Mongolian Scientists Study Arizona's Grasslands
Unique Nature Conservancy Program Promotes Information Exchange
Phoenix, Arizona—November 23, 2005—Two young women scientists working to save Mongolia’s Gobi Desert are touring grasslands throughout Arizona by mule, horse and foot in an innovative partnership with The Nature Conservancy designed to protect these rapidly disappearing lands on both continents. The Mongolian delegates will visit several sites statewide from January 7 through 21, 2006—hosted by scientists, ranchers and various conservation partners—to learn about the Conservancy’s planning approach.
“Arizona and Mongolia have in common these large swaths of grasslands that are rapidly disappearing due to the same types of threats—including development and mining,” says Greg Gamble, who manages the Conservancy’s Rapidly Urbanizing Area program in Phoenix and traveled to Mongolia last spring through the exchange program. “Especially in Arizona, with our explosive population growth, conserving grasslands is essential to our efforts to protect the state’s water supply for future generations.”
Prior to settlement, prairie-like grasslands covered roughly 34 percent, or a third of Arizona, with early explorers marveling at the sight of grasses growing “as high as the belly of a horse” in some places. Today, only 15 percent of those open native grasslands with low shrub cover remain, according to recent studies by the Conservancy’s Arizona scientists. Of the remaining acreage where shrub encroachment has occurred, the scientists estimate that about 43 percent of the landscape can be restored back to open native grasslands using conservation grazing practices and controlled burns.
The Mongolian scientists, Jargal (JAR-gull) Jamsranjav and Narantuya (Na-ran-TOO-yuh) Davaa, are working with several partners in Mongolia’s vast Gobi Desert region to develop science-based conservation strategies and activities. Their partners range from specialists in soils, geology and watershed management to park rangers, university students and local herders. The Gobi Desert occupies the southern third of the country.
During their two-week visit, Jargal and Narantuya hope to learn more about the Conservancy’s experience in conservation planning and scientific measures, as well as meet with conservation-minded groups throughout Arizona to understand how this science-based approach translates into on-the-ground conservation practices.
Kicking off their tour will be participation in a two-day science conference hosted by the Malpai Borderlands Group near Douglas. This nonprofit grassroots organization led by generations-old cattle ranching families implements grassland management on nearly one million acres of virtually un-fragmented landscape straddling the southeastern Arizona-southwestern New Mexico border. The Malpai Group brings together ranchers, scientists, and key agencies to carry out a series of conservation programs and activities—land restoration, endangered species habitat protection, cost-sharing range and ranch improvements and land conservation projects. The Conservancy has been working with the Malpai ranchers for more than a decade.
Jargal and Narantuya also will meet with Conservancy staff and local partners to discuss conservation activities along the San Pedro, Hassayampa and Verde rivers, including the Big Chino Valley. During their statewide loop, they will travel to Douglas, Sierra Vista, Tucson, Phoenix, Wickenburg, Prescott, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon before returning home to Mongolia. Mongolia is located in northern Asia between Russia and China.
In turn, Arizona conservationists hope to learn more about community-based conservation and sustainable grazing, says the Conservancy’s State Director Pat Graham. “The Mongolian people have been living on their land with grazing animals for thousands of years and we stand to learn a great deal about long-term land use and conservation issues,” he notes. “Like all conservation, this is ultimately about the future of our land and our people—what our world will look like in five or 50 years. The Conservancy is committed to the long-term preservation of grasslands and the way of life they protect, from Arizona’s critical grassy landscapes to the steppes of Mongolia.”
The exchange program began in 2002 when Mongolian Prime Minister Enkhbayar invited The Nature Conservancy to work in Mongolia. Mongolia has some of the most extensive, unfenced grasslands on Earth and is among its least populated countries. Known as legendary horsemen since the time of Genghis Khan, much of the Mongolian population still lives as a nomadic, herding culture. The country’s tremendous variety of large mammals includes snow leopard, ibex, argali, wisheep, brown bear, wild camel and gazelle.
In North America, our native grasslands, inhabited by 600 species of plants, once covered 40 percent of the continent. Less than one percent remains today. Additionally, true grassland birds have shown steeper, more consistent and more geographically widespread declines than any other group of vertebrate animals.
As part of the Conservancy’s exchange program, Mongolian conservationists also visited Colorado and Idaho in October 2005.
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Hi-resolution images of Arizona’s and Mongolia’s grasslands are available. Please phone Judy at (602) 322-6996.
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