Set Organ Mountains Aside as Wilderness

Albuquerque Journal Editorial – Monday, December 13, 2010

The needle-like spires of the Organ Mountains rise from the desert floor east of Las Cruces in dramatic relief. Their rugged beauty attracts hikers, climbers, photographers and botanists — more than 800 vascular plant species and about 30 species of ferns grow there.

The mountain range and thousands of other acres of federal land including some near the border would be protected if Congress approves The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act, introduced in 2009 by Democratic Senators Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman. The idea was first proposed for study in 2006 by then U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, a Republican. The act would designate 259,000 acres in Doña Ana County as wilderness and 100,000 acres as a national conservation area.

To allay critics’ legitimate fears that designating some areas near the border would make the area a haven for drug and human smuggling, the senators amended the legislation to create a five-mile buffer of non-wilderness where the Border Patrol may do its job virtually unrestricted.

The amendment also gives the Border Patrol greater than normal flexibility in the wilderness area. Agents will be allowed to enter the wilderness in vehicles when in hot pursuit of suspects, low-level surveillance flights will be allowed and an east-west access road will be built through the Potrillo Mountains inside wilderness boundaries that the Border Patrol can use to get ahead of illegal immigrants it spots further south.

Supporters point out that overall the number of illegal immigrants apprehended on New Mexico’s border has declined nearly 90 percent since 2005.

The new version of the legislation appears to address critics’ concerns and gives law enforcement room to do its job.
Congress should take this opportunity to set aside these striking resources for generations to come.