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A land without fences (continued)
The Darhad Valley itself is an ancient lake bed from the last ice age, its sediments resting under the grass that feeds the valley's herds. But in some places, to the worry of local herders, the grass is gone and sand dunes have formed.
"During the 70-some years of socialist government, grazing was administered by highly regulated collectives," Montagne said. "In 1990, those dissolved and families returned to grazing with their private herds, which have increased in size."
With more grazing, the grass and vegetative skin that covers the ancient lake bed have been nicked in some areas. The wind then blows sand into dunes that cover more grassland. In other areas, long-established dunes may be spreading.
| "It wasn't until I left Montana—where I had grown up—and
saw the struggles of the Mongolians to protect their landscape that it sunk into me that
conservation was something I had to do." —Kelly Pohl
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Austin Allen, an MSU soil and water science graduate from Travelers Rest, S.C., and Lawrence helped work on the dune problem in 2007 by creating a baseline map of their extent. The pair lived with herding families, visited with them about their grazing practices and learned their ideas on what might stop or slow the dune growth.
"They tend to graze most heavily closest to home," Allen said. "The vegetation doesn't have a chance to recover. We discussed with them that moving their animals more frequently would be better for the vegetation."
One of the lessons students learn in Mongolia is that development work takes patience. A fenced enclosure built in 2006 to illustrate how much vegetation grew when it wasn't grazed had been torn down by the time the team returned in 2007, the timber used for a different enclosure that was planted with trees.
"Working in Mongolia brings some reality to what we were doing academically at MSU," Lawrence said. "It is a lot different putting these ideas into practice in the field."
Better health brewing
The 10,000 Mongolians in the Darhad Valley have limited health care. Renchinlhumbe's People's Hospital, its name a holdover from the communist era, has two to three physicians, nurses and a small staff.
When Montagne first visited Renchinlhumbe, the hospital couldn't afford to stock even the most basic medicines—not even ibuprofen. BioRegions gave the hospital a $150 grant, money enough that years later, the pharmacy is financially self-sustaining.
For this and its many other projects, BioRegions has received support from the Stanley Family Foundation and the Willow Springs Foundation, family foundations with board members who live in the Gallatin Valley. Hal Stanley and Montagne skied together competitively in high school, and Kent Brodie, with the Willow Springs Foundation, has been a strong supporter of BioRegions' work.
In 2007 and 2008, the WWAMI Medical Education Program partnered with BioRegions to bring MSU pre-med and first-year medical students to the Darhad to assist a health team with basic screenings. Led by Susan Gibson from MSU's WWAMI Program and Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, the health group conducted glucose screenings for diabetes, urinalysis for kidney problems and blood pressure testing for nearly 400 residents. The Mongolians in this region are fairly healthy people, according to the data collected.
In 2008, Zach Meyers, chief resident in the Montana Family Medicine Residency program of the Billings Clinic, was the first American physician to accompany the health group. His presence fulfilled a long-standing goal of BioRegions and George Saari, the late Bozeman physician and associate director of WWAMI, to have an American physician serve as mentor to American and Mongolian medical students.
"It was an incredible experience for me," said Madeline Turner of Forsyth, the WWAMI medical student who went in 2008. "No other medical student in America can say their first patients were Mongolians."
Because of their lifestyle, the people of the Darhad face frostbite and injuries from horseback riding and working with livestock. Brucellosis and water-borne illnesses afflict the herding families as well.
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| The town of Renchinlhumbe in the Darhad Valley. The Khoridol Saridag Mountains are in the background. Photo courtesy of BioRegions International. |
> Fall 2008 Contents
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