NATIONAL MONUMENTS: Obama's designation in N.M. desert will be his largest
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
E&E PM: Monday, May 19, 2014
President Obama later this week will sign a proclamation protecting nearly half-a-million acres of public lands in southern New Mexico from future energy development or mining, a move that will mark his 11th and largest national monument to date.
Obama is expected to model the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks monument after S. 1805, introduced last December by New Mexico Democratic Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, which would designate a 500,000-acre monument and preserve 240,000 acres as wilderness.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama will sign a proclamation Wednesday under the Antiquities Act preserving 496,000 acres and maintaining access for hunting, recreation and ranching.
Only Congress can designate wilderness, which forbids mechanized recreation or new roads.
Organ Mountains will be more than twice as big as Obama's largest designation to date, the 243,000-acre Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico.
The move comes months after Obama pledged in his State of the Union address to use executive powers to set aside public lands that Congress fails to protect. Action from the White House has been sought as far back as October 2012 by Udall and former Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), whose original bill to protect the Organ Mountains had stalled in the Senate (E&ENews PM, Oct. 26, 2012).
"This is a very special moment for New Mexico and a major accomplishment for the community who has worked tirelessly for a decade to make the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument a reality," Heinrich said today in a statement.
The move drew immediate applause from several conservation, sportsmen's, tribal, county and national security leaders who said it would preserve the area's important recreational, ecological and historical values while pumping about $7.4 million into the local economy each year. But it is opposed by the local House member.
The Organ Mountains rise sharply to nearly 9,000 feet and are home to peregrine falcons and mountain lions, among a host of other wildlife, and are a prime destination for hikers, campers, hunters and mountain bike riders.
The monument would also protect area landmarks including the Butterfield stagecoach trail, Apollo space mission test sites, World War II-era bombing targets and Geronimo's Cave along with hundreds of other archaeological sites.
"This area has been at the crossroads of history for so many cultures," said a statement by Brian O'Donnell, executive director of the Conservation Lands Foundation. Obama, he added, is "sticking with his pledge" from the SOTU address.
Monument supporters also include Hispanic and faith-based groups, and businesses that stand to benefit from land preservation. Backers include the Doña Ana County Commission; the cities of Las Cruces, N.M., and El Paso, Texas; and the New Mexico and Las Cruces green chambers of commerce.
Yet it also marks Obama's first monument opposed by the local congressman. Rep. Steven Pearce (R) has long criticized the president's use of the Antiquities Act and is pushing his own bill to designate a smaller, 55,000-acre national monument.
In addition, some ranchers and sheriffs along the Southwest border have opposed a larger monument on the grounds that it would hamper efforts to maintain public safety amid threats of drug and human smuggling.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) wrote a letter to Obama today warning the proposed national monument could impede the U.S. Border Patrol's ability to conduct security sweeps along the Mexico border.
"National Parks, monuments, and wilderness areas along our southern border have become prime drug-trafficking corridors for violent criminals and drug cartels," he wrote. "Restrictive environmental laws within these federal corridors limit Border Patrol access and, as a result, make it easier for drug smugglers and human traffickers to move their drugs and people in and out of the United States unnoticed."
The House in March passed Bishop's H.R. 1459, which would require Obama to conduct a National Environmental Policy Act review before designating monuments the size of the Organ Mountains, while also allowing only one monument per state, per presidential term, which would also prevent this week's designation (E&E Daily, March 27).
But Michael Breen, executive director of the Truman National Security Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group that trains young national security leaders and promotes clean energy, said the monument would preserve important military heritage sites while increasing operational flexibility for the Border Patrol.
The Udall-Heinrich bill would release wilderness study areas within 5 miles of the international border to create a buffer for the Border Patrol while adding a road to enhance security.
Only Congress can release a wilderness study area.
Doña Ana voted for Obama in the 2012 general election, favoring him over Mitt Romney by a margin of 56 percent to 41 percent.
