Environmental Change in Aravaipa, 1870-1970

The Bureau of Land Management sponsored this report on the history of ecological change in Aravaipa Canyon and adjacent lands in order to gain a better understanding of alterations in the study area's natural environment and of the reasons for which it came to be in its present condition. The report attempts to record a century of land change and resource use along with the decisions and thought processes of the individuals and agencies which shaped Aravaipa's landscape. Before the initiation of this study, as old-timers from "the Aravaipa" passed away and documents were lost or discarded, the history of formative natural events (floods and freezes), the stories of individual family land use and residents' changing attitudes, the history of influential outsiders and government agencies were slowly disappearing. Fortunately, this report has preserved some of this valuable information. The report includes information on five separate aspects of land change. First, it gives a chronological history of landscape and species changes which have resulted from human occupation and settlement. Second, it offers a chronological history of landscape and species changes which resulted from natural causes, a task which centered on interpretation of the area's scanty weather data, a comparison of local data with more complete records from nearby locations, and a comparison between records and local recollections. Third, the report offers a chronological history of social and economic development in the Aravaipa area. This focuses on the mineral, soil, water, floral and faunal wealth of the study area, its discovery, abundance, availability, and allocation to trade or home use. Since the ability to make a living and the ability to use natural resources cannot be unraveled, the report also describes Aravaipa's in-migrations and out-migrations, population patterns and community structure. Fourth, the report attempts to assess the degree to which outside influences affected the social and economic lives and the production and consumption strategies of Aravaipa's resource users. Since Aravaipa settlers functioned as part of a larger political economy, this report is also a chronology of the impact of external capital, new technologies, political events on the state and national level, and the imposition of and reaction to a variety of governmental and agency regulations. Finally, the report discusses the world view and land ethic of Aravaipa residents. Throughout Aravaipa's history, residents were forced to make choices which reconciled their values with the harsh necessities of life. What one group considered edible food, another group abhorred. What one group considered reasonable and humane trapping, hunting or predator control, another group thought unreasonable and cruel. A moderate stocking rate for one rancher appeared too low or too high to another. The desire to record these changes in values required the cooperation of informants and led to the use of the method called ethnoecology. For the purposes of this report, ethnoecology has supplied the major tool for investigating perceptions of the environment and decisions about natural resources. The report attempts to place the informants' values and recollections within a broader framework of environmental change indicated by field observations and more academic evaluations.