{"id":40096,"date":"2012-05-21T11:14:47","date_gmt":"2012-05-21T17:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=40096"},"modified":"2012-05-21T11:17:08","modified_gmt":"2012-05-21T17:17:08","slug":"its-time-to-support-national-monument-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/05\/its-time-to-support-national-monument-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s time to support national monument proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

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

It is time for Do\u00f1a Ana County residents to stand up to the special interests and support the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument proposal.<\/h4>\n

We are heir to the beautiful heritage of the Organ Mountains, and it\u2019s our civic responsibility to preserve them for future generations. That is why it is so important for us to support the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rancher and President Theodore Roosevelt stated it best: \u201cThere are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm.\u201d Also, it will boost our local economy – more jobs!<\/p>\n

However, a few ranchers and Tea Party members oppose this legislation for dubious reasons and constantly voice anti-federal government rhetoric. There is the constant harping about border security and watersheds.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, these individuals are entirely misguided and politicizing these important matters.<\/p>\n

One of their key criticisms is about the restrictive aspects of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and 1980<\/a>. Ironically both pieces of legislation were largely written under the supervision of the powerful ranching interests. The legislation entrenches livestock grazing interests in our national wilderness preservation system for all time.<\/p>\n

The ranching industry\u00a0even pressured the Bureau of Land Management to lower the federal grazing fee to only $1.35 per animal unit per month\u00a0– the lowest amount in years. It must be remembered that taxpayers are subsidizing federal grazing.\u00a0The federal government\u00a0spends at least $144 million each year managing the private livestock grazing but collects only $21 million in grazing fees.<\/p>\n

This is for only 18,000 public-land ranchers all over the country and 157 million acres of public land.<\/p>\n

Pearce\u2019s forum a fa\u00e7ade and sham<\/h3>\n

Southern New Mexico residents should also know that Congressman Pearce had a private and secret dinner meeting on April 30 with developers associated with the Builders Trust\u00a0of New Mexico and the New Mexico\u00a0Home Builders Association, both of Albuquerque. This is revealed in a series of e-mails<\/a> dated April 30, May 1 and May 4. It was to develop a strategy\u00a0to undermine the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument proposal and to gain support for the congressman\u2019s \u201cpro-developer\u201d position.<\/p>\n

After a surely \u201chearty meal,\u201d this cabal then told the New Mexico Home Builders Association and the Las Cruces Building Association to e-mail members to support Congressman Steve Pearce\u2019s miniature national monument<\/a> by attending Mr. Pearce\u2019s so-called public forum.<\/p>\n

Here is part of the May 1 e-mail from the Builders Trust: \u201cSeveral of us had dinner with Congressman Pierce (sic) and his people and they asked if our Las Cruces contingent could get some folks over to this event to support Pierce\u2019s (sic) PRO DEVELOPER position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congressman Pearce\u2019s forum was a fa\u00e7ade and a sham. Obviously the Pearce proposal will allow developers to build in the Desert Peaks area and the Organ Mountains foothills. This is a travesty. Frontiersman Davy Crockett best described these political antics by Congressman Steve Pearce:\u00a0\u201dThere ain\u2019t no ticks like poly-ticks. Bloodsuckers all.\u201d
\nIt is clear that Congressman Pearce is tied up with the special interests. He does not seem concerned about our community. By the way, here is a question for Mr. Pearce \u2013 who paid for dinner?<\/p>\n

Preserve this important heritage<\/h3>\n

It is time for Do\u00f1a Ana County residents to stand up to the special interests and support the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument proposal. Do\u00f1a Ana County residents should write to President Obama and ask him to establish a national monument for the Organ Mountains-desert peaks area before it is carved up by the special interests.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s preserve this important heritage for the present and unborn generations.<\/p>\n

Greg Lennes, a retired businessman, lives in Las Cruces.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do\u00f1a Ana County residents need to stand up to the special interests and support the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[115,147,138,116],"class_list":["post-40096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-environment","tag-growth-and-development","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40096","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\/2805"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}