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Rural-Urban Grassland Connections
Tom Orum1
Saguaro/Juniper is a group of friends that has grown since 1988. We have land in the San
Pedro near the community of Cascabel with a grazing lease associated which has a three and a half
or four mile boundary with the Muleshoe Nature Conservancy/BLM joint management area to the
north of us. We share Hot Springs Canyon with that joint management area so we have a lot of
interest in Hot Springs Canyon as a corridor between the riparian areas on the BLM/Nature
Conservancy area and the San Pedro. It also includes a lot of grassland and that's where the
connection here would be. One of the things that we're trying to figure out-and I say it's a process,
not a conclusion-is how people of modest means can acquire a management or an ownership
interest in rural land without contributing to fragmentation and subdivision. We're really working
against the subdivision aspects and I think that subdivision is probably a bigger threat to grasslands
and wildlife communities than cattle ranching.
We have about 4,000 acres or seven sections of leased grazing land from the State and
private and now about 1,000 acres of deeded land. In order to do this we are organized as a
for-profit corporation and in order to hold our grazing lease we do have cattle. We've tried to
translate private ownership rights into more land rights, although Leopold has influenced our
thinking a great deal, so we've recorded some of our deeded land in Cochise County with a real
estate covenant. I'll read from the preamble of that covenant:
"The Saguaro/Juniper covenants preambles and principles establish
a common ground for group discussion and deliberation. They are to
function primarily as queries that guide decision making, not as
conclusions that override deliberations. In acquiring private
governance of land we agree to cherish its earth, waters, plants and
animals in a way that promotes the health, stability and diversity of
the whole community. This entails attentive stillness to meet and
know the land as an active presence. It entails study, observation,
shared reflection and cumulative corporate experience to increase
and bequeath our understanding of ecosystem health, stability and
diversity. It entails symbiotic naturalization into the planned
community, the communion of actual nurture and shelter. As
elaborated by these entailments, fully accountable governance,
stewardship, is the distinctively human way of bonding into one
society with all who share in the land's life, which is the foundation
for instituting a biocentric ethic among humankind."
The five principles that we try to hold in guiding us in terms of managing the land:
The land has a right to be free of human activity that accelerates erosion. Native plants and animals
on the land have a right to life with a minimum of human disturbance. The land has a right to
evolve its own character from its own elements without scarring from construction or the
importation of foreign objects dominating the scene. The land has a preeminent right to the
preservation of its unique or rare constituents and features. The land, its rocks, waters and
minerals, its plants and animals, and their fruits and harvest have a right to never be rented, sold,
1
Saguaro/Juniper Project, Tucson AZ.
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extracted or exported as mere commodities.
I say that these function primarily as queries that guide decision-making and not conclusions
that override deliberations. That's the way we•re working. There•s a lot of deliberation and there•s a
lot of talk. The other element which is crucial and which has been touched upon again and again is
the importance of the surrounding community and neighbors and the whole community process.
Cascabel is now a much more unified community than it was eight years ago, but it's still highly
diversified. We work hard. The Nature Conservancy works hard. The people in the community work
very hard at trying to understand each other. We don•t always succeed, but we keep working at it.
Currently there are seven members of Saguaro/Juniper who do live in Cascabel. It's this rural-urban
connection that we•re working very hard to try to develop.
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