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The emergence of an environmental history of tourism

In Far West Texas beyond the Pecos River, a series of mountain ranges rise up over high desert grasslands. One of these, the Davis Mountains, is home to a unique sky island of relic species that survived at cooler elevations as the region became drier and hotter. In high canyons, rare bird species flit among groves of ponderosa pines, and persistent hikers sometimes stumble upon small stands of aspen. As early as the 1920s, the region started to develop a tourist economy, with a historic frontier fort, ‘star parties’ at McDonald Observatory, and a state park. Local ranchers supplemented their incomes by offering guests from steamy Houston or Dallas a dude ranch experience or simply the enjoyment of cool, fresh air on the front porch of a small cabin. One of the more extensive ranges in Texas, the Davis Mountains caught the attention of the National Park Service in the 1980s when park service employees studied the possibility of establishing a national park around the highest peaks. In many ways, the national park might have complimented the local economy if the government had found willing sellers, but the park never materialised. Given the absence of federal land in Texas, Guadalupe Mountains National Park to the north and Big Bend National Park to the south had been cobbled together through the purchase of private ranch land. Any new park would depend on successful negotiation with ranchers in order to acquire land. Local landowners in the Davis Mountains, however, quickly organised an angry opposition movement. The Davis Mountains Trans Pecos Heritage Association represented landowners opposed to the park and warned of biologists trespassing on private property to explore the range for rare and endangered species. They saw environmentalists and the federal government as threats to private property rights, to their traditional way of life, and to cattle ranching’s economic survival. In the years since, The Nature Conservancy purchased the heart of the range and itself became an object of derision for some ranchers. The international environmental organisation created a nature preserve only open to the public a few days a year. It also established conservation easements on neighbouring ranches where the Conservancy works with ranchers to manage grasslands in a sustainable