Compromise gives huge boost to wilderness proposal

A proposal to protect hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Doña Ana County, including the Organ Mountains, got a huge boost today when the Las Cruces Homebuilders Association announced its support for a slightly reworked plan.

The homebuilders association has agreed to support the creation of national conservation area along the Organ Mountains of more than 90,000 acres – about 8,000 acres smaller than that originally proposed by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. In addition, the association is expected to endorse the wilderness alliance proposal to designate about 300,000 other acres of land in the county as wilderness areas.

A formal, joint announcement by the homebuilders association and wilderness alliance will be made at a news conference on Wednesday.

“The Las Cruces Homebuilders Association is proud to play a leadership role in protecting Doña Ana County’s incredible open space and public lands – the reason so many folks come to settle here,” Judd Singer, past president of the group and its representative for wilderness issues, said in a news release. “This conservation plan will be great for our community and it will be good for business.”

Jeff Steinborn, Southern New Mexico director for the wilderness alliance and a state representative, said the agreement creates a new proposal only slightly smaller than the original 400,000-acre plan the group first proposed. He said the new plan gives up some land further from the Organ Mountains that homebuilders wanted for potential development, but, in exchange, some land closer to the mountains has been added to the proposed conservation area.

“I applaud the homebuilders association for their leadership in working to protect Doña Ana County’s most important natural public lands,” Steinborn said. “… We have come together for the benefit of our community.”

Steinborn said he hoped the compromise would lead to federal legislation.

Consensus could lead to legislation

The proposal by Steinborn’s group quickly gained traction when it was first unveiled several months ago, earning the endorsements of all local governments, more than 200 local businesses and organizations and several newspapers.

But in early August, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., held a meeting on the proposal in Las Cruces. He invited a number of opponents of the proposal to speak, but only invited Steinborn and one other person to represent supporters. Pearce admittedly is skeptical about wilderness areas and was accused of giving unfair attention to opponents of the plan.

Pearce’s meeting did give momentum to the arguments of those opposed to the wilderness proposal, including ranchers and off-road groups. In the weeks that followed, both U.S. senators from New Mexico made statements indicating that they weren’t in a hurry to sponsor legislation to create the wilderness and conservation areas. Such legislation is the only way to secure the land designations.

Neither senator was likely to sponsor such legislation without greater consensus. Today’s news is a huge boost to the proposal, a compromise between conservationists and industry that “strikes the right balance,” Steinborn said.

Las Cruces Mayor Pro Tem Dolores Connor praised the compromise, saying it is “a strong plan for the protection of our Organ Mountains.”

“We are one community seeking a common goal for ourselves and our children and grandchildren,” she said.

Jim Bates, a homebuilders association member and leader of several sportsman groups, said getting the association to sign on to the proposal “reinforces the notion that all these diverse groups and interests can put aside their separate agendas in an effort to achieve a greater good for the community and region as a whole. We have an opportunity at hand to work together to protect our unique natural heritage.”

The formal announcement will be made at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Doña Ana County Government Center on Motel Boulevard.

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that the wilderness proposal is about 200,000 acres, not 300,000 acres, and that the total proposal is about 300,000 acres, not 400,000 acres.