Piiion-Juniper Guild Associations:
A Presentation to the State Land Office
Conference on Piiion Management
Ben ~aggard'
The following observations are based on many years as an
amateur naturalist, living in northern New Mexico. I design
landscapes--more an art than a science. My desire to understand
and become proficient with my media, in this case the species
which occur naturally in my region, has led me to study native
plants and their associations fairly carefully.
For the last t h e years I have been engaged in developing a
twenty acre private botanical garden at Sol y Sombm, the home
of Beth and Charles Miller on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New
Mexico. This twenty acre site is layed out using the principles
of permaculture, an ecological design system invented by a team
of Australian ecologists in the early seventies. The garden
contains several key elements, including extensive collections
of ornamental and usehl plants, a small organic farm, planting
and habitat for wildlife, and fifteen acres of ecological
restoration work.
Several core ideas characterize permaculture. Natural
processes are understood as flow events moving through the
landscape. Wind, sun, water, miption of plants and animals,
movements of capital, human populations, and automobiles-these are all flows which mod.@ landscape. Ecological or
holistic design attempts to work with these flows, directing them
to systemically beneficial ends.
Permaculture recognizes the need for understand@ and
utilizing connection when designing or managing systems. Most
natural systems depend on cooperation and mutually beneficial
association for their function. Stability derives from the diversity
of connections existing between members of natural
communities. (The same principles describe human
communities, a subject beyond the scope of this discussion)
This leads to the concept which I specifically want to
are defined as webs
introduce--@&. In permaculture, @ds
of mutually beneficial connections between species, usually
organized around one or two simcant species. In general, these
webs will include nutrient accumulators, such as nitrogen fixers.
They will include insectary species. Fungi, bacteria and other
microorganisms serve as nutrient translators. A d s garden the
'
Director of Land Research and Education, Sol y Sombra
Foundation, Santa Fe, NM.
system, turning the earth, pruning, planting, fertilizing. The focus
of this article is a particular @d: piiron-juniper and its
associated species.
Piiron-juniper forests in northern New Mexico are frequently
impoverished landscapes, susceptible to erosion and with a
minimum of understo~yspecies. I suspect that this is a result of
larger historical trends in the region Mimy of these forests are
a recent successional stage, having followed logging and sheep
grazing, two highly destabilizing influences in the desert
southwest. The junipers, followed by the pines, have colonized
eroded and erodmg sites and are in some instances the only
vegetative cover sewing to prevent further soil loss. I believe
that the piiIon and juniper have been incorrectly blamed for a
process of desertification caused primarily by human activity.
A number of healthy situations can still be found in northern
New Mexico, lxu-t~cularlyin favored or inaccessible sites. Near
the perimeter of the Sol y Sombra property is a striking example.
A large juniper (Juniperus monosperma) grows in a small basin,
fed by a dramage of several square yards. Growing up through
its branches, on the north side where they are usually found, is
a saplrng piiion (Pinus edulis) of perhaps twelve feet. In the
shade of these trees grows Poa fendleri, prickly pear (Opuntia
phaecantha), cholla (Opuntia imbricata), wolfbeny (Lycium
pallidum), mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Erigeron, Artemisia,
and lamb's quarters (Chenepodium berlandieri). At the edges of
this grouping can be found chamisa or rabbitbrush
(Chrysothamnus nauseosus) , Apache plume (Fallugia
paradoxa), sideoats gama (Bouteloua curtipendula), purple
aster (Machaeranthera bigelovii), and other herbaceous species.
Mistletoe sprouts from many of the juniper's h b s , and lichen
can be found on the bark of its main trunk.
Evidence of a
d activity is plentiful. Ant hills and gopher
burrows appear under or at the edge of the trees. Bird droppings
add fertility to the soil. Bees visit the flowering species. Towhees
spread the mistletoe seeds and jays and squirrels visit the p h n .
Rabbit droppings are plentiful, and occasionally we find scat of
an animal who has been eating the rabbits. Beetles and other
insects are common
This coming together of plant and animal life results in a rich
black layer of duff, shot through with fungal mycelia. In the
wet months, mushroom fruiting bodies appear. A ccarpet of
long as such management supports and furthers the health of
the ecosystem. Priority needs to be placed on the intrinsic
value of natural systems, rather than on their exploitation for
economic ends. If we are to realize a healthy land-based
economy, we must do so by doing it smarter--by diversifying
and spreading the risk of crop failure over a multiplicity of
potential yields. This way of life was familiar to our
ancestors. Our failure to pay attention to basic principles of
natural systems when designing our economic strategies has
resulted in widespread ecological deterioration. I propose that
in the case of the piiion-juniper woodlands, understanding
underlying guild structure and working to enhance and benefit
from it provides one possible approach to sustainability.