Background

	Kane Headquarters, Built in the Early 1870s

The Arizona Strip is a vast swath of land defined on the north by the Utah border and on the south by the plummeting depths and awe-inspiring vistas of the Grand Canyon. The Strip encompasses about 5 million acres of high, mostly arid land, cut by deep canyons, and including rolling grasslands, slickrock badlands, and high, forested plateaus. Elevation ranges from less than 3,000 feet in the depths of the canyons to more than 9,000 feet on the forested top of the Kaibab Plateau, which, along with House Rock Valley, Vermilion Cliffs, the Paria Plateau, and Marble Canyon, dominates the eastern end of the Strip.  This spectacular and diverse area is also the home of the Kane and the Two Mile ranches.

The grazing allotments associated with the Kane Ranch stretch from Kanab Creek on the west, over the southern portion of the Kaibab Plateau, across House Rock Valley to Lee’s Ferry, and up the Paria River to the Utah border. They cover approximately 610,000 acres and share 125 miles of border with Grand Canyon National Park. The Kaibab Plateau has the largest remaining stands of old growth ponderosa pine in the southwest, harbors the greatest concentration of the Northern Goshawk in the Southwest, and is the only place in the world where the endemic Kaibab squirrel can be found. North Canyon, cutting across the Saddle Mountain Wilderness and dropping to the Colorado River, has the purest known strain of endangered Apache trout. Most of the area (roughly 500,000 acres) encompassed by the grazing allotments is on the Kaibab National Forest, with the remaining acreage managed by the BLM (123,000 acres), the Arizona State Land Department (5,800 acres), and the National Park Service (about 3,700 acres).

The grazing allotments associated with the Two Mile Ranch embrace the entire Paria Plateau, which makes up the majority of the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. They cover approximately 220,000 acres and border the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to the north. The Vermilion Cliffs, on the southern edge of the Two Mile, is the center of the effort to reintroduce the endangered California condor in Arizona. The plateau itself is a land of eroded sandstone monoliths, piñon-juniper forests, and sandy, grass-covered valleys. The plateau is very sandy and the roads require four-wheel drive vehicles. The grazing allotments associated with the Two Mile Ranch are administered primarily by the BLM (197,000 acres), with the remaining acreage managed by the Forest Service and the Arizona State Land Department.

In July 2004, the Grand Canyon Trust––and its partner The Conservation Fund––signed an option to buy the two ranches for $4.5 million and on November 29, 2005, the purchase was completed.  The goals for this project (see Project Overview) focus on maintaining and restoring the plant and animal communities to their naturally functioning conditions, an ambitious aspiration that will take many years to accomplish. Reaching our goals will require the help of numerous partners, and we are working with the BLM, USFS, local residents, scientists, fellow conservationists, volunteers, and others.

Buffalo Bill Visited Kane Headquarters in 1892

The USFS and the BLM determine the parameters of permissible livestock grazing on the public land grazing allotments associated with the Kane and Two Mile Ranches.  These regulations and policies also allow permitees some flexibility to adjust grazing management within the limits of the terms and conditions of their grazing permits.  The Trust and The Conservation Fund are working with the USFS and the BLM to ensure that the number of livestock grazed is ecologically sustainable, and that sufficient rest is provided to restore plant communities that have been altered by historic grazing.  As part of those discussions, we are soliciting the advice of scientists, livestock experts, and local citizens familiar with the human and natural history of the area.  We are also seeking agency permission to remove livestock from ecologically sensitive areas, or areas with serious conflicts with recreationists and other land users.  

While the livestock operation will be at the core of our work, our interests extend well beyond those of a typical permittee.  The Trust hopes to partner with the USFS, BLM, Arizona Game and Fish Department, and others to significantly increase the agency’s abilities to fully implement the goals established by federal laws and regulations that guide management of public lands, including the protection of the natural and cultural heritage found on the ranches.  The Trust’s vision for the Colorado Plateau contemplates a region characterized by vast open spaces with restored, healthy ecosystems and habitat for all native plants and animals and a sustaining relationship between human communities and the natural environment.  We hope to see that vision solidly grounded in the Kane and Two Mile ranches.

To achieve the ecologically based goals, the Trust has convened a Science Advisory Council to provide guidance on developing a management and restoration plan.  At its first meeting in March, the council helped Trust staff design a baseline ecological assessment that––in addition to existing agency data––will supply the fundamental data upon which the management and restoration plan will be based.  The baseline assessment was completed during the summer of 2005 and the data––gathered at more than 650 sites––is being analyzed and synthesized this winter. The Trust plans on working closely with Northern Arizona University and other academic institutions to devise and undertake a wide variety of research on the ranch lands.

With the assistance of our enthusiastic volunteers we are undertaking numerous projects on the ground, including projects such as: making fences pronghorn friendly by replacing the bottom barbed wire with smooth wire; removing dense piles of tumbleweeds along fences that block pronghorn movement; eliminating noxious weeds; fencing wetlands, surveying forest conditions, and maintaining some of the range improvements necessary to responsibly manage livestock. We are seeking private, foundation, and government grants to fund this work. Through extensive planning and gathering advice from agency personnel––and a variety of experts––we are able to prioritize the most important projects.

To provide accommodations for the ranch hands, volunteers, researchers and others, the Trust is seeking funds to repair, restore, and maintain the facilities associated with the ranches.  We are particularly interested in the Kane Ranch headquarters as a site for a small facility that will function as a field office for the Trust and as the primary base of operations.  The facility will be constructed according to “green building” standards and reflect the historical nature of the original sandstone building built in the late 1800s.  Kane Headquarters has a long and colorful history, including being visited by such luminaries as Buffalo Bill, Zane Gray, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Maps of the Ranches and Allotments:

Regional Map
Major Features
Land Ownership
Allotments and Pastures
Assessment Plots and Data
Water Resource Study Area
Forest Overstory Assessment Plots

Photos of the Ranches and Allotments

Contact: Rick Moore