Domenici's staffer blames wilderness group for lost opportunity
By Heath Haussamen
07/01/2008
| 10 Comments
Steve Bell, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici's chief of staff, had hoped the retiring Republican senator could travel to Las Cruces during his last months in office to celebrate a compromise that had protected hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Doña Ana County.
But that won't happen, Bell said in an interview, and he blames the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance for the missed opportunity.
“I really thought we could have this done by now and have this happy celebration,” Bell said. “That isn’t going to happen.”
Bell is weighing in on an issue that has suddenly injected itself into the U.S. senate race that features Republican Steve Pearce against Democrat Tom Udall and in which the candidates' views on the environment are receiving attention.
Specifically, Bell was responding to comments made last week by Las Cruces City Councilor Nathan Small, an employee of the Wilderness Alliance. Small attacked a bill introduced last month by U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce that would eliminate all wilderness study areas in Doña Ana County and instead create new, less restrictive designations for the land. The bill would also require the sale of 65,000 acres of federal land. Pearce’s proposal is much different from what Domenici wanted.
Small pointed out in last week's press conference that Domenici helped secure the creation of a wilderness area in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque more than three decades ago, and he said Las Cruces deserves the same.
Bell said that Domenici proposed a plan in December 2005 that was backed by the Bureau of Land Management. Like Pearce’s bill, it would have mandated the sale of 65,000 acres of land owned by the BLM. But unlike Pearce's plan, it called for giving the wilderness designation to more than 200,000 acres of land in Doña Ana County.
Instead of embracing it, the Wilderness Alliance wanted more and worked to build opposition to Domenici’s plan, Bell said. It also worked to build support for its own proposal to designate about 300,000 acres in the county as wilderness and another 96,000 as a national conservation area. That resistance led to the current disagreement that pits the progressive majority on the Las Cruces City Council that was elected several months ago by citizens fed up with the area’s rapid growth against Pearce, Bell said.
“You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that we have absolutely entered gridlock and nothing can happen because there’s too much at stake politically,” Bell said. “… The upshot is, once again, in my judgment, a group has proved a truth of an old saying that I used everyday for the last 36 years in this job: ‘Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.’”
“Because the Domenici plan was not perfect in their view, they rejected it,” Bell said of the wilderness group. “Then they came up with a proposal they think is perfect, and now they are faced with the prospect of getting nothing.”
Jeff Steinborn, the southern New Mexico director for the Wilderness Alliance and a state legislator, said the group appreciates Domenici’s “legacy of protecting wilderness” but remains opposed to land disposal. Beyond that, he said he had no response to Bell’s comments.
Battle lines are drawn
Domenici’s proposal fizzled out as the wilderness group sold its plan in 2006 and 2007. The group gained the support of area governments and newspapers and hundreds of businesses and other organizations by focusing on protecting the Organ Mountains and opposing the Domenici proposal to sell an area twice the size of Las Cruces for development. The widespread belief that Las Cruces was growing too rapidly -- which led to the recent overthrow of the city council -- helped the Wilderness Alliance gain support for its plan.
Meanwhile, a group of ranchers and businessmen formed People for Preserving our Western Heritage, an anti-wilderness group that drafted its own proposal that eventually became Pearce’s bill. The wilderness group’s proposal has lost some support, including that of the Village of Hatch. The current list of businesses and other groups that support the ranchers’ proposal is much larger than the list of those that support the wilderness group’s plan.
Bell said he knew such polarization would occur if the Wilderness Alliance didn’t get behind the Domenici proposal. He said he warned the group of that during early meetings in Washington.
In the interview, Bell didn’t indicate that Domenici supports the proposal from the wilderness group or that of the ranchers.
Bell said that, while the wilderness group might be waiting for next year -- when many pundits predict Democrats will have greater control of Congress -- to push through its proposal, there will be no certainty that will happen without Domenici to sell it. He said there’s no stronger supporter of wilderness than Domenici, who has helped secure approval of several wilderness proposals in New Mexico during his 36 years in office.
“In my view, I think that we have set back this cause tremendously,” Bell said.
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© 2008 The New Mexico Independent
Comments:
Posted 07/01/2008 15:25 with
Steve Bell has insulted the Dona Ana County residents. I am not a member of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. There are number of us residents who want to have wilderness to protect the beautiful Organ Mountains. Put it to a vote. It would have been a nice legacy for Senator Domenicic to sponsor wilderness. Instead Bell insults us! Obviously he is anti-wilderness and a supporter of a few wealthy ranchers. It is a sad tale for the Organ Mountains.
In fact I blame Mr. Bell for his failure to communicate with the parties. He is the so-called chief of staff. It would have been wonderful to have the Domenici Wilderness – what a legacy for a great Senator. Instead Mr. Bell is pointing fingers for his own failure.
Posted 07/02/2008 09:50 with
What a crock from Steve Bell.
Senator Domenici’s initial proposal was shot down by local community members because it was stupid. NMWA had nothing to do with that. Domenici and Bell think that they are all powerful and when locals rejected that proposal (in part because Domenici tried to ram it down the throat of the community without any communication) they were bitter and hurt and decided to take it out on the community. Bell and his boss are big babies. They have forgotten that they are elected officials and not dictators.
