Albuquerque Journal
EDITORIAL

Oct. 4, 2009

Organ Mountains Sites Deserve To Be Saved

The Organ Mountains provide a dramatic backdrop to the vibrant and growing community of Las Cruces, the state’s second largest city, much as the Sandias do to Albuquerque. More than 30 years ago, at the behest of now retired U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, the Sandias were designated as a protected wilderness area.

Now, our U.S. senators, Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman, have introduced the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act. It would designate 259,000 acres as wilderness and create a 100,850-acre conservation area around the Organ and Doña Ana Mountains and parts of Broad Canyon. The Bureau of Land Management would manage the land to protect it from development, but current uses, such as hunting and grazing, would continue.

The area has been under study since 2006, when Domenici proposed protecting more than 200,000 acres of federal land in Doña Ana County as wilderness, creating a 35,000-acre conservation area around the Organ Mountains and allowing the BLM to sell off about 65,000 acres. It didn’t fly at the time, and years of negotiations ensued.

Now a fairly broad consensus has been reached by some interests — conservationists, hunters, business people, hikers, local governments and even some ranchers — that the areas should be protected, although other ranchers and off-road enthusiasts still have concerns over access.

The bill is expected to be heard this week in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Bingaman chairs. This is a rare opportunity to set aside some natural resource gems for the enjoyment of generations to come.