Westward Expansion in the United States and the Changing of the Western Frontier (Part 3 of 3)

Communication is often considered one of the most important factors for humanity. The rise of social media at the turn of the millennium took the ease of communication to a whole new level. Long-distance phone calls were no longer a thing. An instantaneous message to someone on the other side of the world was simply a click away. It may have started with a fun little program called MySpace, but it was quickly steamrolled by Facebook.

So, you're asking, what does this have to do with the Western US? Well, let me introduce you to "The City that Microsoft Built" in Redmond, Washington. This little city is home to the Microsoft headquarters, which is nestled right next to Bellevue, Washington. With the help of the Nintendo Corp., Redmond underwent a 672% population increase during the 1970s and another 111% increase during the 1980s. Microsoft Corp employs over 58% of the city's 76,700 residents (2022 census).

So, how does the technological future look for the West? We have already surpassed the threshold of self-maneuvering tractors and drones capable of carrying herbicides and seeds, which are currently being used in Southeast Asian countries. Security systems linked to your cellphone through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are common to ensure home safety. Anthropomorphic humanoid robots are also on the rise, being studied and produced at top universities such as Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania. And not to mention the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Are we apt to see the age where humanoid robotics are taking over our jobs? Will the "flying car" fantasy give way to human-occupied drones for transportation? What is the limit of technology?

The Fall of a Western Icon

Some generations may say that technology is the answer to everything. For example, your 13-year-old probably has a better understanding of how to arm your house alarm and adjust the temperature on your pellet grill using your cellphone. But can technology cut up your cords of firewood for the winter? Can technology rid your garden of all the nuisance weeds to make way for the carrots? How can technology tell us best how to manage the last remaining wild horse herds around the country? Or will this be the fall of a Western icon?

The term "wild" refers to animals that have never been tamed and have always lived wild and free. Horses first appeared in North America roughly 10,000 years ago via the Beringia land bridge and died out shortly thereafter. The Spaniards then reintroduced horses in the Americas during the 15^th and 16^th centuries. However, these horses were domesticated, and their descendants still run wild and free in certain parts of the United States.

Assateague Island, off the coast of Maryland, is a hotspot for tourists looking to dip their toes in the Atlantic while watching wild horses pass by. The west supports two large areas for these wild horses to roam freely… the Great Basin of central Nevada and the Pryor Mountain range of south-central Montana. The Bureau of Land Management oversees the management of these wild horse herds of the West. However, the impact can be substantial to the rangelands that they roam, causing the depletion of sensitive native vegetation, destruction of riparian and wetland areas, and an overall decrease in soil health. Livestock owners are often competing with bands of wild horses for responsible rangeland grazing. Will the future of these rangelands favor the wild horses and continue to deteriorate slowly? Or will the rangeland support the ever-growing need for cattle and sheep production?

Taming of the Trees

It's no secret that the wild horse herds of the West can do a number on rangeland habitats. But is it possible for burly vegetation to also do a number on more vegetation? Rangelands across the West continually see change as more dominant plants choke out useful vegetation and devour resources. Drive along some agricultural byways, and you may see large slash piles of trees lying about. This doesn't mean you're in the territory of a chainsaw-happy lunatic! This simply means that some vegetation must be removed to allow more useful vegetation a chance to thrive.

Douglas Fir, Mountain Juniper, and Cottonwood trees are three culprits of a scheme called encroachment. These trees, although native to the United States, tend to thrive in certain areas and use up a plethora of resources needed for other, more useful range plants. Douglas Fir tends to creep into large sagebrush parks, key habitats for the West's mule deer and elk populations. Mountain Juniper is more prone to arid environments, but ironically uses vast amounts of subterranean water, leaving little to no water for surrounding plants or runoff for streams. Cottonwood trees tend to act in the same regard as the Juniper, although commonly found in valleys and riparian areas. Cottonwood trees regularly grow in such high density along river and creek bottoms that waterways can potentially run dry, as a mature Cottonwood tree may use up to 200 gallons of water a day.

