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The Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) is both an archive of past ecological research and a laboratory for continuing research embedded in the southern Arizona landscape. The scientific questions being asked there have changed over the last 100 years, but SRER with its monitoring stations and its legacy of repeat photography still offers a unique opportunity to study environmental change through time. Now that it belongs to the State of Arizona, however, the Arizona State Land Department (ASLD) could conceivably sell it for commercial development if the Arizona legislature were to revoke its special status for “ecological and rangeland research purposes” administered by the University of Arizona. As metro Tucson, Green Valley, and Sahuarita continue to experience explosive growth, State Trust Lands are being auctioned off to real estate developers. Pima County’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan is attempting to preserve biodiversity, open space, cultural resources, and working ranches throughout eastern Pima County. The Santa Rita Experimental Range provides one of the best opportunities to do so on State Trust Lands in the upper Santa Cruz Valley.
Assuming SRER survives for another century, several research topics suggest themselves: (1) the ecological dynamics of exotic Lehmann lovegrass and efforts to eradicate or control it; (2) the impact of urban and exurban development on native wildlife and vegetation; and (3) the development of grass-fed, hormone-free beef and the networks necessary to market it success- fully. But all future research must build upon and respect the integrity of the SRER archive with its ongoing record of vegetation change, hydrological and nutrient cycles, and human efforts to manipulate them.