{"id":19785,"date":"2010-07-21T15:23:13","date_gmt":"2010-07-21T21:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=19785"},"modified":"2010-07-21T17:17:54","modified_gmt":"2010-07-21T23:17:54","slug":"senate-committee-oks-wilderness-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/07\/senate-committee-oks-wilderness-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate committee OKs wilderness bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Organ Mountains (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Members of the\u00a0Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee<\/a> gave unanimous approval today to a bill that would designate hundreds of thousands of acres in Do\u00f1a Ana County as wilderness.<\/p>\n

With that approval from 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans, the Organ Mountains \u2013 Desert Peaks Wilderness Act<\/a> now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur state has been trying since the Reagan administration to establish wilderness areas in Do\u00f1a Ana County,\u201d said Sen.\u00a0Jeff Bingaman<\/a>, D-N.M. and one of two sponsors of the bill. \u201cI\u2019m pleased the bill was cleared by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and that it is now ready for approval by the full Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other sponsor, Sen.\u00a0Tom Udall<\/a>, D-N.M., said he commended Bingaman, chairman of the energy committee, \u201cfor leading the way on his committee\u2019s passage of this landmark legislation, which will protect the incredible landscapes of the Organ Mountains and Do\u00f1a Ana County\u2019s other natural treasures for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to its swift consideration and passage by the full Senate,\u201d Udall said.<\/p>\n

The legislation would designate almost 250,000 acres as\u00a0wilderness<\/a> and 100,000 acres as\u00a0national conservation areas<\/a>. In addition to the Organ Mountains, land on and around the Potrillo, Robledo and Do\u00f1a Ana mountains would be protected.<\/p>\n

Update, 5:15 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilderness proponents are trotting out a number of people to praise today\u2019s committee vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s vote shows that collaboration and consensus building pays off,\u201d Las Cruces City Councilor Gill Sorg said in a news release.\u00a0\u201cSenator Bingaman\u00a0should be commended for reaching out, listening to concerns, and making changes to his legislation to make it as strong as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy adjusting boundaries, accepting recommendations from border Security experts, and making tough decisions, Senator Bingaman and Senator Udall worked to enhance national security, while also achieving broad community support and desired conservation goals with the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act,\u201d Lynn Scarlett, former\u00a0deputy secretary of the Interior\u00a0under\u00a0President George W. Bush, said in the release.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith so much security stakeholder input, this bill is the best example of how to preserve both the security on the border and preserve our pristine land,\u201d Paul Deason of Las Cruces, who sits on the U.S.\u00a0Justice Department\u2019s\u00a0Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council, said in the release.<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting our spectacular natural areas \u2013 like the Organs and the Robledos \u2013 is vital to protecting the quality of life that we enjoy here, and that is key to a thriving business climate,\u201d said Renee Frank, board chair for the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce. \u201cOur incredible open spaces and wild mountains are the reasons many people and businesses move to Las Cruces to make their livelihoods and raise their families.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: Members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee gave unanimous approval today to a bill that would designate hundreds of thousands of acres in Do\u00f1a Ana County as wilderness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[115,147,116],"class_list":["post-19785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-environment","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}