Green Thumb: Santa Rita Experimental Range and its friends

Have you often driven past the Santa Rita Experimental Range and wondered what exactly it is, who owns it, who manages it, what is its purpose, is it open to the public, how large an area is it, why is it open range land, etc.? We see the open land on the way to Madera Canyon and again bordering Sahuarita Road, but how many of us know why it’s there?

In 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt issued a proclamation creating the Santa Rita Forest Reserve. Well over half of the 592 square miles set aside were made up of “slope” lands between the mountains and Tucson. Included were lower desert grasslands and desert scrub areas, planned to be used to investigate how the productivity of severely degraded grazing lands could be recovered. Less than 15 percent of the reserve was actually forest.

Early the following year, a 49-square-mile area was fenced to become the core of what is now the Experimental Range. A custodian was appointed to maintain fences, keep weather data, and report on any range activities. While grazing was excluded from the large enclosure, it was not untouched land. Local ranchers were allowed to cut hay from within the enclosure, and seed planting experiments were conducted. Cattle occasionally found their way into the enclosure, often with their owner’s assistance.

The U.S. Forest Service in 1921 drafted a new agreement with the University of Arizona for conducting grazing experiments at the range reserve. New headquarters were called Florida Station, located in the Coronado National Forest. With 16 buildings still surviving, the station is the largest Depression-era administrative site in the National Forest.

In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) did a considerable amount of work on what was then called the Santa Rita Experimental Range. They built and improved roads, constructed fences and water developments, installed erosion-control features, erected buildings, built pens, etc.

Florida Station has been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The range lands have been transferred to the Arizona State Land Department, but the headquarters facility is part of the Forest Service and currently leased to the university.

As part of the ongoing livestock grazing management study, there are cattle herds moving through multiple pastures to precisely manage grazing use. In cooperation with a local rancher, there are currently over 600 animals moving through 29 different pastures in this study.

To learn more about this large environmental research location that is just outside our community, plan to attend the Green Valley Gardeners Seminar tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 25, at East Center.

Program is free and the public is welcome. Coffee is on at 9 a.m., with the presentation beginning at 9:30. Speaking will be Mark Heitlinger, facilities manager of the range, who will also talk about the newly organized Friends of the Santa Rita Experimental Range.

Green Thumb is written by Green Valley Gardeners with assistance from Seminar Speakers. It appears Wednesdays in the Green Valley News.