| Status: | Identified | Area: | 322000 acres (130410 hectares) |
| County: | Hidalgo | Elevation: | 4500-5000 feet (1375-1525 meters) |
| Town: | Animas | Location: | 31°31’N, 108°52’W |
| Ownership | Animas Foundation, Ben Brown, manager, HC65 Box 179B, Animas, NM 88020, 505-548-2622 |
| Habitats | Grassland, Wetlands (saline/alkaline lakes), Desert |
| Land-use | Rangeland/pastureland, Nature conservation |
| Threats | None identified |
| Site Criteria | State conservation species (D1), State species in rare/unique habitat (D3) |
| Site Description | In 1990,
The Nature Conservancy purchased the 322,000-acre Gray Ranch in order to protect
its abundance of biological diversity. Spanning more than 50 natural
communities, and containing more than 700 species of plants, 75 mammals, 50
reptiles and amphibians and more than 170 species of breeding birds, the Gray
Ranch is one of the most significant sites in the nation. For a decade or more, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had coveted the Gray Ranch as a wildlife refuge. However, the scope of such a large private-to-public land transfer worried some TNC officials, who thought it would further erode the organization’s public image as an entity engaged in enlarging the government’s fiefdom at the expense of private landowners. In the West this was no small cause for concern. In the end, TNC decided to take the radical step of selling the Gray Ranch back to a rancher. In 1994, the Gray was transferred to the Animas Foundation an organization dedicated to protecting the natural values of the Gray Ranch while maintaining the cultural and economic heritage of the bootheel country.The Animas Foundation is also a partner in the larger Malpais Borderlands Group, a non-profit, community-based, volunteer organization founded by ranchers in southern New Mexico and Arizona dedicated to improving the quality of their ranches and preserving their ranching way of life. A scientist, Ben Brown, was hired to figure out how to ranch the property while preserving its diverse biological, cultural, and historical assets. To Ben, who had extensive experience working as a biologist in ranching landscapes around the West, this mandate was not a contradiction in terms. The key was good stewardship and he sees no incompatibility between ranching and biodiversity. The Animas Foundation embarked on a rigorous and ambitious program of ecological stewardship, including the reintroduction of extensive prescribed fires. It also created a grassbank in conjunction with the Malpai Borderlands Group. Active research projects include rare species monitoring (in conjunction with New Mexico Game and Fish Department, Endangered Species Branch) consisting of periodic surveys of abundance for white-sided jackrabbits, Botteri’s sparrow, Baird’s sparrow, Mexican chickadees, yellow-eyed juncoes, grasshopper sparrows, Sprague’s pipit, Chiricahua leopard frog, bunchgrass lizards, and Gould’s turkeys. The Gray Ranch lies in a unique area of the country called the Sky Islands. Here, tall mountain ranges, northern extensions of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental, rise high above the grasslands of the Chihuahuan Desert. Priority natural communities include black grama grasslands, Madrean oak woodlands, and Fremont cottonwood riparian forests. |
| Birds | Contains the largest Botteri's Sparrow population in New Mexico. The southern section has breeding Arizona Grasshopper Sparrow. In migration and winter other priority grassland species include Sprague's Pipit and Baird's Sparrow. |
| Conservation Issues | None listed |
| Conservation Plan | |
| Monitor(s) | None assigned. |
| Nominator | Christopher Rustay, 1824 Stanford Drive NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87106 |
| Sources | None listed |
| Links | The Nature Conservancy New Mexico, Animas Foundation |
| Directions | NM-338 runs through the Gray Ranch south of Animas, NM. The area off the highway is closed to visitors unless special permission is obtained from the Animas Foundation (see owner above). |
| Species | Year | Status | Population | Sources | Criteria |
| Baird's Sparrow | Winter | D1 | |||
| Botteri's Sparrow | Breeding | D1 | |||
| Grasshopper Sparrow (Arizona) | Breeding | D1 | |||
| Sprague's Pipit | Winter |
Last Updated 4/6/07