Rancher Knowledge

A recent post, Rancher knowledge: An untapped resource referred to new research saying the federal agencies could do a better job if they would seek out and utilize rancher knowledge of the resource.

That post resulted in R.L. Posey of Mayhill, NM sending me the following email:


"Frank,

Top of the morning to you.

I am sure you are more aware of this than I am, but so many think that too many ranchers are a dumb lot.

I have stated numerous times that many ranchers today have formal educations plus on the job training.

Many ranchers may not have extensive formal educations, do not speak the King's English, but they are not dumb because of their On The Job Training which can't be taught in schools.

Good examples are Charles Walker and Jimmy Goss in this area.

One time a friend of Charles was involved in some type law suit and asked Charles to go with him to the court hearing.

On the way, Charles asked the man who his lawyer was.

"You are."

Charles won.

Several years ago the AF was planning on low level flights over Otero County and they had a public meeting here at Mayhill.

This AF colonel was strutting around like he was important and we were a bunch of dumb skulls.

After the meeting I was going up to him, he was talking to a local lady and as I got close I heard him say, "I didn't know I was talking to an engineer." What he didn't know was that she was the first lady to obtain a PhD in electrical engineering from Ohio State.

Are you aware of the book, "The Lazy B" by Sandra Day O'Conner and her brother Alan Day?

The Lazy B was a ranch was established by their grandparents in the late 80's in the SE part of Arizona and the Bootheal of NM.

The ranch was later sold because none of the younger set wanted it and the ranch became unprofitable due to micro management of the BLM managed lands.

What attracted me to the book was that Sandra's Grandparents lived in El Paso and she was born there.

Sandra stayed with her grandparents and went to high school in El Paso.

They had the students sitting according to their alphabetical names and one of my female cousins, Maurine DeArman, sat next to Sandra and they were good friends. Maurine had been to the Lazy B on a number of different occasions.

RL"


Mr. Posey's comments on low level flights reminded me of something I had experienced while still in high school.

In the mid-sixties ranchers were complaining that military jets from Holloman and Cannon AFB were tearing up the clouds resulting in less rainfall.

A big meeting was scheduled at the 4-Winds Cafe in Carrizozo and I attended with my uncle, R.A. Perkins.

The meeting was chaired by an Air Force officer who made a big deal about his different degrees in engineering. There was also some "strutting around" similar to what Mr. Posey witnessed years later.

The military officer gave a slide show on the different types of clouds and other such matters and closed by saying because of the chemical makeup of the jet trails they were actually creating clouds, not destroying them.

There were several questions and comments from the crowd which the officer curtly put down.

And then Phil Harvey, Sr. spoke.

Mr. Harvey, who ranched NW of Carrizozo, described the formation the jets were flying in and the exact maneuvers they were performing that were dispersing the clouds. Turns out Mr. Harvey had been a flight instructor in the Army Air Corp and had been a fighter pilot in the 549th Night Fighter Squadron. He had flown escort missions over Japan and once had to bail out into Tokyo Bay. He knew what he was talking about.

As I recall, the officer was really surprised at rancher knowledge that day.

I called Phil Harvey, Jr. with some questions about his dad and he later sent me this email:


"Frank,

Just another point on the cloud situation.....our ranch manager at Carrizozo, Mozaun Calentine, saw the jets from Holloman flying through developing thunderheads, and after they did, saw the clouds breakup as he had never seen happen before. It was graphic and pronounced, and the planes definitely affected the rain and cloud development. I also witnessed it, but I was in my teenage years.

I also was there gathering bulls out of our bull pasture on the edge of the Chupadera Mesa in 1975 or 1976; we had gathered over 100 bulls out of our bull trap and were within 1/4 mile, or less, of our Mesa Well pens, when 4 jets from Holloman came over the edge of the Mesa, on the deck, supersonic, and absolutely sent the bulls, horses, and cowboys in every direction possible! You know how hard it is to gather a bunch of riding, fighting bulls under normal circumstances, but this incident cost us another 6 hours to regather most of the bulls, and there were some bulls we'd had almost in the pen that took over a week to find.

The actions of Holloman and WSMR had profound effects on the ranching community in the area around Carrizozo, Claunch, and Corona back in those days. I have many more stories to tell....

Thanks,
Phil"


Another point made by the research paper was that ranchers numbers are decreasing and their resource knowledge base is being lost. What it doesn't say, but I will, is that the federal agencies who's policies are removing these ranch families from the range are the same ones who would benefit the most from this knowledge.