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Bingaman to hold hearing on Doña Ana wilderness bill
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., will hold a hearing this week on a bill that would protect more than 350,000 acres of land in Doña Ana County, including the Organ Mountains.
The Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks Wilderness Act, which is sponsored by Bingaman and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., will be considered by a subcommittee of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Bingaman chairs.
The Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests’ hearing will be held Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 366, in Washington, according to a release from Bingaman’s office. Among those testifying before the subcommittee will be Doña Ana County Commission Vice Chairman Oscar Vásquez Butler and Jerry Schickedanz, chairman of People for Preserving Our Western Heritage.
Butler supports the legislation, while Schickedanz and his group oppose it.
The senators introduced the legislation last month. The bill would designate 259,000 acres as wilderness and 100,000 acres as national conservation areas. In addition to the Organ Mountains, land on and around the Robledo, Doña Ana and Potrillo mountains would be protected.
The bill would also release 16,350 acres currently designated as a wilderness study area along the county’s border with Mexico. That’s intended to address concerns that law enforcement patrols are hampered by rules against motorized vehicles entering the protected area.
The conservation legislation has been sought for years by the Dona Ana County Wilderness Coalition, which has been led by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and includes a long list of businesses, local governments and others.
Schickedanz’s organization, a smaller group that includes ranchers, four-wheelers and the Village of Hatch, has been a vocal opponent. The group wants no wilderness at all and has proposed new, less-restrictive designations for the land, in addition to requiring the sale of 65,000 acres owned by the Bureau of Land Management.
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This meeting will go the way Bingaman wants it to go, just like all the meetings he has. The Wilderness Alliance controls the politicians from the local level to the state level. Bingaman has lost touch with his constituents and Like Jeff Steinborn only does the bidding of the Wilderness Alliance.
This is only for a media play that will give him press time and possible exposure on TV. If Bingaman wants to preserve the wilderness area, let him take a lesson from Yellowstone National Park. The government tried to outthink Mother Nature and control the Yellowstone and it turned in to a catastrophe. The politicians think they know better about what to do than does Mother Nature and she has been taking care of nature for thousands of years.
Curtail building in this area but leave it open to the public. Control of the use is one thing, but to make it a pristine area is ludicrous.
The area is quite spectacular and should be put off limits to farm animals and developers. But Jeff wants to go much farther and restrict drastcially what any citizen can do or where they can go on our land. That is wrong but rational thought around this is impossible in DC these days with the rich enviro-lobby paying off all the elected officials to do their bidding, not the people’s.
I have visited the Aguirre Springs state park, and the diversity of plant life is both bueatiful and amazing. What is shocking is the contrasting devastation of the land in surrounding areas that have been overgrazed. I am grateful that more land will be preserved for us to see how much better nature does than humans at creating beauty.
Sad to say, but Dr. J is right. The land grabs with the Omnibus bill were just the beginning. “Public land” is as much a misnomer as “honest politician”. They want to lock the land up and keep people off. Just ask communities in close proximity to other wilderness areas. Most of the greenies supporting this have probably never been in any of these areas. Much of the funding for this big push for land lockup came from out of state anyway. The idea it is a local effort is a joke.
These “hearings” are a joke. The deck is stacked by the chair, the good Senator has his mind made up, and no one can change it. Why are they wasting time and money on this farce? And we still have not seen the full bill, it could include much onerous language like Jeff’s last one making scientists and Boy Scouts felons for daring to study and appreciate the geology, minerology, and paleontology.
This is a great moment in Las Cruces history. The Organ Mountains are the crown jewel of Las Cruces. It is about time we have a Wilderness Bill that will finally protect this invaluable asset and its stunning landscape for future generations.