Forest Service Questionnaire
Seeks Answers On Range Values

By David Bowser

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The U.S. Forest Service announced a new information collection system this month to provide baseline data on the economic, social and cultural contributions of livestock ownership by surveying grazing permittees of the Carson and Santa Fe National Forests in New Mexico.

Officials say the information from this pilot study and a proposed larger study, encompassing all the permittees on the two forests, will be used to address grazing permit administration in northern New Mexico.

Private landowners who hold federal grazing permits on the Canjilon Ranger District in Carson National Forest and the Espanola Ranger District in Santa Fe National Forest will be surveyed in a pilot study to evaluate research methods proposed for the larger study to be conducted on the two forests. Forest Service researchers plan to distribute questionnaires to the 112 permittees associated with the two districts. About one-third of the respondents from each district, or at least 18 persons per district, will receive a follow-up interview.

Participation in the study is completely voluntary, officials say.

The study will focus on the rural communities of northern New Mexico, where many of the permittees are descendants of Hispanic settlers who have farmed and ranched in the area for more than 400 years. Much of the land which they use under federal permit was formerly owned or used by local communities under Spanish and Mexican land grants.

Cultural differences and historical issues of land ownership and use contribute to disagreements over land use between permittees and federal land managers, says Carol Raish of the Forest Service, who is coordinating the study. She says the research is designed to provide information to help agency managers manage the lands more effectively, work more cooperatively with livestock grazing permittees, and improve agency-community relations by promoting greater understanding.

Data gathered in the study is not available from other sources, she says.

Forest Service research personnel will administer a questionnaire with 46 questions divided into seven sections to the 112 grazing permittees.

The demographic section deals with age, education, employment, primary language spoken in the household, and years of residence in the area. Information on livestock operations consists of questions concerning the number of years the permittee and his family have owned livestock and have had Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management grazing permits and the number and type of animals owned. A third section deals with costs and benefits of owning livestock, with questions focused on the costs of the livestock operation and on the economic contribution of the livestock to family income. Use of the animals and their by-products for household consumption and exchange with relatives and neighbors is also included.

The remaining four sections emphasize social, lifestyle, and cultural contributions of livestock ownership, including the reasons for owning livestock, community activities related to owning livestock, a rancher's preferred means of saving money, uses of the money earned from the livestock operation, and plans to use the livestock operation as a retirement activity. There are also questions about livestock ownership in selecting a place of residence, the social and business activities that result from livestock ownership, and whether a permittee grazes his cattle with cattle owned by relatives, neighbors, or both.

A section on family goals requests respondents to prioritize statements concerning increasing family income, increasing the quality of life, maintaining traditional lifestyles and values, and having greater respect within the community.

Respondents will also be asked to prioritize family goals for the livestock operation, such as making more money from the operation, increasing the family's quality of life, avoiding being forced out of ranching, and increasing the size of the operation. The part of the questionnaire on land ownership and use attitudes contains questions concerning the merits of hiring local versus non-local workers, selling land to local versus non-local buyers, and managing federal lands primarily for the benefit of local residents or for all U.S. citizens. Other questions deal with ranchers' willingness to sell inherited land and their views on what factors constitute land ownership.

The service estimates that the questioning will take about an hour and 15 minutes per respondent.

Researchers will conduct personal interviews with a randomly selected sample of one-third of the questionnaire respondents from each district. The interviews will be used to discuss views and opinions about the livestock operations in greater depth. The interviews will also expand the discussion concerning the role of livestock operations in family life and the maintenance of cultural traditions.

Followup questions include describing feelings about land and livestock and the role they play in family life, land use to teach children traditional values and their heritage, who has the right to own land and make decisions concerning its use, views on the implementation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed in 1848 by the United States and Mexico, feelings about working with the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management, and problems in livestock operations today.

"Since we seek to record the respondent's own story and opinions in the interview section, there may be some instances where questions are expanded or added to clarify or more fully develop a response due to the ethnographic nature of this portion of the study," Raish says.

Raish expects the followup questioning to take about two hours per person.

The public is being asked to comment on whether the research is necessary for the performance of the functions of the agency; the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

Comments must be received in writing on or before June 8. They should be addressed to: Carol Raish, Research Social Scientist, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forest Service, USDA, 2205 Columbia SE, Albuquerque, NM, 87106.