{"id":2067,"date":"2007-08-06T17:03:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-06T23:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/pearce-oversees-contentious-wilderness-meeting\/"},"modified":"2007-08-06T17:03:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-06T23:03:00","slug":"pearce-oversees-contentious-wilderness-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/pearce-oversees-contentious-wilderness-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearce oversees contentious wilderness meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>, R-N.M., led a somewhat contentious discussion today on a proposal to create 300,000 acres of permanent wilderness in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>. <\/p>\n

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

A divided audience of about 200 people listened as officials and others talked about the proposal. Panel members often disagreed and at times took shots at each other.<\/p>\n

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

The meeting was preceded by concern that Pearce stacked the panel with anti-wilderness members. Pearce admitted at the beginning that the put a number of people who had concerns about the proposal on the panel because he had already been visited in Washington<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> by two public officials pushing the plan \u2013 state Rep. Jeff Steinborn<\/a> and Do\u00f1a Ana County Commissioner Oscar Vasquez Butler<\/a> \u2013 and wanted to hear other views.<\/p>\n

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

Pearce also plans a future meeting in Anthony he said would include local government officials Butler and Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Absent from the panel was an invited Catron<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> commissioner. Present were Steinborn and a number of local community leaders from Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> who have concerns about wilderness designations that don\u2019t allow biking and off-roading and could impact ranching.<\/p>\n

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

Steinborn works for the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance<\/a>, which is leading a campaign<\/a> to create the wilderness areas in the county and has garnered a great deal of community support. Steinborn was the only member of the panel arguing for the wilderness plan at today\u2019s meeting. While there were some members adamantly opposed to the wilderness designations being proposed, several took more moderate stances and a couple spent more time listening than sharing opinions.<\/p>\n

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

But Fred Huff, an off-road advocate, accused Steinborn\u2019s group of lying during a presentation in which he argued that much of the land in the wilderness group\u2019s proposal isn\u2019t eligible for the wilderness designation. Steinborn disputed that, but the Bureau of Land Management has agreed in some instances.<\/p>\n

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

Steinborn pointed out, however, that the federal government agrees with giving a wilderness designation to 220,000 of the 300,000 acres proposed by his group.<\/p>\n

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

Pearce said the discussion was productive.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think we all come at this from different points of view, but we all want to get to the same place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

It was apparent that most agree with protecting land around the Organ<\/st1:placename> Mountains<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>, but how to do that was a topic of disagreement. So was discussion of other areas, including the off-roading hotbed in the Robledo<\/st1:placename> Mountains<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

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

The lack of love between Pearce and Steinborn, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party\u2019s nomination to battle the congressman in 2004, was apparent. Pearce started the meeting by talking about his own accomplishments and showing a meth-awareness video before getting to the wilderness proposal. Meth has been a big focus of Pearce\u2019s efforts and Steinborn, when he got the chance to give an introductory statement, said he was glad to hear that Pearce was open to a real discussion about the wilderness proposal, but added, \u201cIf I hear today that wilderness creates a meth problem, then I\u2019m going to be a little skeptical.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Farm Bureau representative Erik Ness said ranchers and farmers \u201cwant to preserve the land just as much as anybody else does,\u201d but said there are ways to do it \u201cwithout them being abandoned behind locked gates.\u201d Frank DuBois, a former state agriculture secretary, said wilderness areas hurt ranching and also make it hard for those in wheelchairs \u2013 like him \u2013 to access public land.<\/p>\n

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

The most combative panel member was Duff, who several times accused Steinborn\u2019s group of lying and trying to take land used by off-roaders.<\/p>\n

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

At the end of it all, Pearce said it was possible to \u201cdisagree without being disagreeable,\u201d and said he felt most panelists were doing just that. Though the discussion was contentious, it was one of the more civil meetings of people who are divided on this topic.<\/p>\n

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

There wasn\u2019t a lot of new ground covered. Pearce did reveal \u2013 to the surprise of no one \u2013 that he leans toward siding with those who oppose the wilderness designations, but he also said he wants to protect the Organ<\/st1:placename> Mountains<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> and other lands in ways that are appropriate. He didn\u2019t elaborate.<\/p>\n

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

There\u2019s no timeline for a decision on the proposal. Much of the land has been designated as wilderness study areas for 20 years. Only Congress can decide when to make a study area a full wilderness area or release it for other use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., led a somewhat contentious discussion today on a proposal to create 300,000 acres of permanent wilderness in Do\u00f1a Ana County. A divided audience of about 200 people listened as officials and others talked about the proposal. Panel members often disagreed and at times took shots at each other. The meeting […]<\/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-2067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067","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=2067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}