By Lynn Scarlett / For the Sun-News

Posted: 05/17/2010 12:52:34 PM MDT

Last fall, Sen. Jeff Bingaman introduced the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act (S.B. 1689) after years of discussion within the Doña Ana County community about how best to preserve some of the nearby open space that contributes to the area’s quality of life. The legislation, reflecting those discussions, strives to sustain communities and their economies, conserve open space, and enhance border security.

Proposed wilderness designations sometimes arouse conflicting passions, but, recently, these debates have taken a new twist, with opponents importing border security into the artillery of arguments against such designations. Among border communities, such arguments touch an understandably raw nerve.

However, wilderness designations do not inherently reduce border security. Indeed, some provisions in Sen. Bingaman’s bill, also supported by Sen. Tom Udall, will improve security along a stretch of the New Mexico border. And, close collaboration between the Border Patrol and the Department of the Interior on many stretches of the border, including wilderness areas, have improved border security while sustaining land protections and community livelihoods.

Let there be no mistake – border security must be among the nation’s highest priorities. While serving as a senior executive for nearly eight years at the Interior Department under President George W. Bush, I sat with the parents of Park Ranger Kris Eggle after his murder at the hands of drug thugs along the border. More recently, I was shocked and dismayed at the tragic and vicious murder of rancher Rob Krentz along the border in Arizona. Better border security is not an option; it is imperative.

But public lands and special conservation designations are not the problem and are not impediments to improved border security. Two key issues shape the relationship of the land management agencies and the Border Patrol-placement of border protection infrastructure and the rules of engagement for Border Patrol operations on public lands, including wilderness.

Over the past five years, placement of border protection infrastructure on park lands, wildlife refuges, and in other protected areas has sometimes caused interagency tensions. Usually, interagency collaboration has resolved these issues, often resulting in better decisions.

In one instance, initial proposals were to place communications towers within a wilderness area. Through discussions with the National Park Service, other sites within existing rights-of-way were identified that gave similar communications coverage and ready access to the Border Patrol. In Texas, the National Park Service helped the Border Patrol by removing invasive plants along a river to enhance visibility and provided offices and housing space for the Border Patrol. At one wildlife refuge, managers facilitated use by the Border Patrol of an airstrip and worked with them to develop an equestrian facility on the refuge to serve a horse patrol unit-one of the most effective ways to patrol the border.

Across all public lands, Interior Department law enforcement agents serve as “force multipliers” -additional eyes and ears along the border. And Interior land managers, deeply familiar with local terrain, weather patterns and other details, have helped the Border Patrol improve the strategic placement of border infrastructure and modify fencing design for greater effectiveness while also reducing environmental damage.

Over the past decade, the second issue – rules of engagement for Border Patrol operations – has also received significant interagency attention to resolve potential conflicts and misunderstandings. Interior agencies cooperated with the Border Patrol in 2001, and again in 2005, 2006 and 2007, to develop memoranda of understanding to assure access by the Border Patrol to public lands, including wilderness areas.

The 2006 memorandum explicitly affirms that nothing in the memorandum is “intended to prevent [the Border Patrol] from exercising existing exigent/emergency authorities to access lands to conduct motorized off-road pursuit of suspected cross-border violators at any time, including in areas designated or recommended as wilderness .” As with any complex matter of land management and law enforcement, implementation challenges sometimes arise. However, both the Border Patrol and Interior agencies have worked hard to overcome these challenges and protect the public and our public lands.

Throughout the substantial public outreach and dialogue undertaken during development of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act, border security issues loomed large. To address these issues, the act proposes to release some 16,000 acres of land from an earlier status as a Wilderness Study Area in order to enhance Border Patrol monitoring and law enforcement along the border. Other lands were excluded from the wilderness designation to meet Border Patrol infrastructure needs.

Ultimately, it is the citizens who must decide what land designations they believe best advance environmental, community, economic and safety goals. But, there is nothing inconsistent about special land protections and border security. Indeed, the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act provides significant measures to strengthen border security while achieving other community, recreational, and open space goals.