An Unlikely Alliance
Born out of conflict, the Diablo Trust was founded 30 years ago by two Northern Arizona family ranches. In 1993, the Bar T Bar and the Flying M ranches joined together to seek an innovative approach to respond to public concerns about the impacts of cattle grazing on forestland, grassland, and wildlife populations on over 426,000 acres of the two ranches together, that span private, state, and federal land.
It started with a gathering. The Prosser (Bar T Bar) and Metzger (Flying M) families, who had long worked to promote healthy ranchlands, welcomed people across the political and social landscape who shared their concern for the environment and wildlife to combine their energy, skills, dedication, and willingness to work to deal with these pressures more effectively, openly, and collaboratively. That first gathering cultivated a quarter-century long cooperative effort to research and monitor the ecology of working lands, restore grasslands, re-establish native wildlife populations, share knowledge about the value of working lands in the southwest.
The conflict which catalyzed the founding of Diablo Trust has been replaced by long-standing collaborative management efforts supported by bi-annual Cooperative Resource Operational Plan (CROP) meetings, the longest ever forage monitoring program in Arizona (Forage Resource Study Group), and ongoing land-based research and education by Northern Arizona University, Arizona Game and Fish Department, and other partner entities. Diablo Trust also hosts an Annual Meeting and an Annual Campout which bring together ranchers, agencies, and the public to share knowledge about the value of working lands.
Through collaborative stewardship and dynamic research, Diablo Trust protects open space, wildlife, beef production, and local food, provided by working lands in Northern Arizona. With a robust team of long-standing partners, we have regenerated over hundreds of thousands of acres of grazing lands and wildlife habitat, and we continue to facilitate research that promote the health and stability of Western ranchlands.
For nearly 30 years, Diablo Trust has been committed to its mission of ensuring the long-term economic, social, and ecological sustainability of the Diablo Trust land area by providing a forum for active community participation in a collaborative land stewardship process.
“There are 4-5 billion acres of land on this planet with similar togography, geology, and climate to the American West. If these American ecosystems aren’t used as a global laboratory, then where on this planet – with what money and parallel sources of academia, land agency expertise, and educated people living on the land – will this be done? And when will we start?”
