DISQUS

hemingway · 1 year ago

Steve Bell has insulted the Dona Ana County residents. I am not a member of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. There are number of us residents who want to have wilderness to protect the beautiful Organ Mountains. Put it to a vote. It would have been a nice legacy for Senator Domenicic to sponsor wilderness. Instead Bell insults us! Obviously he is anti-wilderness and a supporter of a few wealthy ranchers. It is a sad tale for the Organ Mountains.

In fact I blame Mr. Bell for his failure to communicate with the parties. He is the so-called chief of staff. It would have been wonderful to have the Domenici Wilderness - what a legacy for a great Senator. Instead Mr. Bell is pointing fingers for his own failure.

odonnell · 1 year ago

What a crock from Steve Bell.

Senator Domenici's initial proposal was shot down by local community members because it was stupid. NMWA had nothing to do with that. Domenici and Bell think that they are all powerful and when locals rejected that proposal (in part because Domenici tried to ram it down the throat of the community without any communication) they were bitter and hurt and decided to take it out on the community. Bell and his boss are big babies. They have forgotten that they are elected officials and not dictators.

And of course they need a scapegoat.

Senator Bingaman also deserves a massive amount of blame for what is going on in Dona Ana. Instead of standing up to the 17 ranchers and Sen Domenici on this one and instead of standing WITH the overwhelming majority of (including all the elected bodies, sportsment, developers and business community members)he fiddle-faddled along until momentum was lost and Domenici and Pearce had a chance to confuse things. If Senator Bingaman would get a spine, we could get some of this land protection stuff done. Maybe Udall will be Bingaman's spine. Lord knows he's scared witless of Domenici.

I would love to see a Domenici wilderness. I'd love to see a Bingaman wilderness. What a sorry state of affairs.

ssmall · 1 year ago

Domenici is a sell out, or rather, a sell anything. He would sell the whole state of New Mexico if he could. His staffer, Steve Bell, seems to know only the beauty of oily money. We can hope he follows Domenici out the congressional door upon the senator's retirement.
Let's make our nation self sufficient in energy by using renewables. We can take back the green revolution that China and even Germany, a country with less sunshine than New Mexico, are leading. Scratching within wilderness for oil and gas is leaving us with the dinosaurs from which these petroleum products originated. There's a green energy future; leave Domenici, Bell, and the dinosaurs in the past.

hemingway · 1 year ago

In 2006 over 55 percent of the Dona Ana County residents surveyed said they supported a proposal by area conservation groups to create 330,000 acres of wilderness in Dona Ana County. Now we have a small minority of wealthy ranchers and developers undermining wilderness for the Organ Mountains - this is an outrage. Mr. Udall and Bingamin sit on their hands. Mr. Teague has the courage to support Wilderness. Mr Tinsley of Santa Fe and Rep. Pearce are against all wilderness.

hemingway · 1 year ago

There is an old Greek Aesop fable that can be applied to the Organ Mountains and should be considered by anti-Wilderness folks. If Senator Domenici’s “legacy of protecting wilderness” is serious he should consider this fable too.

A man and his wife owned a very special goose. Every day the would lay a golden egg, which made the couple very rich.

"Just think," said the man's wife, "If we could have all the golden eggs that are inside the goose, we could be richer much faster."

"You're right," said her husband, "We wouldn't have to wait for the goose to lay her egg every day."

So, the couple killed the goose and cut her open, only to find that she was just like every other goose. She had no golden eggs inside of her at all, and they had no more golden eggs.



In Dona Ana County we have a small minority of wealthy developers wanting to develop land for immediate profits without consideration of the residents, open spaces to preserve the beautiful Organ Mountain heritage, water availability or a gradual smart growth plan. In addition some ranchers are wrongly fearful about losing their grazing rights. So these groups want to end Wilderness. In other words kill the goose. It is a sad fate for the poor goose and could be the fate of the Organ Mountains.

carencowan · 1 year ago

Steve Bell and Senator Domenici hit the mark! Other user groups have tried for YEARS to work with the wildernss people in a give and take fashion --- some land may be pristine and deserve wilderness designation, other lands currently carring a Wilderness Study Area designation have no business ever being wilderness and should be returned to multiple use. That means hiking, biking, camping, horseback riding, grazing, bird watching and more. The wilderness people have steadfastly refused to even to have discussion about what should or should not be wilderness. They want it all regardless of the law. The Wilderness Alliance Dona Ana proposal attempted to take in PRIVATE PROPERTY which was never even contemplated in the Wilderness Act. Hurray for Senator Domenici for respecting private propety rights as well as the custom and culture of the land of enchantment.

hemingway · 1 year ago

Bird watching will be fun while the ATV's cross your path.

hemingway · 1 year ago

Anti Wilderness folks should be aware of these seven vital statistics: 1. About 9% of U.S. south of Alaska remains in a road less and wild condition. 2. About 2½% of the lower 48 states is legally protected Wilderness (46 million aces). Including Alaska, about 4½% of the U.S. is protected Wilderness (104 million acres). 3. Over half of the national forest domain has roads and is developed. Less than 1/5 of the 191 million acre system is protected Wilderness (34.7 million acres). There are roughly 55 million acres of unprotected road less areas up for grabs. 4. Roughly 30 million acres of BLM road less lands qualify for Wilderness designation in the 48 contiguous states. 5. National Park road less and unprotected: over 10 million acres in the U.S. south of Alaska. 6. National Wildlife Refuge road less and unprotected: over 4 million acres, not including Alaska. 7. Public land road less areas disappear at the rate of about a million acres per year.

thomasjames · 1 year ago

Ummm ok aware of it....not seeing whats wrong with it.....

thomasjames · 1 year ago

NOT everybody wants to watch birds....but hey your view of how things should be, and what you want to use the land for trumps everybody else right? Just like you should be able to dictate our diets, where we live, etc., right?