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Time runs out on wilderness bill
The Organ Mountains (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid abandoning hopes of passing an omnibus public lands bill during the lame duck session, it appears that securing the permanent wilderness designation for hundreds of thousands of acres in Doña Ana County is going to have to wait.
Some think wilderness supporters have missed what may be their best chance for a long time of winning the federal government’s highest level of protection for the land.
Reid confirmed Tuesday that plans for an omnibus public lands bill in the lame duck session of Congress are dead. U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., had hoped to pass such a bill and was being pushed to include his Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks Wilderness Act in it.
Not any more.
“In the short time remaining, the Senate is planning to vote on START, a bill to aid 9/11 first responders, a continuing resolution to fund the government for a few months, and some judicial nominees,” Bingaman spokeswoman Jude McCartin said Tuesday. “So at this point, it seems unlikely that the wilderness bill will come up for a vote before Congress adjourns.”
Asked whether Bingaman plans to try again next year, McCartin said he will “give it some thought in the coming weeks and decide in the new year.”
Some believe wilderness supporters have missed their best chance in a long time to assign the permanent designation to the land in Doña Ana County. The current congressman representing the area, Democrat Harry Teague, is being replaced in January by Republican Steve Pearce, who has not supported designating land in Doña Ana County as wilderness in the past.
And the U.S. House will be controlled by Republicans starting in January.
Teague was never a proponent of the bill. While he said he supported “efforts to conserve” the land, he also said he remained concerned about border security despite efforts by Bingaman and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., to address such concerns.
Wilderness supporters have been fighting for years for legislation that would permanently protect the land in Doña Ana County. Much of it already has the temporary wilderness study area designation.
A prior version of this posting asserted that Pearce “opposes wilderness altogether,” but Pearce has not made such a definite statement that NMPolitics.net could locate, so the article has been updated to remove that language.
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Everybody knows who’s who in this scuffle, and it will go on to the end of time. Nobody on the greed side will change. None of them are nascent Christians who will have an enlightenment while on their way to Santa Fe to present a land-stealing bill. Some supporters of wilderness now may succumb to greed and sell out to exploiters in various ways. I’ve seen it happen with redwoods. It’ll happen here.
Purse in an earlier infestation attempted to grab 60,000 acres, as did our still-living sainted ex-senator, of American public land. It will happen again.
Time to up our game.
Wilderness is a disease of the mind.
Harry Truman said it best in his speech on Conservation at the Dedication of Everglades National Park – December 6, 1947:
“The battle for conservation cannot be limited to the winning of new conquests. Like liberty itself, conservation must be fought for unceasingly to protect earlier victories. There are always plenty of hogs who are trying to get natural resources for their own personal benefit!
Public lands and parks, our forests and our mineral reserves, are subject to many destructive influences. We have to remain constantly vigilant to prevent raids by those who would selfishly exploit our common heritage for their private gain. Such raids on our natural resources are not examples of enterprise and initiative. They are attempts to take from all the people just for the benefit of a few.
As always in the past when the people’s property has been threatened, men and women whose primary concern has been their country’s welfare have risen to oppose these selfish attacks. We can be thankful for their efforts, as we can be grateful for the efforts of citizens, private groups, local governments, and the State of Florida which, joined in the common purpose, have made possible the establishment of the Everglades National Park.
The establishment of this park is an object lesson and an example to the entire Nation that sound conservation depends upon the joint endeavors of the people and their several governments. Responsibility is shared by town and State and the Federal Government, by societies and legislatures and all lovers of nature.”
There has been open, honest and frank discussions of Wilderness for the Organ Mountains since the 1960′s. So maybe we should wait another 40 years while developments start being built on foothills. That would be the height of foolishness and inane! It is sad that there is opposition to preserving our beautiful Organ Mountains that makes Las Cruces such an attraction to residents and visitors.
It will make some people cry to see the uncertain future of our mountains. Click on video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-FZsysQNw
Unfortunately this could be Las Cruces’ future!
I trust that next year when there are efforts to protect lands in Dona Ana County come again to the forefront, that there will be honest discussion about what lands need protection and how to best to protect these lands without pushing only for wilderness designation. There are other ways, not just wilderness designation. There also needs to be an honest discussion of border security and and not the brush off that the border is safer than it has ever been, witness the Border Patrolman killed last week.
Upthehill, don’t misunderstand me, this land needs to be preserved and kept free of developers and developments, but Wilderness designation is like the nuclear option. There are many millions of acres of land preserved from developers without this nuclear option. If Jeff and Tom took the time, and actually listened to others, this could be too. But, as with most things Jeff and Tom try to do around lands, this bill is poorly written with broad, strict language to satisfy their enviro-lobbyist funders and bosses (probably written by those people as well), and was hastily thrown together without any allowed input from anyone but environmentalists. The “hearings” they held were just perfunctory shams, they had everything set in stone long before anyone was allowed to read anything. The idea is good and worthy and should be pursued, this bill and the flawed, biased, and partisan process is wrong and should be stopped.
Dr. J, well envision the future development of our beautiful mountains where there is already land for sale, i.e., Phillappou’s 100 acres near Organ on the western slope of the Organs now for sale and other combination’s of old mining claims at various locations toward the south. The military conserves the mountains north of st Augustine pass and I haven’t heard law enforcement or ATVers raising a stink. I agree with Cong Teague, there needs to be some protections and conservation initiatives whether or not it is the Wilderness designation or a conservation designation allowing more access, my preference. I can only hope for the best with Pearce now representing us, hope that doesn’t include too much damage because of profit. I hope he doesn’t deal with mining companies on the current mining trusts owning most of the mountain area including the 500 acres on the east side for selfish and/or political reasons. I believe the vast majority of Las Crucesions do not want to see houses covering the slopes of the Organs.
Now we have Congressman Stevan Pearce – an odious and extremist anti-Wilderness proponent. He is a throw-back to the notorious New Mexican Senator and Interior Secretary Albert Fall of the 1910s and 1920s, who, like Congressman Pearce and his cohorts are advocates for selling off all public lands to the highest bidder or biggest campaign contributors. He would open the Organ Mountains and its foothills to exploitation by greedy developers and mineral extraction speculators for a quick buck and easy money. He would turn over our Organ Mountains over to private interests! This is despicable and against the public interest.
An excellent situation, for the next Congress will not allow this egregious lockup of our lands from us.