The Jornada was established from withdrawn public domain lands by Presidential Executive Order #1526 signed by President
William H. Taft five months after New Mexico was granted statehood in early 1912. Originally named the Jornada Range Reserve, the facility was established within the Bureau of Plant Industry of the USDA, but transferred to the
United States Forest Service (USFS) in 1915. The USFS quickly established a research program to address the principal objectives cited in the 1912 Executive Order including: 1) quantifying carrying capacity of native rangeland for livestock use, 2) establish a system of
forage utilization consistent with growth requirements of desert forage plants, and 3) examine the possibility of rangeland improvements by introduction of new plants, seed planting, and conservation of runoff. These objectives were seen as critical to addressing the wide spread problems of range
land degradation that had been documented across the American southwest at the end of the 19th century. == Sources ==