Old-school cattle ranchers in the radical center!

I heard a great story on NPR this morning about a group of cattle ranchers around the southern Arizona & N.Mexico border, who have collaborated with conservationists to create an easement system that apparently works. "The Malpai Group, which began in 1993, protects 800,000 acres while also sustaining working cattle ranches. And an increasing number of experts think the Malpai model is an idea that could work elsewhere." (the story intro and link to the audio is here).

I noted a couple of really interesting phrases from the story. The first is the idea of moving away from strictly wilderness preserves to creating "working landscapes," that is, to gently and sustainably use the land for economic purpose- cattle ranching- while maintining a landscape, a sort of unbroken expanse of wilderness. Even the scientists approve.

The second concept that struck me was the label "radical center," to describe the idea of actually finding a common ground between the property-rights activists and the environmentalists. It seems that true cooperation and win-win negotiation is a pretty radical thing in our currently bi-polar political environment.

I admit, my skeptical nature and my sorta hard-core preservationist beliefs were softened a bit by the success of the group's efforts. I don't think people always act with the greater good in mind, even tho it's counterintuitive to destroy your own habitat. I was happy to see that, given a bit of guidance and information, those with the greatest interest in preserving their way of life can exhibit the greatest wisdom in how to accomplish that. It's a pattern that can succeed in many areas of society- give people information and trust that we will make adult choices. After all, if the freeriders consistently make up only 30% of a group, why should the remaining 70% be subject to excessive legislation about how to live our lives? For example, I don't wear my seatbelt because the law says I have to- I wear it to save my life in an accident, and I would in the absence of a law telling me to. (I won't mention here what I do in spite of what I think is an unjust law- that's for another forum!) Basically, I think if the government wants people to trust in it, they need to show trust in us, in our ability to make good choices.