{"id":2063,"date":"2007-08-06T03:06:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-06T09:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/pearce-to-hold-controversial-wilderness-meeting\/"},"modified":"2007-08-06T03:06:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-06T09:06:00","slug":"pearce-to-hold-controversial-wilderness-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/pearce-to-hold-controversial-wilderness-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearce to hold controversial wilderness meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>, R-N.M., has stepped into a new controversy by holding a meeting today on wilderness study areas in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename> and putting together a panel of speakers whose only member participating in his capacity as an elected official is from Catron<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

State Rep. Jeff Steinborn<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, will be participating in the panel, but was invited in his capacity as southern New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance<\/a>. Steinborn\u2019s group is leading a campaign<\/a> that has widespread support to create 10 permanent wilderness areas in the county.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Upset that no local government officials from Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename> were invited to a meeting about Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>\u2019s wilderness study areas, Oscar Vasquez Butler<\/a> and Bill McCamley<\/a>, Do\u00f1a Ana County Commissioners and Democrats, wrote a letter<\/a> to Pearce on Wednesday expressing concern.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

McCamley is vying for the right to take on Pearce next year.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile your press announcement states that you want to hear from stakeholders, it appears you have only invited a narrow group of individuals who are almost exclusively opposed to protected wilderness in Do\u00f1a Ana County,\u201d the letter states. \u201cAs elected officials, we are specifically troubled that you did not invite a single public official from Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pearce has billed the meeting as a \u201clistening session\u201d and said, in a news release, that he hopes to \u201chear the various solutions coming from community leaders on how to address these challenges\u201d of creating \u201ca cleaner and more vibrant environment\u201d through managing the land.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cDo\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> has made tremendous progress and I hope this dialogue is helpful in continuing the progress,\u201d he said. \u201cHow we decide to use the land is a critical question and part of the foundation in building a better New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The county and all four incorporated communities in it have approved resolutions \u2013 most unanimously \u2013 in support of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance proposal, which also has the support of 170 area businesses and the endorsements of several newspapers.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

Pearce\u2019s panel, in addition to the Catron<\/st1:PlaceName> County<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place> commissioner and Steinborn, includes an advocate of access for off-road vehicles, a realtor, a builder, a representative of a sportsman alliance, a retired agriculture secretary and a representative of the Farm Bureau.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

McCamley and Butler<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> requested that local government officials be added to the panel.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not Catron<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>, and your analysis should be based upon what we as a community want,\u201d their letter states. \u201c\u2026 If such an offer is not extended to balance this panel, we can only conclude that this event is designed to primarily put out the perspective of a very narrow interest, to the exclusion of the community\u2019s true voice and interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As of late Friday, Pearce had not altered the makeup of the panel.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The meeting will be held from 2-5 p.m. in the board room of the Las Cruces Public Schools administration building, located at 505 South Main Street<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., has stepped into a new controversy by holding a meeting today on wilderness study areas in Do\u00f1a Ana County and putting together a panel of speakers whose only member participating in his capacity as an elected official is from Catron County. State Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, will be participating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063","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=2063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}