{"id":31858,"date":"2011-09-13T21:28:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T03:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=31858"},"modified":"2011-09-14T11:44:34","modified_gmt":"2011-09-14T17:44:34","slug":"the-great-outdoors-giveaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/09\/the-great-outdoors-giveaway\/","title":{"rendered":"The great outdoors giveaway"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

Congressman Stevan Pearce is an original co-sponsor of risky legislation that would result in the worst sell-off of our nation\u2019s most scenic treasures in living memory<\/h4>\n

In celebration of our state\u2019s wild public lands, last month many New Mexican hunters, anglers, hikers, horseback riders, and elected officials participated in New Mexico\u2019s Great Outdoors Week, which featured a series of outdoor activities highlighting the importance of public lands in\u00a0New Mexico.<\/p>\n

As part of the celebration, Congressman Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, State Land Commissioner Ray Powell,\u00a0Questa\u00a0Mayor Esther Garcia, and other leaders issued proclamations and statements supporting our state\u2019s public lands. Their actions echo the bold vision of President Theodore Roosevelt when he created the National Park System, and remind us of the appreciation we hold for America\u2019s immeasurable public lands.<\/p>\n

And immeasurable they are.<\/p>\n

More than two-thirds of Americans participate in outdoor recreation activities annually on our public lands \u2013 including hiking, hunting, camping, horseback riding, kayaking, fishing, and cross-country skiing \u2013 contributing $730 billion to the U.S. economy and $3.8 billion annually to New Mexico\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

Many of our wildest public lands enjoy protections as wilderness because of their beauty and uniquely wild characteristics. In particular, roadless national forest areas act as critical watersheds for communities throughout the state. These watersheds recharge aquifers for many of our large cities and provide crucial water sources to acequias in\u00a0northern New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Our great state,\u00a0the Land of Enchantment, is defined by the remarkable quality of our wild public lands. In Southern New Mexico we have treasures such as Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the Organ Mountains, and the Gila Wilderness, of which all of us are proud \u2013 except for Congressman Stevan Pearce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Nathan Newcomer<\/p><\/div>\n

A blank check for polluters<\/h3>\n

Congressman Pearce is an original co-sponsor of the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act<\/a>, or more aptly put, the Great Outdoors Giveaway Act. This risky legislation would open tens of millions of acres of protected public land to full-scale development, including 2 million acres in New Mexico. The legislation gives polluters and developers, who already have access to 76 percent of all national forests and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands, access to\u00a0even\u00a0more of America\u2019s vanishing wilderness.<\/p>\n

This bill is a blank check for polluters to ruin the air we breathe and water we drink.<\/p>\n

The Great Outdoors Giveaway would undermine decades of land protection in one fell swoop, and if signed into law would leave only 12 percent of our national forests and BLM lands off limits to development.<\/p>\n

If Congress were to pass this legislation, the American public would witness the worst sell-off of our nation\u2019s most scenic treasures in living memory.<\/p>\n

Over 50 million acres of roadless national forests would be opened up to commercial logging, mining, road building, and other development. Close to 7 million acres of Wilderness Study Areas would have their protections tossed out the window and be opened to oil and gas drilling and mining.<\/p>\n

The Great Outdoors Giveaway\u00a0goes even further in erasing America\u2019s longstanding conservation land ethic by prohibiting future administrations from ever protecting Wilderness Study Areas or roadless national forests.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the legislation would overturn a decades-old policy of balancing the myriad uses of public lands.\u00a0Under this policy, known as \u201cmultiple use,\u201d land managers analyze public lands to determine the best uses for each landscape. Under this approach \u2013 enshrined in bedrock laws such as the National Forest Management Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act \u2013 wilderness protections are balanced with other uses such as energy development and motorized recreation.<\/p>\n

The Great Outdoors Giveaway would gut these bedrock laws by preventing land managers from even considering protecting the wilderness qualities of public lands.<\/p>\n

A senseless piece of legislation<\/h3>\n

Since 1964, Congress has made determinations on which areas of our national public lands and national forests should, or should not, be designated as wilderness under the Wilderness Act. Similarly, the Forest Service and BLM have included considerations of which lands should be managed to protect wilderness values as one of the host of uses of our public lands.<\/p>\n

These determinations are best made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account a variety of factors including the values of the lands at issue, agency recommendations, and the views of local and national stakeholders.<\/p>\n

The Great Outdoors Giveaway is a senseless piece of legislation that would only benefit industrial timber and mining corporations. It would degrade backcountry hunting and fishing opportunities, increase fire risk, destroy recreation economies, impose increased water treatment costs, and add to the Forest Service\u2019s maintenance backlog.<\/p>\n

It would terminate time honored and successful Wilderness Act procedures for lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, and in the end the losers will be the American public, our children and grandchildren and generations to come.<\/p>\n

Newcomer is associate director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congressman Stevan Pearce is an original co-sponsor of risky legislation that would result in the worst sell-off of our nation\u2019s most scenic treasures in living memory. The bill would undermine decades of land protection in one fell swoop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2358,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[147,116],"class_list":["post-31858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-environment","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31858","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\/2358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}