ARS | Publication request: Linking biological conservation to healthy rural communities: a case history of the Janos

Submitted to: Ecological Society of America Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: April 13, 2009
Publication Date: August 2, 2009
Citation: Fredrickson, E.L., Ceballos, G., List, R., Barajas, N., Sayre, N., Roacho Estrada, J.O., Sierra Corona, R., Ponce Guevara, E., Davidson, A.D., Melgoza, A., Jaquez, C., Bezanilla Enriquez, G.A. 2009. Linking biological conservation to healthy rural communities: a case history of the Janos – Casas Grandes Biosphere Reserve [abstract]. Ecological Society of America, 94th Annual Meeting, August 2-7, 2009, Albuquerque, New Mexico. COS 103-6.

Technical Abstract: During the late 1930’s, Aldo Leopold witnessed a striking contrast along the narrow boundary between the United States and Mexico. He later described Mexican ecosystems as a “lovely picture of ecological health” and those same ecosystems north of the U.S. - Mexico border as “so badly damaged that only tourists and those ecologically blind, can look upon them without a feeling of sadness, and regret.” On this the hundredth centennial of Leopold’s arrival in the Southwest, the difference has waned but has not completely vanished. Within Mexico’s Janos – Casas Grande region lays the largest black-tailed prairie dog complex within North America, reminiscent of past ecosystems just north of the border. Now a Biosphere Reserve, collaborative efforts between Mexican and U. S. scientists are reconstructing the area’s ecological history and identifying key ecosystem properties maintaining grasslands and essential ecosystem services.