The Research Ranch: what do you do with a grassland besides raise cows?
This article is part of a larger document. View the larger document here.Abstract
For most of the past 10,000 years, semi-arid grasslands of Southeastern Arizona have not been heavily impacted by large herds of hoofed animals. This began to change in the 1500s with the introduction of domestic livestock, primarily cattle. Impacts of this major ecological force on a native system were widespread. In 1968, Frank and Ariel Appleton created an outdoor laboratory, the Research Ranch, to examine the consequences of removing that major ecological force. The Audubon Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch is an 8,000-acre exclosure and living laboratory where short-term research projects are conducted and repeated, and where long-term study sites can be established. Results of these studies are providing sound scientific information that is being used to formulate policy on regional planning and land management issues. Perhaps the most useful role for the facility continues to be its use as a control for the many “environmental experiments” going on throughout the Southwest as the human population of the region increases. Impacts of road building, recreational usage, conversion of once open spaces to exurban home sites, and a shrinking, but usually locally valued, cattle industry can be evaluated with more insight when compared to conditions on the Research Ranch.