Stewardship is spelled P R I V A T E P R O P E R T Y

Regionally endangered species

Stewardship is spelled P R I V A T E P R O P E R T Y

A glimpse of management of the Commons

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            As a teenager, the ranchers I knew were nearly all crotchety old fellows.

            They weren’t prone to joining any cause, and, if they were truly successful, they were universally suspicious of ‘lookieloos’ and outright antagonistic toward trespassers. I knew a bunch of them fairly well and some very well. As a youth, though, I viewed many of their actions and responses with more than a degree of confusion and bewilderment. I simply didn’t interpret some things the same way they did.

            That has largely changed.

            I not only understand now why they acted the way they did, but it is haunting to sometimes realize the words that have come forth from my own mouth. They are the exact duplication of phrasing I heard from names attached to those now largely departed stewards. I have even realized certain outbursts that I once found offensive have become recapitulations within my own responses.

            Should I cry … or smile?

            The killing field

            In a survey of ranchers done by Dona Ana Soil and Water Conservation District and completed through the week of December 1, the ratio of deer killed on Dona Ana County ranches equated to one in 500. One deer killed on each 500 sections of lands dominated by federal ownership in southern New Mexico. The survey was by no means scientific and it likely is not fully accurate. It reflected known deer kills by ranchers on their respective operations.

            New Mexico Game and Fish data may pick up additional kills, but historically ranchers surveyed will have a fairly accurate picture of the kills that take place within their boundaries. Hunters are stopped and questions asked. Cars will stop through headquarter area and share a story of the hunt, or the rumor mill will recover information passing through the system. The numbers will be close.

            For the sake of argument, though, say the social network system is wrong. Double, triple the kills, but the results will still be what they are …pathetic.

Perhaps a more accurate word should be horrific.

We have not been on this ranch multigenerationally. We bought the ranch in 2003, and, by the summer of 2004, we were pretty sure we had eight or nine bucks … not shootable bucks … but bucks of all ages in the little resident herd. That ratio represented a per section density of all bucks of one per 11.25 square miles of land. Fully 75% of those deer were killed in the fall of 2004.

It made me sick.

In response to that slaughter, I contacted a member of the New Mexico Game Commission and asked for a discussion, a tour, and the presence of one other commissioner. The other commissioner declined, but, to the credit of the responding commissioner, a tour was made and a good discussion ensued. Further, he scheduled a meeting up with the Department’s deer project manager and two officials from the Las Cruces office.

We attended that meeting together … it was a grand waste of time.

Horseback

During the last two weeks on 150 sections of Dona Ana and Luna County, we have spent about 60 cowboy days horseback. Part of that time was during deer season and part of it was not. Not a single deer was seen. Furthermore, very few tracks were seen at water troughs and tanks. Purposely, we have been looking for sign because of the growing apprehension of the absence of deer.

The crisis will officially be blamed on the drought. Indeed, the drought has been severe. Supposedly, it was the worst in recorded history in our part of the state. There is agreement in the intensity of the drought.

While not indicative of better years, our calf crop, though, is nothing like we are observing in the deer herd. Deer, like cattle, are ruminants. They drink the same water we provide for our cattle. They consume the same minerals we provide for our cattle. And, they have access to the same protein supplements we provide to our cattle. There are no ‘deer proof’ shields on any of it. We provide as much drought resistant support for the deer herd as our cattle herds receive. The question must be asked. Why are we not seeing the same catastrophic losses in our cattle? Should we start assuming our cattle are more adaptive to the arid conditions of the southwest than our deer herds?

That would cause a stir.

West Texas has had the same drought we have experienced. In places, it has been more severe and prolonged, but in surveys, deer have continued to experience adequate to substantial fawn recruitment. In fact, the conditions have been good enough to support several record mule deer being taken in recent years.

Another indicator is ranch sales. If anybody has observed ranch prices in all of Texas, the trend line is meteoric. The prices are not just a function of the cattle market, but of the smell of oil and the interest in game ranches. Deer numbers have supported that interest including those in west Texas.

Something more is at play in southern New Mexico.

All surveyed ranchers suggested depredation has been extreme. The Las Uvas country has abundant evidence that lion activity has been heavy. As much as 22% of branded calves have failed to be weaned. That is extreme and hugely alarming. In a four day period on one of those ranches, we saw two lions and observed another set of lion tracks on top of a rain shower that had fallen within the hour. In a recent day hunt on Cook’s Peak, a lion was seen by hunters while no deer were seen. In another incident south from the Las Uvas, a lion hunter, while exercising his dogs, saw a lion. The young dogs never saw the lion and the heat disallowed the track to be followed.

Lions are no doubt an issue, but, like the drought, I do not believe they are the only issue.

The other side of the fence

Standing in stark contrast to the management of the commons surrounding them, private land ranches in places like Grant County simply do not display the same sterility of game presence. The same infrastructure provision of water, minerals, and protein supplement is available, but there is more. Predators are generally hunted more intensively, and deer are also provided a measure of protection which spans into the critical rut.

Research in wolf expansion in Oregon may be giving a much clearer picture of what is actually taking place. Data prior, during, and subsequent to the expansion of the wolves is demonstrating cattle conception diminishes as a function to increasing wolf contacts. For years, Catron County’s predator control agent, Jess Carey, has been saying the same thing in the presence of the southern clinal variation of the gray wolf, but data has not been available to fully substantiate his observations. It isn’t just outright predation. The Oregon results clearly demonstrate the more the cattle are harassed the lower the conception rates become.

Is the missing factor in our southern New Mexico deer herds any different? In the case of Dona Ana County, the wolf isn’t the problem because the resident alpha predator isn’t the wolf. It is the aforementioned lions, and … man.

Every rancher will verify that distribution of bulls within cow herds is hugely important. It isn’t just the number. It is how those bulls are placed. It is also how those bulls perform. Deer are no different. If sperm morphology and motility are inferior in a single buck within a low battery of sires, results will be highly impacted. Furthermore, if numbers get to the current levels, there simply aren’t enough bucks to cover the vast distances to does during the condensed rut period. Compounding that problem, the alpha predators are putting enough pressure on the small herd that distribution is substantially fragmented. All factors are compounding. The problem is exacerbated.

So, arguments cannot be singulated and condensed. The issue is multiple with greater complexity, but the same conditions are consistently managed on private property. It is there the steward is allowed to protect and manage the resource. He manages it in the auspices of mutual respect and assumed responsibility. It you don’t believe it go investigate actual results. Go to Texas. Go to Grant County.

Management of the commons fails to entrust such simplicity, and the appointed institutional management must defer to excuses and government for its existence. Every one of those crotchety old ranchers would have told you that … without a dollar of research.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Two important points are elevated … NMGFD cannot contend there is an adequate prey base for wolf expansion, and … the department needs to attend to their southwestern deer herd decline.”