The Wildlands Project Comes to Hidalgo County - (Part 18), {A Country Girl's Musin'}

Eco - Logic

A Country Girl's Musin'...

The Wildlands Project Comes to Hidalgo County - (Part 18)
By Judy Keeler

The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance recently presented a 1500 page proposal to New Mexico State's Bureau of Land Management. It would add approximately 4.5 million acres, vastly increasing existing wilderness areas.

The board of directors for the Alliance includes many high-profile individuals; Dave Foreman, Wildlands Project; Todd Schulke, Center for Biological Diversity; Dave Parsons, former head of wolf reintroduction - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Jim Scarantino, Republicans for Environmental Protection; and Jim Baca, former NM State Land Commissioner, Mayor of Albuquerque, and Secretary of the Interior.

For years, many of these individuals have been inventorying our state for additional wilderness, indoctrinating the public on the "benefits of wilderness," establishing working relations with elected officials and litigating endangered species cases that lend support to their efforts.

To assist them in their endeavors, Jessica Pope, former Sierra Club activist who lobbied for additional wilderness in Utah, has recently been named as executive director of the Alliance.

Although the organization claims to be a "citizen's initiative," the group has also hired several other activists that successfully lobbied for additional wilderness in their respective states. Once wilderness bills were legislatively approved, it appears they moved on, to work their "magic" on the unsuspecting citizens of our state.

Organized and well-funded, the Alliance is a formidable force. Support comes from various organizations and businesses, including the New Mexico Sportsmen - Albuquerque; American Planning Association, New Mexico Chapter; Animal Protection of New Mexico; Audubon Society of New Mexico; American Lands; Center for Biological Diversity; Defenders of Wildlife; Endangered Species Coalition; 4 Wheelers for Wilderness; Great Old Broads for Wilderness; National BLM Wilderness Campaign; National Environmental Trusts; National Parks and Conservation Association; Sierra Club, Rio Grande Chapter; Sky Island Alliance; Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance; the Wildlands Project; the Wilderness Society; Trust for Public Land; and the list goes on.

Many of these organizations do not favor the multiple-use concept for federal lands. In fact, many are outspoken opponents of mining, logging, grazing and recreational uses, including hunting.

Politics creates strange bedfellows, and it looks like this is true with the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. How odd that an organization claiming to represent New Mexico's sportsmen would align itself with Animal Protection of New Mexico, since each organization would appear to be in direct conflict with the other.

Following one of my articles, in which I discussed The Nature Conservancy's land acquisition program, Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, recently asked if I was a "conspiracy thinker."

I explained to Mr. Robinson that I did not believe it was a conspiracy. Instead, I chose to call it a "collaborative effort."

In the Merriam Webster Dictionary, collaborate is defined as; "to work jointly with others (as in writing a book); to cooperate with an enemy force occupying one's country."

Indeed, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance appears to be just such a collaborative effort. Held together and driven by the radical concept of "deep ecology," it appears these organizations would like to impose a "no use" agenda, as called for in the Wildlands Project, on the unsuspecting majority of New Mexicans.

Let's work together to see it doesn't happen.

Related Links:

New Mexico Wilderness Alliance

Coalition for New Mexico Wilderness

Who we are

Calendar of Events

This articles is the 18th in a series. It is an attempt to explain and educate others regarding the agenda for the Bootheel of New Mexico. You may find this agenda is being implemented in your area. Hopefully you will be able to identify some of the same tactics being used, and educate others to reverse the plan.

These articles are being published in the Hidalgo Herald, a local newspaper. If you would like a copy of the articles in this format send your request to: Hidalgo County Herald
Business Address:
101 East 4th St
Lordsburg, NM 88045
Phone: 505-542-8705
Fax: 505-542-8704

I explained to Mr. Robinson that I did not believe it was a conspiracy. Instead, I chose to call it a "collaborative effort."

In the Merriam Webster Dictionary, collaborate is defined as; "to work jointly with others (as in writing a book); to cooperate with an enemy force occupying one's country." INCREDIBLE!

Indeed, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance appears to be just such a collaborative effort. Held together and driven by the radical concept of "deep ecology," it appears these organizations would like to impose a "no use" agenda, as called for in the Wildlands Project, on the unsuspecting majority of New Mexicans.

