Pearce decries Gila trail closures plan at Silver City rally

Terrance Vestal, Las Cruces Sun-News
Posted: 03/05/2011 09:59:46 PM MST
http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_17549285

SILVER CITY – More than 700 New Mexicans from around the state packed the Grant County Business and Convention Center on Saturday at a rally opposing a U.S. Forest Service plan to close some roads and trails in the Gila Wilderness.

U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce, who was the featured speaker at the event organized by Keep Our Forest Open, said the road closure proposal is just a continuation of the federal government’s “War on the West.”

Forest Service officials say they are responding to sportsmen’s comments and concerns voiced last fall and have developed a new preferred alternative for its motorized travel plan. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement released recently lays out six alternatives, ranging from the status quo to substantial changes in which motorized vehicles can be used.

The Forest Service’s preferred option – Alternative G – falls near the middle. It would reduce redundant routes and the total mileage of open roads in the forest to about 3,300 miles, but allows the network of ATV-width trails to expand.

Pearce said the plan was part of a larger assault by the federal government on Western lands and values.

“This is a war on our lifestyles, quality of life, our history and our culture,” Pearce said, adding that the U.S. Forest Service was overstepping its legal powers and its proposal is unconstitutional. “We’re talking about human justice and what is right and what is wrong.”

Pearce said the Forest Service plan would limit access to the disabled and restrict the general area of wilderness that people could use to hike, hunt, fish and camp.

“And you don’t go camping out in the wilderness so you can hear people talking in the tent right next to you,” Pearce said. “You go to the forest for solitude, to be alone, to find the peace of mind that you can’t find in the everyday.”

The congressman said the federal government has over-taxed and over-regulated the state’s primary industries, such as oil and gas, mining, ranching and farming, and killed jobs. By closing forest roads, Pearce said the federal government would hurt tourism and gross receipts taxes for local governments and small businesses, such as wilderness outfitters and related industries.

“You look at the people of Egypt and how they were speaking out against a government that had gotten too strong,” Pearce said. “President Obama got their message; and he might not have gotten our message just yet but he will. The message of this meeting will reverberate back to Washington D.C.”

Pearce said Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, has recognized the federal government’s “War on the West” and is committed to providing assistance.

Those who spoke at the rally included officials from Grant, Dona Ana, Luna, Catron and Sierra counties. Most pushed the point that the federal government was overstepping its bounds and infringing on the rights of the American people.

Grant County Commission Chairman Brett Kasten said the fight over road closures was not about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party but stems from the Forest Service’s flawed Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Kasten said the agency’s actions are based on data from other parts of the country that are not relevant to the Southwest, and said the road inventory is incomplete.

The Grant County Commission on Feb. 25 passed a resolution supporting the Forest Services Alternative B plan, which would leave all roads and trails as they are, which is the same alternative that Keep Our Forest Open supports.

Another group in Silver City, who rallied about 80 people Friday, is pushing for the Alternative G plan, saying that containing where motorized vehicles could go in the forest would help maintain the watershed and stop harmful erosion. Some of their members have said Pearce is “spreading fear.”

But Pearce at Saturday’s rally said he wasn’t fear mongering.

“This is freedom of speech,” Pearce said.

The Rev. Mike Skidmore, chairman of the board of directors for Keep Our Forest Open, said those attending the event needed to get organized like the environmental groups.

“The problem is, unlike the environmentalists, we have jobs,” Skidmore said. “They get to sit around and get their government grants while the rest of us are working.”

Marita Noon, executive director of the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy, railed against environmentalist, calling them “watermelons.”

“That’s because they’re green on the outside and red on the inside,” Noon said. “It’s all about control to them. And that’s why I say, ‘Smash the watermelons, smash the watermelons.’”

Terrance Vestal can be reached at (575) 538-5893, ext. 5803.

For your information

•The comment period on the Gila National Forest’s Travel Management Plan ends 11:59 p.m. Monday.

•Comments can be e-mailed through the Forest Service’s website at www.fs.usda.gov

•Go to the Quicklinks box and click on “Travel Management Rule.”

•Comments can be dropped off at the Silver City office of the Gila National Forest at 3005 E. Camino del Bosque.