ESPM 50AC Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Rangeland, Overgrazing, Pastoralism

• School: Berkeley
• Department: Environmental Science, Policy, And Management
• Course: ESPM 50AC
• Professor: Spreyer Kurt

Document Summary

Lecture 23 - social and environmental change in northern new mexico rangelands . This lecture supplement includes: mexican cattle ranching, ecosystem change associated with commercial ranching in northern new mexico in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Following the mexican war of independence in 1821, and accelerating in the 1830s and 40s, northern new mexico was increasingly influenced by liberal economic policies that opened the area up as an investment arena and migration destination. The population rose from about 30,000 to as much as 56,000 in a few decades, as new settlements were established, and migrants moved into existing villages and towns. A commercial mode of production was introduced, as trade policy opened up commercial exchange between the region and the united states, as well as increasing commerce with the rest of mexico. Hispano subsistence pastoralism persisted, but wealthy cattlemen were able to acquire large private gazing grants, and expand herds.