"At the same time we are trying to preserve this landscape as an area devoted to wildlife, you've got this battle zone," McDonald said. "Those of us who live here have nothing to do with the battle."
To combat some of the environmental damage, the ranchers recently received a grant from the Bureau of Land Management to help pay for the huge daily trash pickups.
William McDonald rides in the Malpais Borderlands. He and other ranchers want to forestall development while ranching continues.
(Terry Greene Sterling For The Washington Post)
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Borderland ranchers have rendered first aid to immigrants dying of thirst or exposure. "It is a treacherous walk," said Anna Magoffin, who ranches in the Malpais Borderlands with her husband, Matt.
For several years, the Magoffins have also rendered another form of first aid. An endangered leopard frog survives on their ranch. When drought began drying up a frog pond, the Magoffins hauled water to fill the pond so the creatures could survive. But hauling the water was time-consuming and expensive.
The Magoffins and the Malpai ranchers worked out a "safe harbor" agreement with federal officials under the Endangered Species Act that allowed the transfer of the frogs to different ponds. A separate agreement enabled the Magoffins to pump water that would ensure that cattle and frogs would survive.
In a way, the Magoffins were themselves endangered. They struggled to meet rising expenses for their 18,000-acre ranch. Many Arizona ranchers have not been able to deal with such stresses and sell to developers. The number of Arizona ranches with 50 or more cows has dropped from 1,050 in 1993 to 650 in 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Magoffins sold conservation easements -- a commitment to maintain the land for ranching -- to the Malpai Borderlands Group, a move that "saved our skin," Anna Magoffin said. She declined to say how much the easements were sold for.
McDonald says the ranchers group has spent about $4.3 million, raised from foundations, to buy conservation easements for about 75,000 acres of private land that encompass 13 ranches, including the Magoffin ranch. The group holds the easements in trust, allowing ranchers to continue to work their land and keep it in their families.
Another challenge the group faces is that more and more of the people flooding into the area are seeking recreational access to public lands leased by ranchers. How to manage such use of the land has been a growing concern in the West in recent years.
"It is a reality that as more people move to Arizona, this area will be more attractive to others," McDonald said. He said the group needs to tackle the issue and will again strive for consensus as it works on possible solutions.
"The secret," he said, "is to have a reason for being that is greater than yourself, to have something that overwhelms the petty stuff. To say: 'Okay, well, I don't like this person, but by God I'm going to work with him, because what is at stake is bigger than both of us.' "