They've got their work cut out for them. The Sky Island Project alone is huge. I ran across it while looking for something else about a year ago. I remember that Ted Turner was involved with it. I printed out a few articles at the time. They are around here somewhere. I'll print the URL's if I run across them. I just did a quick search and came up with this:

"The choice to locate at Lake Valley Ranch and then to build a rammed earth home was a well thought out process for Randy and Anna Gray. Environment, protection of the land, energy efficient green building, and the rammed earth building technique were all priorities in their decision making process. Randy is a Conservation Biologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS). This current position places him in the administration of various wetland and habitat restoration projects for the government throughout the country.....

....It was important to the Grays to build their home in an ecologically sound and protected area and they knew they had to look elsewhere.

New Mexico had always been a part of the ecosystem Randy admired which he called "The Sky Islands. ....The Sky Islands is a proposed wildlands conservation network that encompass part of a 17.3 million-acre region in Arizona, New Mexico and Northern Mexico. It is bounded by the Mogollon Rim on the North and Sierra Madre Occidental Range on the south. The Sky Island region is important because of its biological diversity. At the center of the plan is a "rewilding" approach, which in lay terms, is the restoration of wetlands and other areas. Rewilding also requires the reintroduction of extirpated species, ecological restoration, management guidelines, and compatible economic use standards. Over time these habitats have been wounded and restoration is essential along with the reintroduction of animal species such as the Mexican Gray wolf, which stabilize prey and particularly the smaller predator population. Randy assists the "Sky Island Alliance" in the conservation of the region.

Serendipitously, they got a mailer from Jim Winder, developer of Heritage Ranch properties promoting his Lake Valley Ranch project. Anna requested a video that was offered and after viewing it, they decided to come to New Mexico and hear Jim's presentation. They listened and toured the ranch with Jim. The scenic beauty in the foothills of the Black Range Mountains and the unusual covenants sold them. Lake Valley Ranch is located between Hatch and Hillsboro. Another bonus to Randy was Ted Turner's Ladder Ranch, which is just fifteen miles away and a model for conservation. Parcels or homesteads on Lake Valley Ranch run from a minimum of fifty acres to one four hundred acre parcel. The covenants call for only building on one acre of your homestead and the site positioning is mandated so that no other structure will be viewed by you or your neighbors. The ranch is open grazing land for the ranch/developer....."

Nice arrangement....promulgate rules to usurp private property from its owners, and then get handed an exclusive opportunity to take their place on their land.

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't Ted Turner instrumental in getting the Mexican wolf introduced to those western areas? http://www.adobe-home.com/html/rammed_earth_-_down_on_the_ran.html

Another article:

Memo to average enviroactivist: Cut the bluster, buster

BAXTER BLACK
Jan. 27, 2001

SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE ARIZONA WELCOME WAGON

Some observations about the Sky Island Alliance, Earth First!, E-sprit clothing and the Wildlands Project to "Save Arizona" by expanding wilderness and reintroducing predators:

Save Arizona from whom? Arizonans? And for whom? It will be interesting to see how their plan is received by those who live here.

Being a recent immigrant to Arizona, there are several traits that strike me about my fellow citizens. One, they don't like to be told what to do. Hardy and hardnosed people come here and find a home. It takes that sort of mentality to stay for more than the winter season. They do not seem to be intimidated by blowhards or veiled threats of violence. They are not impressed by spikes in trees or grandiose speculation that lacks common ground. This is a state that is often politically incorrect, thus coercion or condescension is not an effective way to influence.

Arpaio, Symington, Babbitt, Mecham, Abbey - all slippery as stainless steel with uncontrollable egos, narrow-minded and representative of Arizona's attitude. They are us, for better or worse. So how can activists influence citizens with our kind of stubborn independence. Reproach would fall on deaf ears. Force would simply mark them as wacko environmentalists.

How about respect. That would be a good place to start. It is a common misconception that "nobody lives here." That the space between freeways is an empty wilderness. It is one of the justifications made by special interest groups to solicit funds to "lock up" the West. But such is not the case. Out here we have busy neighborhoods, the houses are just farther apart.

