Listen to Chapter President Scott MacCurdy's message about the 1872 Mining Law.

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Essays by two New Mexico REP Leaders: State Rep. Kathy McCoy and Chapter President Scott MacCurdy

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It's Time to Take Our Party Back on Environmental Issues
by State Representative Kathy McCoy, who was the vice president of the New Mexico Chapter of Republicans for Environmental Protection from 2002 to 2006.

It's time to take back our party on environmental issues

It is time for the Republican party to "take back" the environmental platform that was initiated by one of our country's most respected Republicans, none other than President Theodore Roosevelt, who proclaimed, "I do not intend that our natural resources shall be exploited by the few against the interests of many." More recently, Theodore Roosevelt IV (great-grandson of President Roosevelt), stated that Republicans like to frame the argument in terms of "a choice between property rights and wildlife, jobs and pollution, economic strength or environmental health." At best, this concept is divisive; at worst, it's patently untrue. Unfortunately, exploitation is precisely what is occurring today, largely due to Republican initiatives.

This country has a Superfund because business interests have been given priority over environmental concerns. And who pays for this? We do, of course, and as taxpayers we should be fighting mad. A message to our political representatives: Don't use my tax dollars to trash my environment, then tax me again to clean it up. We must not meekly stand by while some of our Republican representatives vote to promote and subsidize polluting industries and chip away at the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the important efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency. The Republican Party must change its course and return to the environmental platform.

A national grassroots organization, Republicans for Environmental Protection, formed in 1995 to resurrect and restore the GOP's conservation tradition as a fundamental element of the Republican Party. REP has members in 49 states and chapters in 10, including New Mexico, where we have much work to do.

Perhaps the greatest danger to New Mexico's environmental health and taxpayer wallets is the way in which we choose to grow. At the moment, things are looking bleak. Immediate and long-term costs to the environment and taxpayers are often minimized in development plans.

Efforts to control sprawl development at the fringes of Albuquerque (and other communities) are met with disdain by a small, but powerful, group of developers and others who will benefit greatly by taxpayer-subsidized water, sewer, roads, and schools. Water will dictate the future growth of our state, but does anyone else find it curious that decision-makers allow immense subdivisions, water-guzzling industry and golf courses, while, at the same, time berating the residents for not conserving water? Roads are vital components of infrastructure, but some roads are proposed and built without concern for the inevitable sprawl that they encourage. Sprawl is not growth; it simply redistributes wealth to areas that cost less to develop, but cost us more in taxes.

As concerned citizens, we must decide how much we value open space, unpolluted air and clean water. We must do our part to help guide environmentally sound growth that is protected from exploitation "...by the few against the interests of many." Our political representatives at all levels of government need to know that there is a large and growing group of Republicans who are tired of subsidizing development that should be paying its own way. Most importantly, all growth should be held to standards that will sustain future generations.

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New Mexico Issue Brief #1: Otero Mesa
by Chapter President Scott MacCurdy

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New Mexico Issue Brief #2: Wolves
by Chapter President Scott MacCurdy

Missing from the landscape for more than 30 years, the howl of the Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), can once again be heard in the mountains of the southwestern United States. The Mexican wolf, like many species protected by the Endangered Species Act, is getting a second chance to play its role in nature through an ambitious recovery program led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service).

The Mexican wolf once roamed throughout vast portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. But, as human settlement intensified across the Southwest in the early 1900s, wolves increasingly came into conflict with livestock operations and other human activities. Private, state, and federal extermination campaigns were raged against the wolf until, by the 1970’s, the Mexican wolf had been all but eliminated from the United States and Mexico.

The Forest Service established a recovery team in 1979 to assist the agency in mapping out a recovery strategy for the Mexican wolf. The Service approved the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Plan in 1982. The plan recommended maintenance of the captive breeding program and re-establishment of a viable self-sustaining population of at least 100 wolves in the wild within the Mexican wolf’s historic range. Due to the perilous status of the Mexican wolf at the time, and uncertainty if captive-reared wolves could successfully be returned to the wild, the recovery plan stated that delisting may never be possible. The plan, therefore, did not provide a definitive recovery goal (criteria to down-list or de-list the Mexican wolf from the list of threatened and endangered species) for the Mexican wolf, but instead provided an interim objective to focus and stimulate reintroduction and recovery efforts.

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