My Page: Rebecca Powell
BorderWest/Part Two: A Conversation with Nathan Small
For Some, Wilderness is Simple
Las Cruces is surprisingly diverse. Academics, ranchers, farmers, retirees, military personnel, technocrats, all call it home. Bringing this many different types of people in the name of any cause would be tough. In a name as controversial as wilderness, even tougher. So, he did what he knew best. He took them to see the land, to see what he thought needed protecting. He planned hikes and invited those he needed to reach. A coalition of unlikely comrades was formed: the League of Women’s Voters and sportsmen, the backcountry horsemen and the home builders association. Concessions were made, lines were adjusted, but a coalition had formed behind the Citizen's Proposal. [more]
BorderWest/Part one
A Biased Observer of the Dona Ana County Wilderness Debate
It seems simple. The Mesilla Valley has these picturesque mountains, rare desert ecosystems, and a growing population. The urge to protect, to ensure developers don’t creep up the side of the Organs, the Robledos, the Potrillos is natural. No one wants to see a road snaking up the Organ Needle, a house peaking out above Bar Canyon. You cannot take growth back. Buildings somehow attract more buildings and traffic lights, until you aren’t looking at mountains -- you are looking at structures on mountains.
Wilderness is the first thought. Designate these lands as wilderness area. Fifteen years ago, they were placed as WSAs (Wilderness Study Areas), so the process has already begun. Senator Pete Domenici’s office presented the first proposal. After the annexation of the East Mesa, which effectively doubled the size of Las Cruces, a sense of urgency was born. Doňa Ana County was growing, fast. The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance offered a proposal that after compromises with local outdoorsmen and the home builders association became the Citizen’s Proposal.
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And a Lack of Information
Fire in the Organs
A fire burns in the Organ Mountains, west of Las Cruces.
Saturday 4:30 P.M., we head out the door for the pool. Temperatures were hovering around the 100 degree mark and the worst heat of the day was descending. As we ride our bikes, we notice thick white smoke barreling out of a canyon in the Organs. We guess controlled burn or a wildfire. In either case, we are sure officials know and are taking action. The smoke is obvious, and we know there are caretakers at Dripping Springs. We do not think to call. We go swimming.
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How long does it take to go three miles down the Rio Grande?
We watched the first participant cross the finish line an hour after starting the race at the Picacho bridge.
Over 139 homemade rafts participated in Saturday's Raft the Rio, sponsored by the Southwest Environmental Center.
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"A" Mountain is also called Tortugas Mountain, sacred to Tortutgas Pueblo. From the south, it looks like a lumbering turtle inching across the desert. Small and rocky, the limestone mountain stands alone in front of the Organs, a hill burped up from long ago crashing fault lines. Cacti, yucca, and ocotillo line the eastern side, while black gramma and bluestem on the western side remember when Chiuhuahuan Desert was mostly grasslands. Mountain bike and hiking trails scar the sides and base. A few dish antennas line the top and New Mexico State University's solar panels are visible in every direction. Yet it is quiet and a dirt road runs steep and wide to the top. The boy can make the mile walk to the top on his sturdy two-year-old legs before needing the shoulders of parents, so we come often to this squatty hill. [more]
The Juarez murder count is over 450 for the year. Drug cartels continue to wage gun battles in the street. There have been reports of decapitations. According to a recent NY Times article, fuel costs are taking up to 10-16 percent of some New Mexican’s income. Reports circle of those willing to cross the border to save a few bucks.
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Representative Tom Udall’s (D) Sabinosa Wilderness Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives Monday, according to the blog Democracy for New Mexico. If the bill passes the Senate it will bring New Mexico’s wilderness areas to 1,641,443 acres.
The Bill proposes that 17,600 acres located near Las Vegas, New Mexico be set aside for wilderness.
Udall also authored the Valle Vidal Protection Act of 2005, which withdrew 101,794 acres in the Sangro De Cristo Mountains from mineral leasing.
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Towns have stories like this.
Stories where the good guys turn out to be bad guys, where the courtroom unearths corruption, where a town is forced to question its identity. They usually involve a girl who lives a little too fast with a father who exited early and an overworked and tired mother. They are girls who grow up fast and hard with bright smiles.
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We are walking by the ag pens on the campus of New Mexico State University. My almost two-year-old son points and names the animals, “Sheep. Baaa. Pigs. Oink. Cows. Mooo [more]
It’s three in the morning. Everything we own is in an apartment I have never seen in a city I have only viewed on a computer screen. My husband steers us through the night, as my child and dog sleep in the backseat. I can see the outline of the cliffs as we drive through the San Andreas Pass. Nate says the Organs are to my left. I feel the X-Terra descend into Las Cruces. [more]
