The
social and ecological consequences of early cattle ranching in the Little
Colorado River Basin, Arizona (page 3 of 3)
Author: William S. Abruzzi. Adapted from: Abruzzi, W. S. 1995. The Social and Ecological Consequences of Early Cattle Ranching in the Little Colorado River Basin. Human Ecology 23: 75-98.
Surface Water in the Basin
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Spring runoff at Grand Falls - Little Colorado River |
Overgrazing has also had a detrimental effect on surface water in the basin and, therefore, on those who depend on this resource. The high sediment content of the Little Colorado and its more northerly tributaries clearly predated the arrival of cattle ranching and the Aztec Land and Cattle Company. However, since grasses provide a dense root system which counteracts erosion during periods of high runoff, the decrease in effective floral cover caused by excessive overgrazing quickly resulted in increased soil erosion and the deposition of substantially greater amounts of silt into the Little Colorado at lower elevations.
The swiftness with which overgrazing can yield increased silting has been clearly illustrated by Colton (1937) along the Little Colorado River. While excavating what he believed was a prehistoric pit house - the floor of the house was 30 inches below the existing level of the river bank - Colton discovered that, in fact, the house had been built in either 1878 and 1879 and was still in perfect condition as late as 1884. At that time, both sides of the river supported cottonwood stands, while grama grass covered most of the surrounding hills. The house stood about 100 feet from the river and beaver were known to inhabit the stream, living off the cottonwood trees. However, in 1884 several thousand head of sheep were imported into the valley. The sheep were apparently maintained without noticeable range deterioration until the drought of the early 1890s, when Navajos reportedly entered the area to cut down the cottonwoods and feed them to their herds. When the rains resumed, there was no grass to hold the water and disastrous floods ensued depositing 30 inches of silt by 1935. When Colton returned to the excavation site in 1937, the river had widened another 14 feet and only the back wall of the house was still standing.
Conclusion
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A dry and silt-laden stretch of the Little Colorado River |
Large-scale cattle ranching began in the Little Colorado River Basin during the 1880s following the arrival of the Aztec Land and Cattle Company. Significant local range deterioration occurred shortly thereafter as it had elsewhere in the American West following the expansion of the livestock industry. While grassland deterioration was greatest on Aztec Company land, it also occurred on the remaining lands where local ranchers and sheepherders were forced to graze their herds following the removal of the sizable Aztec Company holdings from local exploitation.
Numerous local indices of overexploited grasslands persist throughout the region even to this day, including the predominance of bare soil, the low percentage of herbaceous vegetation among the vegetation that remains, the widespread invasion of juniper trees into the grassland community, and the overall reduction in range productivity. Significantly, the worst conditions prevail on those lands which were owned and operated by the Aztec Company.
The ultimate cause of regional grassland deterioration lay in the speculative nature of the nineteenth-century range cattle industry and in the effect that livestock speculation had on local range management policies. Because range-stocking decisions were based on national market considerations rather than on local environmental conditions, the number and density of cattle that were maintained on local ranges was both excessive and unresponsive to the marked variability which characterized local climatic conditions. Furthermore, because the Aztec Company's stocking policy occurred within an arid environment which was not only variable but also highly erosive, its consequences were devastating and persist to this day. Current range productivity is still well below its estimated potential forage production level, and current descriptions of grassland conditions differ sharply from those recorded by early pioneers. However, diminished grassland productivity, while initially caused by the exploitative procedures of the Aztec Company, persists because local ranchers continue to apply inappropriate range management policies. Although contemporary range management policies are clearly less destructive than those followed by the Aztec Company, they are nevertheless detrimental to local grasslands given the prior overexploitation that these lands have already sustained.
See also: Ecology and Mormon colonization in the Little Colorado River Basin, Arizona. The successful agricultural settlement by Mormon pioneers of the arid and climatically variable Colorado Plateau was eventually achieved by a system of tithing redistribution. An original land-use essay for CP-LUHNA by Dr. William S. Abruzzi.
References and Resources:
Abruzzi, W. S. 1985. Water and community development in the Little Colorado River basin. Human Ecology 12: 241-269.
Abruzzi, W. S. 1987. Ecological stability and community diversity during Mormon colonization of the Little Colorado River basin. Human Ecology 15: 317-338.
Abruzzi, W. S. 1989. Ecology, resource redistribution and Mormon settlement in northeastern Arizona. American Anthropologist 91: 642-655.
Abruzzi, W. S. 1993. Dam That River! Ecology and Mormon Settlement in the Little Colorado River Basin. University Press of America, Lanham, MD.
Abruzzi, W. S. 1993. Ecological concepts in anthropological human ecology: Illustrations from Mormon settlement in northeastern Arizona. Pp. 255-271 In: Wright, S., Deitz, T., Borden, R., Young, G. and Guagnano, G., editors. Human Ecology: Crossing Boundaries. Society for Human Ecology, Fort Collins, CO.
Abruzzi, W. S. 1995. The social and ecological consequences of early cattle ranching in northeastern Arizona. Human Ecology 23: 75-98.
Beale, E. F. 1970. The report of Edward Fitzgerald Beale to the Secretary of War concerning the wagon road from Fort Defiance to the Colorado River; April 26, 1858. 35th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Ex. Doc., No. 124. Pp. 137-281 In: Lesley, L. B., editor. Uncle Sam's camels: The journal of May Humphreys Stacey supplemented by the report of Edward F. Beale (1857-1858). Rio Grande Press, Glorieta, NM.
Colton, H. S. 1937. Some notes on the original condition of the Little Colorado River: A side light on the problem of erosion. Museum Notes of the Museum of Northern Arizona 10: 17-20.
Fisk, G. G., Ferguson, S. A., Rankin, D. R. and Wirt, L. 1994. Chemical, geologic, and hydrologic data from the Little Colorado River basin, Arizona and New Mexico, 1988-91. Open-File Report 94-356. U.S. Geological Survey, Tucson, AZ, 468 pp.
Hereford, R. 1884. Climate and ephemeral-stream processes: Twentieth-century geomorphology and alluvial stratigraphy of the Little Colorado River, Arizona. Geological Society of America Bulletin 95: 654-668.
Peterson, C. S. 1970. A portrait of Lot Smith--Mormon frontiersman. The Western Historical Quarterly 1: 393-414.
Peterson, C. S. 1973. Take up your mission: Mormon colonizing along the Little Colorado River 1870-1900. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Tremble, M. 1993. The Little Colorado River. Pp. 283-289 In: Tellman, B., Cortner, H. J., Wallace, M. G., DeBano, L. F. and Hamre, R. H., editors. Riparian management: common threads and shared interests. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Fort Collins, CO.