Date a reminder of preservation need
From the Albuquerque Journal, 5/20/2010
Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the Sandia Wilderness Addition, which added an important piece of this Albuquerque backdrop to the National Wilderness Preservation System.
“This month we celebrate the vision our lawmakers had three decades ago to complete protection of a key piece of our natural heritage– the spectacular Sandia Mountains,” said Stephen Capra, the executive director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance.
“The large numbers of people who visit this treasure every year are testament to the belief that some wild areas and quiet recreation should remain so in perpetuity,” Capra said.
“Thanks to New Mexicans ranging from Pete Domenici to Clinton Anderson to Aldo Leopold, we have a wonderful public lands legacy in New Mexico– one I hope to continue,” said U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-NM.
“Today in New Mexico, after more than 30 years we have the opportunity to carry on that vision, and call on Congress to move quickly to enact the protection of sizeable amounts of public land, including the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act and the Rio Grande del Norte National Conservation Area Establishment Act,” Capra said.
“These proposals will forever protect special places in both northern and southern New Mexico, and help raise the amount of lands protected. Currently only 2 percent of our state has wilderness protection, making us last in the West in the amount of protected public lands,” Capra said.
The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act, introduced by Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, would designate nearly 260,000 acres of wilderness in Dona Ana County near Las Cruces, and create a 150,000-acre National Conservation Area. The Rio Grande bill, also sponsored by the New Mexico senators, would protect 235,000 acres northwest of Taos as a conservation area, including more than 21,000 acres of designated wilderness.
“Protecting wilderness– our common ground– is a New Mexican value. Over the years it has been championed by people on both sides of the aisle,” Capra said. “It is fitting that the Sandia Wilderness Addition was sponsored by former Republican Senator Pete Domenici, who said at the time that the area ’forms a beautiful natural backdrop for the city which all the residents can enjoy.’”
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