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The great outdoors giveaway
Congressman Stevan Pearce is an original co-sponsor of risky legislation that would result in the worst sell-off of our nation’s most scenic treasures in living memory.
By: Nathan Newcomer, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
www.nmpolitics.net
9/13/11
In celebration of our state’s wild public lands, last month many New Mexican hunters, anglers, hikers, horseback riders, and elected officials participated in New Mexico’s Great Outdoors Week, which featured a series of outdoor activities highlighting the importance of public lands in New Mexico.
As part of the celebration, Congressman Ben Ray Luján, State Land Commissioner Ray Powell, Questa Mayor Esther Garcia, and other leaders issued proclamations and statements supporting our state’s public lands. Their actions echo the bold vision of President Theodore Roosevelt when he created the National Park System, and remind us of the appreciation we hold for America’s immeasurable public lands.
And immeasurable they are.
More than two-thirds of Americans participate in outdoor recreation activities annually on our public lands – including hiking, hunting, camping, horseback riding, kayaking, fishing, and cross-country skiing – contributing $730 billion to the U.S. economy and $3.8 billion annually to New Mexico’s economy.
Many of our wildest public lands enjoy protections as wilderness because of their beauty and uniquely wild characteristics. In particular, roadless national forest areas act as critical watersheds for communities throughout the state. These watersheds recharge aquifers for many of our large cities and provide crucial water sources to acequias in northern New Mexico.
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National monument communities show continued growth, study says
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
9/12/11
Communities surrounding national monuments in the West have experienced continued economic growth since the lands were designated by the president or Congress, according to a report by a Bozeman, Mont.-based research firm.
The findings by Headwaters Economics show consistent increases in population, employment and personal and per-capita income in communities surrounding some of the largest national monuments in nine Western states.
The data do not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between the monuments and growth, said Ben Alexander, the firm’s associate director. But they do show that monuments and economic growth are “highly correlated.”
“In no case did we find that the creation of a national monument led to an economic downturn,” he said.
Instead, all communities surrounding the 17 monuments studied showed uninterrupted growth, he said.
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Preservation team is key to saving Chaco culture
By Vida Volkert
Gallup Independent
PUEBLO PINTADO, N.M. (AP) — Victor Beyale filled a crack in the stone wall with mortar and thought of the Ancient Ones.
“They must have been tougher,” he said. “Much tougher than us.”
The quiet mason from Nageezi picked up another round of mud mix from a bucket and carefully filled another crack in the ancient Pueblo Pintado three-story wall.
Working in the desert under the summer sun at noon makes it impossible not to think about the ancient masons.
Beyale was standing on a scaffold tucked against the wall on a recent Tuesday afternoon. He had a panoramic view of the desert land. Underneath, piles of dry shrub and rocks must have been sheltering all kinds of critters, mainly lizards and snakes. Beyale smirked. No angry snake could penetrate the hard leather of his safety shoes. He wore a hard hat, long sleeves, pants and sunglasses, and in a cooler in the car, he had cold drinks.
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A well-regulated wilderness
Michael Lipsky, Op-ed contributer
The New York Times
9/13/11
Last week, seven miles from the nearest road, setting up camp on a hillside looking west toward the blue-gray peaks of the North Cascades in Washington State, I found myself thinking about government.
Not that there was much of it in sight. I was hiking with my brother, sons and nephews in the Pasayten Wilderness, 830 square miles of forest and gentle mountains near the Canadian border. Only a decade ago livestock grazed its lush grasses. There were no rangers to check our reservations, no posted rules telling us where and how to set up camp.
If anything, the Pasayten seemed to prove that we don’t need government, that humans can be self-regulating: per the unofficial rules of backpacking, most of our campsites had been reused repeatedly, to minimize damage to the environment, and litter was rare.
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New Mexico needs an open debate on all trapping
Editorial, Albuquerque Journal
September 11, 2011
There’s been a lot of debate surrounding the state’s decision to once again allow trapping in the wolf recovery area in southwestern New Mexico.
There needs to be more, and it needs to cover more territory.
That’s because a strong argument can be made that trapping in and of itself is a barbarically cruel practice whose time has come and gone. Unless the economy goes completely south and we return to a hunter-gatherer society, the need for New Mexicans to use brutal steel jaws to catch wild animals for food and clothing is nil.
And if the fiscal solvency of the state Game and Fish Department depends on the $34,000 the furbearer trapping licenses brought in last season, then the state’s raccoons, badgers, weasels, foxes, ringtails, bobcats, muskrats, beavers and nutria have their work cut out for them.
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NM Wild’s annual Wild Guide is an indispensable guide to the best and wildest places in New Mexico. More info here.