Those who love and prevail in our vast expanses know their home country like a city dog knows his back yard. They know quickly whether the visitor knows of what he speaks. Too many times the takeover party tends to be combative, replacing knowledge with self-righteous slogans and prejudice, commonly called the Ted Turner syndrome. Bluster and bully, put on a show, dazzle the press. This approach has created entrenched resentment in those who actually live on the land everybody's trying to save. It has reached the point that dues-paying, innocent suburban Sierra Club members are not welcome in the home of the people who live in the pictures on their calendar.

I cannot predict how the Sky Island Alliance will do here. Even in our two big cities the people appear to have a "Live Free or Die" attitude. This is not California. And lest we take this tempest too seriously, I do know that the activist groups will have a better chance at trading their beads and blankets to the natives if they start with respect, given and earned. Arizona's not an easy date.

Baxter Black - philosopher, cowboy poet and former large animal veterinarian - is an occasional contributor to National Public Radio's Morning Edition, which airs from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays on KUAZ-FM (89.1) and KUAZ-AM (1550). He makes his home in Benson. [NPR; he may or may not be an ally.] http://www.paragonpowerhouse.org/memo_to_average_enviroactivist.htm

One of the premises of the Wildlands Project is that human population must be reduced. http://www.wildlandsprojectrevealed.org/htm/summary.htm" (chem/bio would help take care of some of that) "The crucial paradigm shift the Deep Ecology movement envisions as necessary to protect the planet from ecological destruction involves the move from an anthropocentric to a spiritual/ecocentric value orientation...Humanity must drastically scale down its industrial activities on Earth, change its consumption lifestyles, stabilize and then reduce the size of the human population by humane means, and protect and restore wild ecosystems and the remaining wildlife on the planet."--Sessions, pg xxi, DE21 http://www.wildlandsprojectrevealed.org/htm/show/page3.htm

Many of these organizations do not favor the multiple-use concept for federal lands. In fact, many are outspoken opponents of mining, logging, grazing and recreational uses, including hunting. Understatement! "Characteristics of Core Areas:
Expand park and wilderness areas to include adjacent old growth, roadless areas, and ecological areas.
Size depending on context may range from 10,000 acres to 25 million acres, but bigger is better.
It should be roadless, existing roads should be closed.
Human access greatly reduced or eliminated all together: "Many ecologists (myself included) would just as soon see huge areas of land kept off limits to human activities of any kind." --Noss, WWF Discussion Paper, pg 12

Buffer Zones
"A system of core reserves is necessary but not sufficient to maintain biodiversity. In most regions, strictly protected areas will not occupy enough land, in the short term, to meet... conservation goals..." "In many cases private lands will need to be acquired and added to National Forest and other public lands in order to serve as effective buffers."

Characteristics of Buffer Zones: Buffer zones allow for "some" human activity.

Inner Zones:
Low road density (no more than .5 mi/sq.mi., and low intensity use
Non-consumptive recreation (hiking, cross-country skiing, bird watching)
Primitive camping
Wilderness

Outer Zones:
Road density 1 mi./sq.mi.
Heavier recreational use (no off-road vehicles)
Hunting and fishing [so they say, although it would seem to conflict with the heavier recreatiional use]br>
"Sustainable" Forestry
http://www.wildlandsprojectrevealed.org/htm/show/page5.htm

These "alliances" are way ahead of the people. They have the media (Marty Stouffer's "Wild America" shows weekly in our area - I turned the tv on one day to hear him say, "These ......creatures must take their place in the wilderness, EVEN IF IT MEANS WE CANNOT LIVE, WORK, OR PLAY THERE." It's pushed in the schools as well. Most Americans have never heard of the Wildlands Project. Maybe there should be a disclosure law when one goes to buy, like there is with lead paint, etc. THAT might wake some people up. I've read that the government has decreed that it doesn't have to even tell people getting ready to buy a property if there are any endangered species on their property. The government is only required to disclose that information when the owner goes to buy a building permit - and then it's often too late.

People, organizations, and glossary of terms related to the Wildlands Project http://www.wildlandsprojectrevealed.org/htm/glossary.htm

New Jersey Congressman submits bill to make Wildlands Project law http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31305

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