The
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
has approved legislation
establishing El Rio Grande del Norte
National Conservation Area,
covering 235,000 acres northwest of Taos. (BLM)
Listen
to Chapter President Scott MacCurdy's message about the 1872 Mining Law.
Essays by two New
Mexico REP Leaders: State Rep. Kathy McCoy and Chapter President Scott
MacCurdy
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.
New Mexico Issue Brief
#1: Otero Mesa
by Chapter Vice
President Scott MacCurdy
Otero
Mesa is just an hour's drive from El Paso and perhaps 90 minutes from
Las Cruces or Alamogordo. More than 1.2 million acres of Chihuahuan
Desert grassland, Otero Mesa extends eastward from the Hueco Mountains
to the Guadalupe Mountains and north from the Texas border into New
Mexico.
A
critical source of groundwater, the Salt Basin Aquifer is located
beneath New Mexico’s Otero Mesa and extends south into El Paso and
Hudspeth Counties in Texas. Even though the Southwest U.S. is expected
to become hotter and drier as a result of climate change, according to
a 2009 federal assessment of projected impacts, the Salt Basin Aquifer
continues to be under threat by proposed oil and gas development in
federal Bureau of Land ManagementlLands in Otero Mesa.
Under
the BLM’s plan for oil and gas development in the Otero Mesa region,
141 exploratory wells resulting in 84 producing wells could be drilled.
While the BLM has provided stipulations for No Surface Disturbance or
Controlled Surface Use for a portion of this area, groundwater will
still be at risk for contamination by carcinogenic petrochemicals and
salt water from drilling.
Solution:
A 3-year joint federal and state study of the Salt Basin Aquifer is
needed to determine its quantity, quality, and its vulnerability to
contamination. A federal moratorium on oil and gas leasing
and development on BLM lands is needed to ensure that we adequately
assess this water resource and determine how it should be managed,
developed, and protected.
Update:
On April 28, 2009, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected
BLM's Otero Mesa leasing plan The court ruled that BLM failed to
consider an alternative of not leasing Otero Mesa and to examine
possible impacts of leasing on groundwater. The court remanded the plan
to BLM to draft an environmental impact statement that considers
leasing's impacts on water, wildlife, and Chihuahuan Desert
grassland.
More
Info: www.nmwild.org
New Mexico Issue Brief
#2: Wolves
by Chapter Vice
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 carried out against the
wolf until, by the 1970s, 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.
Solution:
Not yet determined. The NM REP Executive Committee has chosen
to increase our efforts regarding the wolves. REP is in a
unique position to mediate between the wolf supporters and
ranchers. Each group has viable concerns and we will work hard
with all parties to find a workable solution. This program can
be successful and the wolves can roam once again.
Update:
As of July 2010, the Fish and Wildlife Service counted 22 wolves with
radio collars. All but one of the wolves were dispersed among 10 packs.
At least seven packs showed denning behavior this spring, a sign of
reproduction. The Fish and Wildlife Service's 2008 assessment of the
reintroduction
program estimated wolf numbers at 50, halfway to the objective of
establishing a population of 100 wolves. In the absence of recovery
criteria, reaching the objective of 100 wolves would not necessarily
indicate that the Mexican wolf population is at a healthy
level.
More
Info: http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/
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