Taming the trees seems to be a progressing method for environmental management. These methods may be an effective and renewable way to help battle the ever-growing threat of drought in some areas. But could it really be sustainable in the long run? Will taming the trees ever reach a point of no return for the trees?

The Fight for the Right Heritage

Like many traditional lifestyles or trades, the way of the true cowboy may come to an unfortunate end. With the development of big-wheeled motorized tools taking over, convenience and comfort may outweigh the tradition of the horseman. But the horseman's battle isn't only with 4-wheeled blocks of aluminum and plastic… the stockman's ways are being lost to land preservation efforts that see a new future in wilderness restoration. Conservation groups throughout the western states strive to purchase vast blocks of land to promote and restore natural, native habitats without the effects of livestock grazing or agricultural management.

Land conservation groups are continuously looking to acquire more and more acreage for nature preserves. Little by little, land is being purchased for conservation all over the country, including recent acquisitions in Maine, Alabama, Tennessee, and Indiana. Grand County in Colorado saw a nature preserve land acquisition happen in 2023 when The Nature Conservancy closed on two conservation easements of 655 acres to be preserved. Adding to land previously donated for the cause by the same ranch, the preservation of these lands ensures that the traditions of the American West are honored and preserved. Over 2,600 acres are now in partnership to ensure a lasting legacy as an authentic guest ranch in Grand County.

However, some nature conservancy groups aren't as well received by the livestock community as others. The American Prairie Reserve in North-central Montana does not seem to have as friendly a following. The mission of the APR is to acquire large blocks of land to establish the largest nature reserve in the US. The grand vision entails 3.5 million acres of unfenced lands for American Bison and all walks of wildlife to roam as they once did prior to European colonization. While some local landowners are fully on board and willingly selling or donating their land to the cause, others are against the idea because the reserve will take prime rangeland that could be better used for growing cattle and sheep herds. The Bison restoration project also brings in the unnecessary risk of transferring Bovine Brucellosis into neighboring cattle herds, which cattle owners already spend enough money trying to fight with costly vaccinations.

With conservation groups and livestock owners generally on opposite sides of the spectrum, there is a steady effort to collaborate and work together for the benefit of all involved. Some scenarios might not seem as civil, according to the news feeds. So, this begs the question of what would be the best scenario to benefit both sides of the fence. Is the conservation of the American cowboy tradition the best way to preserve our Western heritage? Is keeping land as natural and untouched as the day Europeans set foot on this continent the best way to secure our nation's history?

A Motorized Landscape

Restoring native bison herds and ripping away miles of fence line might not be the only thing that's deteriorating the true Western cowboy lifestyle. Remember those 4-wheeled blocks of aluminum and plastic mentioned earlier? Modern side-by-sides (also known as the ranch "buggy," mules, gators, or UTVs) seem to be making a massive surge since the turn of the millennium. The convenience and ease of jumping into a do-it-all ranch mobile make the hassle and slowness of mounting up a horse all but obsolete.

The John Deere Gator (formerly the All Materials Transport, AMT) and the Kawasaki MULE burst onto the scene in the late 1980s with the concept of turning your average golf cart into a beefed-up workhorse made to withstand all the harshness and abuse that ranch work could dish out. These new-aged brute machines aimed to provide superior off-road capabilities, seating for two or even three people, and enough cargo area for any tools and equipment one could muster. More often than not, there was even enough room for an extra cooler with the rancher's favorite iced-down adult beverage. Convenience and ease were the goal, and boy, did it stick!

