Hispanic leaders show support for Organ Mountains conservation

Hispanic leaders call on elected officials to protect Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks region

2012 outings are online now

March 3

Aden Lava Adventure

March 3

NM Wild completes a successful year of wilderness inventories

2011 was a very successful season for our wilderness inventory. Even though the forests were closed for six weeks in June and July, we surveyed all the trails in the Withington Wilderness and all but 19 of the 134 miles of trails in the Sandia Mountain Wilderness. See a summary and maps of our work on our web page. Click on the titles of the map thumbnails to see a full PDF of your work.

As you read the webpage, you will learn about our 2012 plans to aid the Lincoln National Forest Folks inventory the White Mountain and Capitan Wilderness Areas of their Smokey Bear Ranger District. We plan to start in March or early April, as soon as we receive a grant from the National Forest Foundation.

A mining law whose time has passed

By Robert M. Hughes and Carol Ann Woody

The New York Times, January 11, 2012

IN 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a mining law to spur the development of the West by giving hard-rock mining precedence over other uses of federal land. But the law has long since outlived its purpose, and its environmental consequences have been severe.

Mining claims for copper, gold, uranium and other minerals cover millions of those acres, and the law, now 140 years old, makes it nearly impossible to block extraction, no matter how serious the potential consequences. Soaring metal prices are now driving new mine proposals across the West.

Oregon’s Chetco River is one example. The river’s gin-clear waters teem with wild trout and salmon, including giant Chinook salmon tipping scales at more than 60 pounds. In 1988, Congress designated the Chetco a national wild and scenic river “to be protected for the benefit of present and future generations.”

But the river is now threatened by proposals to mine gold along almost half of its approximately 55-mile length. Suction dredges would vacuum up the river bottom searching for gold, muddying water and disrupting clean gravel that salmon need to spawn. Despite the Chetco’s rich fishery and status as a wild and scenic river, the United States Forest Service is virtually powerless to stop the mining because of the 1872 law.

Otero Mesa is a birdwatcher’s destination

By Stacy Stevens, Alamogordo Daily News, 12-27-11

Otero Mesa is a unique ecosystem. North America once had vast grasslands supporting a biodiversity unique in the world. The huge numbers of bison and pronghorns that once roamed our grasslands were part of the American dream.

During the past 150 years, much of that grassland has been used by agriculture and ranching to support our growing population. It is one of the main reasons that our country is so prosperous and great today. But, some grasslands have been used to the point of no return and reclaiming them may be impossible.

One of those grasslands is in the Southwest — the Chihuahuan desert grasslands. Through a combination of overgrazing and drought, the grasses that were once so plentiful have turned into desert scrub creosote and mesquite dunes, never to be returned to the grasslands so productive as they once were for agriculture and wildlife.

Otero Mesa represents one of New Mexico’s top 10 most important bird areas, according to the Audubon Society, and is the largest and wildest Chihuahuan desert grassland remaining on public lands in the United States. Today, we have a unique opportunity to save a significant portion of the plentiful widespread grassland in the Otero Mesa.

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