And that opens fissures between greens who think ranching and farming can be crucial counterweights to development and those who believe Western agriculture wastes water, destroys a fragile landscape and shouldn't be part of the open space equation. Kieran Suckling, head of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group in Tucson, insists that ranching isn't a wise antidote for sprawl. Open space and wildlife habitat aren't the same thing. If you let open space get grazed to dust, you won't have any wildlife. Farmers and ranchers, however, say they can help hold the line against sprawl, arguing that crops and cows are better than subdivisions and ranchettes.
Some environmentalists agree.
Conservation-minded land trust organizations such as the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land are actively working on conservation easements and other arrangements to keep ranchers from selling their land to developers. It may go to weeds that don't support wildlife. But that subtlety is lost on the urbanites of the West, who tend to back measures to limit logging or reintroduce wolves as long as they don't cause them any pain. There's a disconnect and a tendency to want to have it all. The Arizona Republic Editorials represent the opinion of the newspaper, whose editorial board consists of Keven Ann Willey, Phil Boas, Richard de Uriarte, Jennifer Dokes, Kathleen Ingley, Doug MacEachern, Joel Nilsson, O. Ricardo Pimentel, Robert Robb, Laurie Roberts, Paul Schatt, Linda Valdez, Ken Western and Steve Benson.