The popularity of the ranch buggy grew in leaps and bounds worldwide. The uses were limitless, and being able to zip around so quickly saved time, fuel, money, and effort. Using the now popular gator was quickly turning trendy, and you know what!? It was also fun cruising around in those grown-up toys. So, the evolution of the side-by-side began. The buggies suddenly started to grow taller, allowing for better ground clearance. The beds grew a little shorter to make way for a larger engine. A larger engine meant more power, which meant faster speeds. Faster speeds meant much more fun, and therefore, more people wanted to join in. So then, we need more seats! Decals, fancy rims, fun paint schemes, aggressively treaded tires, and a louder rumble from that large engine suddenly morphed the once simple ranch buggy into the most versatile off-road beast to date. These new-age side-by-sides could go ANYWHERE.

Any person interested in the off-roading activity either knows about or has been to Moab, Utah. With miles upon miles of high desert trails and two tracks, Moab offers some of the best off-roading experiences in the US. But with more and more side-by-sides showing up on the landscape, some of the environment may be paying a higher price than we realize. Two-track roads through many public lands are starting to appear. Off-road advocates are pushing government agencies to open more public land roads for motorized use. Old logging and settlement roads that have not seen motorized use for decades are now starting to hear the rumble of engines again.

The argument that motorized use isn't as invasive as cross-country traffic does hold merit to an extent. Side-by-side traffic is, in fact, limited to roads; however, the ends of these mountain roads are progressively reaching further and further into the depths of the forests. Roads that might have been forgotten and started to naturally restore themselves are seeing the use of tire tracks again. Dust kicked up from the fast-moving machines coats the immediate vegetation, making the plants struggle to photosynthesize due to the layers of debris on the top side of the leaves. The unnatural rumble of the engines puts unnecessary stress on animals that aren't familiar with the sound of the revving engines.

The development of side-by-sides may have been revolutionary for ranchers, farmers, and livestock producers worldwide. The progression of these machines seems to be the new age of the future, as they show no signs of slowing down. But is the ease and convenience worth seeing the age of the horse-mounted rancher slowly dwindle? The argument still stands that there will always be the need for horses… doesn't it? Will we start to see a drastic impact on the landscape and wildlife from the overuse of side-by-sides for recreation?

Mother Nature's 2 Cents worth

After all is said and done with roaming around in your ranch side-by-side, dusting off the roadside crops, removing trees to try and increase water flow to those irrigation ditches so the fertilizer can take… You pull up the news feed on your latest model smartphone to see another drought rolling in. "It never used to be this hot," you say to yourself. "Growing up, we had lots more snow and colder winters." Will these mild winters, dry summers, and record-high temps continue? These thoughts and questions are often brought up in conversation with a tinge of slight concern. Climate change might be coming in faster than we think.

Some people question whether climate change is even real. Theories of climate change being created by recent political oppositions to make the other side look bad have circulated through social media, accruing criticism and mockery. However, the theories of climate change date back much further than the last several years of political debates—the first recognitions and theories of the greenhouse gas effect date back to the early to mid-19^th century. In 1824, a French mathematician and physicist, Joseph Fourier, proposed the greenhouse effect and demonstrated that humid air warms to a greater temperature than drier air when heated by the sun. Later demonstrations in 1838 and 1856 by other French and American physicists showed that carbon dioxide heats even more than humid air, thus creating a greenhouse effect on the Earth's atmospheric temperatures.

Many indicators of climate change can be seen all over the world, and some even in our backyards. Everything from polar ice melt-offs, increasing ocean temperature and acidity, thawing permafrost layers, coral bleaching, mass die-offs of ocean life, and severe drought to brutal storm systems, rangeland springs drying up, and increases in bug and parasite infestations are clear evidence that climate change is taking hold and not letting go.

As stewards of the land, ranchers and farmers have always adapted to the conditions they face. This is simply part of the ongoing relationship between people and land. Most of the challenges seem to come in the form of a lack of water for livestock and irrigation. Soil depletion, crop scorch, and nutrient loss can also be tacked onto the list of plagues endured by agricultural producers. Whether through water conservation, soil health improvements, or exploring new strategies for land management, many are exploring ways to respond thoughtfully. The path forward isn't always clear, but asking the questions and staying informed is a meaningful place to start.