Nathan Sayre
Weatherhead Resident Scholar 1998-1999
Ranching and the Buenos Aires National
Wildlife Refuge: Natures, States and Capitals in the Urbanizing Southwest
In the polarized controversy surrounding public lands ranching in the West,
one fact has been overlooked by scholars and journalists alike, maintains Nathan
Sayre. "The worst ecological damage to rangelands occurred during the
cattle boom of the late nineteenth century, while public outcry against grazing
has emerged only in the last twenty-five years."
While ecologists have studied the consequences of cattle
grazing, government agencies have reported on present conditions and efforts
to improve the range. Environmentalists have called for an end to all public
lands grazing. All of these perspectives treat grazing as an issue involving
only two parties: the ranchers and the government. In his dissertation, The
Urbanization of Ranching, Sayre argues that the new demands for public
land use by recently-arrived urban Western residents , as well as the effect
these new migrants have on the regional economy, are not being taken into account
by any of these perspectives.
"Resolving the environmental problem of cattle
grazing in the West requires that it be understood historically, culturally,
and economically as well as ecologically. Analysis of the social forces responsible
for rangeland destruction in the late nineteenth century reveals a complex dynamic
of natures, states, and capitals. Seen in the light of this history, the present
controversy cannot be understood apart from the growing urbanization of the West," stated
Sayre.
The transformation of the Buenos Aires Ranch in southwest
Arizona into the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge-established in 1985 to
reintroduce the endangered masked bobwhite quail and to restore a desert grassland
to its "original" condition-offered Sayre a prime example of that complex
dynamic created by the contrasting value systems held by ranching, government
conservation, and environmental tourism/recreation that underpin much of the
ranching controversy.
Sayre conducted much of his dissertation fieldwork while
volunteering as the caretaker of an environmental education facility on the refuge
in 1996 and 1997. "When I first got into it," Sayre recalls, "I
had accepted the conventional media line-the Fish and Wildlife Service (who bought
the ranch to establish the refuge) was the virtuous party, while the ranchers
were trying to sabotage their efforts. Eventually I realized the quail was really
a symbol serving as a pretext for other unacknowledged goals: satisfying the
demands of Tucson's exploding population of retirees for weekend recreation in
nature-stressing public use such as birding, wildlife viewing, and photography." This
shadow motivation became more apparent as efforts to reintroduce the quail proved
unsuccessful.
"Living on the refuge triggered a series of revelations
and connections about the larger picture," recalls Sayre. These evolved
into a scrutiny of another aspect of the range controversy that he calls "the
urbanization of ranching," a term that "captures the processes by which
ranch lands, previously valued according to their capacity to produce cattle,
have come to be valued according to their potential as residential real estate."
The biggest surprise and pleasure during his tenure
at SAR, said Sayre, was connecting with the Quivira Coalition, a New Mexican
environmental group seeking solutions to the rangeland conflict. "Quivira
encourages an emphasis on the actual health of land rather than an insistence
on the return to its 'natural' state-a condition that cannot be determined in
practical terms, but is an abstract idea lending itself to a moralistic stance," Sayre
explained. "This approach offers a promising alternative to this controversy's
impasse, keeping the debate focused on the present needs of the land, rather
than polarizing into a dogmatic and shrill debate between environmentalists and
ranchers.
"My goal," stated Sayre, "is to illuminate
the social origins of environmental problems more generally."
Affiliation at time of award: Ph.D.
Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
Return to Resident Scholars
1998-1999.
