Restoring the Pitchfork Ranch

Restoring the Pitchfork Ranch: How Healing a Southwest Oasis Holds Promise for Our Endangered Land

The Pitchfork Ranch is more than another dusty homestead tucked away in a corner of the Southwest. It is a place with a story to tell about the most pressing crisis to confront humankind. It is a place where one couple is working every day to right decades of wrongs. It is a place of inspiration and promise. It is an invitation to join the struggle for a better planet.

In this Speaker Series talk, A. Thomas Cole will tell the story of a decades-long habitat restoration project in southwestern New Mexico. Cole will share the past and present history of a very special ranch south of Silver City, which is home to a rare ciénaga wetland, a fragile desert grassland ecosystem, archaeological sites, and a critical wildlife corridor in a drought-stricken landscape.

Today, after 21 years of restoration work by Cole and his wife Lucinda, the 11,300 acres that make up the Pitchfork Ranch provide an important setting for carbon sequestration, wildlife habitats, and the reintroduction of endangered or threatened species. Restoring the Pitchfork Ranch weaves together stories of mine strikers, cattle ranching, and the climate crisis into an important and inspiring call to action. For anyone who has wondered how they can help, the Pitchfork Ranch provides an inspiring way forward.

After thirty-two years as a small-town general practicing lawyer in Casa Grande, Arizona⎯in which A.T. Cole successfully defended a dozen murder cases, two of which risked the death penalty; served as co-council in the largest personal injury/product liability verdict in Arizona history; and served as chair of the Arizona Humanities Council⎯Cole and his wife Lucinda retired to the Pitchfork Ranch in southwest New Mexico. Their focus is restoration of a ciénaga, habitat for wildlife, and thwarting the climate and companion crises. They hope to draw down the carbon they spewed during their lives and encourage others to do the same. Cole has been banned from Walmart for life.

Rooted: The Natural History of People in the Southwest is the second installment of NHI’s humanities speakers series exploring the relationship between people and place in Arizona and the broader Southwest. Explore how humans have shaped and been shaped by the landscape of our region over time in this series of talks from archaeologists, Indigenous historians, ethnobotanists, activists, and authors.

This program was made possible by Arizona Humanities and sponsored by Findlay Subaru of Prescott.