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Management of Public Lands: Walker Basin Allotment

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M anaging public lands today, particularly with respect to grazing allotments, requires the systematic collection of natural resource data, as well as knowledge of federal environmental regulations such as those defined in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These requirements have significantly impacted the workload of resource managers in the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and other government agencies as well as grazing permittees who must provide in-depth documentation of land resources and their use. Contributing to this situation is the fact that most grazing allotments have changed boundaries, management practices, and permittees many times. Information on these consolidations and management factors have been collected over the years but are often poorly organized and lack an effective information system to facilitate access. This has led to lost records, duplication of effort, and wasted time and financial resources.

To alleviate this situation, an interdisciplinary team from the USFS and the University of Arizona , consisting of the Advanced Database Research Group in the Department of MIS , the Arid Lands Information Center and the School of Renewable Natural Resources, proposed this demonstration project to organize and improve access and usability to more than 50 years of information and data collected on the Walker Basin allotment. Once this information is in a database format, it will become a tool to help resource managers and others interpret past land use impacts and make informed decisions influencing the sustainability of this area and similar ecological systems.

Sponsor: The International Arid Lands Consortium

Please click HERE for a homepage for this project.

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