys for 500 years. The island and the donkeys have fared well over the centuries on this 110 square mile island that is presently only 20% inhabited. As the Dutch move forward with the municipality of Bonaire their plans include developing the island for an invasion of 50,000 additional people. Of course, they must first rid themselves of the donkeys. So, they cry habitat destruction! Invasive species! When what they should be shouting is “We want them gone for profit”. The Bonairean people are about to watch paradise get paved with a parking lot.

  • Yes so sad and being legitimized by our own country along with many other destructive policies.

    On a brighter note, here is what David Theodoropolous (author of “Invasion Biology, Critique of a Pseudoscience”) said:

    “It seems that the tide is really turning on invasion hysteria. I’ve been
    in touch with people all over the world who are fighting the same kind
    of destruction. If I ever get time, I would like to create a web-page
    just listing all of the various people and organizations that are on
    “our side”, just as a resource for people looking for alternative views,
    local support, strategizing, etc.”

    There is something for like-minded people to work on together.

    Thank you for your stubborn courage Marjorie: speaking out for the animals which cannot speak for themselves.

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