™ ® July 2012
Volume 69, No. 6
Wilderness: An Effort to Eliminate Public Lands Ranching by Dalene Hodnett, Director of Communications
“I want the wilderness to stay cow-free forever,” says a Sierra Club member. “Cows are not wild. They don’t belong in a wilderness. They are a weedy species — exotic, invasive and destructive.” This single quote, found in an article about wilderness in California, seems to sum up the overarching goal of most environmentalists groups. By hook or by crook, groups such as the Sierra Club, Earth First! and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance (NMWA) want to eliminate all ranching in the west. Their latest successes come from having federal lands, currently used for grazing, declared as wilderness areas. The Wilderness Act of 1964 defines wilderness as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable.” Despite the words of the 1964 Wilderness Act which states that wilderness in and of itself cannot be used as a reason to reduce or eliminate livestock from a designated area, ranchers know that with wilderness designation comes a host of regulations that make ranching nearly impossible. For instance wilderness areas are protected from motorized access and the use of mechanized equipment. This means that atv’s can’t be used to reach fences that must be repaired, bulldozers can’t be used to maintain stock tanks and the use of a truck and trailer to haul cattle in and out is forbidden. Not only are practical ranch functions made impossible, but the
organizations and individuals. The use of the land by ranchers may be volunteers are led by Chairman Jerry eliminated all-together. Federal land Schickedanz, former Dean of NMSU’s managers have been known to “rest” College of Agricultural, Consumer allotments for as many as ten years in and Environmental Sciences, Frank an effort to “heal” the land. If they Dubois, former Secretary of the New feel that grazing is too destructive, Mexico Department of Agriculture, they can go as far as cancelling Joe Delk, and ranchers Tom Cooper, permits for an indefinite amount of Tom Mobley, Dudley Williams and time. Steve Wilmeth. This is the reality ranchers are In addition to the inevitable negative facing in Southern New Mexico as impacts on ranching, NMF&LB, the NMWA attempts yet again to DACF&LB and PPWH are concerned declare large swaths of the county about border security. It has been as wilderness. This effort has been noted that if Bingaman’s bill is passed underway for over a decade and the Border Patrol will no longer be there are currently three plans being able to conduct routine motorized proposed. Senator Bingaman’s patrols and all communication towers Proposal, S.1024 Organ Mountainsmust be removed as soon as possible. Dona Ana County Conservation and Protection Act would set aside 316,000 The resultant breakdown of security can already be witnessed in Arizona acres, roughly 13% of the county. where drug and people smugglers Introduced in 2011 this bill is still in utilize the Organ Pipe Cactus National committee. The proposal supported Monument as a criminal freeway since by the Wilderness Alliance, the Organ mechanized patrols by the Border Mountains-Desert Peaks National Patrol are prohibited. Hundreds Monument, sequesters over 600,000 of miles of illegal roads have been acres, totals over 25% of the county and encompasses 39 ranches. Whereas carved through the wilderness by drug runners and illegal immigrants have Congressman Pearce’s Proposal, left tons of refuse as they trek north. H.R. 4334 the Organ Mountains National Monument Establishment continued on pg 2, see Wilderness Act, reserves only 2% of the county as it protects just the 58,512 acres of the Organ Mountains, while maintaining current grazing permits. Pushback against the first two proposals and support for the third is being provided by the New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau, the Dona Ana County Farm & Livestock Bureau and People for Preserving Our NMF&LB’s Matt Rush testifies in favor of HR4334, Western Heritage, a Congressman Pearce’s Organ Mountains National group representing over 750 businesses, Monument bill. Jerry Schickedanz is at his right.