Their View:

It’s our time to come together on wilderness

By Jeff Steinborn, John Muñoz, Elisa Cundiff, Tony Popp, Sandy Schemnitz and Don Patterson

For the Sun-News

To the great disappointment of many, Congress ran out of time before taking action on the Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act.

Because this important legislation was not passed, we have let slip a historic opportunity to permanently protect the Organ Mountains and create a national conservation area at its foothills.

We have missed a key opportunity to strengthen our border security in the Potrillo Mountains.

We have missed this moment to permanently protect the petroglyph-lined canyons of Broad Canyon and the Sierra de las Uvas and Robledo Mountains that frame them.

And, we missed an excellent chance to expand the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument.

Our system of government makes it easier to defeat an idea than to accomplish something meaningful.

Unfortunately, the partisan gridlock that prevented many important issues from being debated and voted on in the US Senate also precluded action on the wilderness act.

Sens. Bingaman and Udall showed tremendous leadership by developing this legislation, and they are to be commended for their commitment to our community.

Locally, our way of life in the Mesilla Valley has been defined for hundreds of years by our lands and the abundance they give us.
There is little doubt that in the absence of proper planning, many of these lands will eventually be lost forever. This gradual loss of pristine open space will impact us, but take an even greater toll on future generations.

Wilderness conservation has long been a bipartisan affair. After all, it was under President Reagan that most of the areas in Doña Ana County proposed for protection in the wilderness act were given temporary wilderness status, called “wilderness study areas,” designed to protect nationally important public lands while their fate was deliberated by Congress.

It was Sen. Pete Domenici, a Republican, who first proposed in 2005 that we take the next step and protect all of these wilderness study areas, including the Potrillo Mountains, as federal wilderness areas.

Now, Sens. Bingaman and Udall, Democrats, continue working on wilderness conservation efforts.

When the wilderness act stalled in the Senate, we missed an historic opportunity. Unfortunately, New Mexico’s track record of protecting its incredible and diverse natural lands is underwhelming we lag behind other western states in protected wilderness.

While it is widely appreciated how important these natural areas are to us in New Mexico, legislation to protect them has been limited.

With the failure to pass the wilderness act, where do we go from here?

Will Congress and our community kick the can to the next generation as has been done for almost 30 years since many of our mountains were given interim wilderness protection?

Or will a collective desire to do what’s best for our community, our environment, and future generations lead to a solution that permanently protects gems like the Organ Mountains and Broad Canyon?

Fortunately, in the absence of congressional action, wilderness study areas enjoy broad protection. In fact, only Congress and the president can remove these protections. Thanks to this designation, the eight wilderness study areas in Doña Ana County, including the Organ Mountains, will continue to be managed as wilderness. If the hyper-partisan and election-driven atmosphere in Congress continues to preclude meaningful action, these lands will enjoy some security until a future Congress in prepared to step up to the plate.

Challenges to permanently protecting our Organ Mountains and other nearby natural treasures remain.

However, with enough goodwill and compromise, and the support of local and national elected officials alongside local stakeholders,we can break through this logjam to accomplish something truly historic and important for our community.
We can stand up to our responsibility and not punt away the job of protecting Doña Ana County’s natural heritage to the next generation.

The question remains, will we?

John Muñoz is with the Hispano Chamber of Commerce de las Cruces; Elisa Cundiff is with the Green Chamber of Commerce; Tony Popp is with the Doña Ana County Associated Sportsmen; Sandy Schweitz is with the Southwest Consolidated Sportsmen; Don Patterson is with the Back Country Horsemen, Lower Rio Grande Chapter; and Jeff Steinborn is with the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance.