land use and land tenure change in the - El Colegio de Chihuahua

12restricted by policy, farmers have turned away from cotton, corn sorghum, alfalfa and grains – thetraditionally dominant crops – to more valuable crops that provide better returns to capital investment suchas walnuts or vegetables.The Douglas Irrigation District in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties of Arizona is a good example.Recent legislation (1980) designated the district a non-expansion area for use of groundwater. Thosefarmers with access to capital have responded by diversifying their operations into year – round vegetablesin greenhouses and into the expansion of peach and apple orchards. Wheat, sorghum, and cotton remainimportant.Over the last 30 years or so, contrary to what might be suspected, farm size decreased almost acrossthe board and the number of farms increased in almost every case. Even in the rapidly urbanizing county ofEl Paso, the number of farms only decreased 3%. In urbanizing Dona Ana, which includes the Las Cruces-El Paso urban area, farm acreage grew 31%, and the number of farms increased 35%. This trend partlyreflects an increasing number of hobby farmers and new irrigation units in the region (Figure 26).C.7.Land cover in the US Chihuahuan DesertHistorically, and currently, the predominant use of land in the US region of the Chihuahuan Desert islivestock grazing, much of it on land owned by the Bureau of land Management. An indication of overallland uses can be seen in the case of New Mexico (Figure 27) where most of the land is used for grazing, buturban, cropland and parks have increased in the last 50 years. Overall the Federal government controlsmore than 80% of the US Chihuahuan Desert including tribal and defense lands, as well as resource landmanaged by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National parksService (Figure 28).Federal lands held by BLM, some of the lands held by the military, and most state lands, aremanaged under a multiple-use strategy, allowing private leases for grazing and mining. The majority ofmilitary land remains wild. About 13% of BLM lands in southern New Mexico are designated WildernessStudy Areas and are totally protected from development.In New Mexico, while the military use of land limits development of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is themain factor in the development of many of the urban areas of the region, particularly the towns of Roswelland Alamogordo, NM. Both private and NASA military missile and other aerospace testing continue to bean important use of land in Southern New Mexico. The White Sands Missile Range – 100 miles north tosouth by 40 miles east to west, almost 3,200 square miles – is the largest military installation in the country.Adjacent to this, one of the largest new industrial developments in the state is being planned. The NewMexico Space port is intended as a complementary test site to be developed and used by private aerospaceindustry and will contribute to the adjacent urban areas.C.8.Land TenureThe regions of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas included in the Chihuahuan Desert have verydifferent regimes of land tenure/ownership, but are very similar in land use.While 45% of land in Arizona is federally owned, the counties included in the Chihuahuan Desertdiffer from the rest of the state. In the southeastern counties of Arizona - southern Greenlee and Grahamcounties, all of Cochise and Santa Cruz counties – the land is mostly controlled by the state or is privatelyowned ranch land. The privately owned land is owned by families or Arizona companies, rather than part oflarger national agribusiness operations.Besides the National Forest lands and BLM holdings in southeaster Arizona, the US Army’s FortHuachuca not only contributes greatly to urban development in nearby Sierra Visa, but is a threat to the SanPedro River and surrounding areas (see Protected Areas in Arizona).