And of course they need a scapegoat.
Senator Bingaman also deserves a massive amount of blame for what is going on in Dona Ana. Instead of standing up to the 17 ranchers and Sen Domenici on this one and instead of standing WITH the overwhelming majority of (including all the elected bodies, sportsment, developers and business community members)he fiddle-faddled along until momentum was lost and Domenici and Pearce had a chance to confuse things. If Senator Bingaman would get a spine, we could get some of this land protection stuff done. Maybe Udall will be Bingaman’s spine. Lord knows he’s scared witless of Domenici.
I would love to see a Domenici wilderness. I’d love to see a Bingaman wilderness. What a sorry state of affairs.
Posted 07/02/2008 14:02 with
Domenici is a sell out, or rather, a sell anything. He would sell the whole state of New Mexico if he could. His staffer, Steve Bell, seems to know only the beauty of oily money. We can hope he follows Domenici out the congressional door upon the senator’s retirement.
Let’s make our nation self sufficient in energy by using renewables. We can take back the green revolution that China and even Germany, a country with less sunshine than New Mexico, are leading. Scratching within wilderness for oil and gas is leaving us with the dinosaurs from which these petroleum products originated. There’s a green energy future; leave Domenici, Bell, and the dinosaurs in the past.
Posted 07/02/2008 16:59 with
In 2006 over 55 percent of the Dona Ana County residents surveyed said they supported a proposal by area conservation groups to create 330,000 acres of wilderness in Dona Ana County. Now we have a small minority of wealthy ranchers and developers undermining wilderness for the Organ Mountains – this is an outrage. Mr. Udall and Bingamin sit on their hands. Mr. Teague has the courage to support Wilderness. Mr Tinsley of Santa Fe and Rep. Pearce are against all wilderness.
Posted 07/03/2008 14:43 with
There is an old Greek Aesop fable that can be applied to the Organ Mountains and should be considered by anti-Wilderness folks. If Senator Domenici’s “legacy of protecting wilderness” is serious he should consider this fable too.
A man and his wife owned a very special goose. Every day the would lay a golden egg, which made the couple very rich.
“Just think,” said the man’s wife, “If we could have all the golden eggs that are inside the goose, we could be richer much faster.”
“You’re right,” said her husband, “We wouldn’t have to wait for the goose to lay her egg every day.”
So, the couple killed the goose and cut her open, only to find that she was just like every other goose. She had no golden eggs inside of her at all, and they had no more golden eggs.
In Dona Ana County we have a small minority of wealthy developers wanting to develop land for immediate profits without consideration of the residents, open spaces to preserve the beautiful Organ Mountain heritage, water availability or a gradual smart growth plan. In addition some ranchers are wrongly fearful about losing their grazing rights. So these groups want to end Wilderness. In other words kill the goose. It is a sad fate for the poor goose and could be the fate of the Organ Mountains.
Posted 07/03/2008 15:06 with
Steve Bell and Senator Domenici hit the mark! Other user groups have tried for YEARS to work with the wildernss people in a give and take fashion—- some land may be pristine and deserve wilderness designation, other lands currently carring a Wilderness Study Area designation have no business ever being wilderness and should be returned to multiple use. That means hiking, biking, camping, horseback riding, grazing, bird watching and more. The wilderness people have steadfastly refused to even to have discussion about what should or should not be wilderness. They want it all regardless of the law. The Wilderness Alliance Dona Ana proposal attempted to take in PRIVATE PROPERTY which was never even contemplated in the Wilderness Act. Hurray for Senator Domenici for respecting private propety rights as well as the custom and culture of the land of enchantment.
Posted 07/03/2008 15:19 with
Bird watching will be fun while the ATV’s cross your path.
Posted 07/04/2008 16:48 with
Anti Wilderness folks should be aware of these seven vital statistics: 1. About 9% of U.S. south of Alaska remains in a road less and wild condition. 2. About 2½% of the lower 48 states is legally protected Wilderness (46 million aces). Including Alaska, about 4½% of the U.S. is protected Wilderness (104 million acres). 3. Over half of the national forest domain has roads and is developed. Less than 1/5 of the 191 million acre system is protected Wilderness (34.7 million acres). There are roughly 55 million acres of unprotected road less areas up for grabs. 4. Roughly 30 million acres of BLM road less lands qualify for Wilderness designation in the 48 contiguous states. 5. National Park road less and unprotected: over 10 million acres in the U.S. south of Alaska. 6. National Wildlife Refuge road less and unprotected: over 4 million acres, not including Alaska. 7. Public land road less areas disappear at the rate of about a million acres per year.
Posted 07/30/2008 10:57 with
Ummm ok aware of it….not seeing whats wrong with it…..
Posted 07/30/2008 11:00 with
NOT everybody wants to watch birds….but hey your view of how things should be, and what you want to use the land for trumps everybody else right? Just like you should be able to dictate our diets, where we live, etc., right?