Next month, The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument will celebrate its third anniversary, and now some in Las Cruces are worried that their recently designated national monument may be sized down thanks to a new executive order by President Trump.
Friday a crowd of people filled a ballroom at the Ramada Las Cruces Hotel and Conference Center to speak out against President Donald Trump’s executive order that called for a review of national monuments that were designated back to the start of 1996 and covered at least 100,000 acres.
Supporters of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, local elected leaders, and business owners rallied together in support of the monument Friday.
ViAnn Beadle says she worked hard canvassing with the Sierra Club in Las Cruces to get the monument designated and she wants to keep the monument just the way it is she says that it’s important to keep places in the monument like Kilbourne Hole Volcanic Crater protected.
“At that time there were abandoned cars in there, it was just a mess. That’s such an amazing place, and that’s why we need to protect it, in addition to the Organs and the entire area,” says Beadle.
When Christina Roy first heard about the executive order she thought it was fake news. She says that wanted to attend to show her support for the monument.
“I think that it’s really important just to preserve things as they are. I’m really nervous if it is not a national monument it could be sold off for fracking or who knows what special interest group could inherit it,” says
Doña Ana County Commissioner Billy Garrett fired up the crowd in attendance with a call to “keep your hands of our public lands.” Garrett says was decades of hard work and an inclusive effort to establish the national monument.
“This is a thirty-year campaign that finally came to fruition three years ago. People are not going to let this go without a fight,” says Garrett.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWcV9uDmOHM&feature=youtu.be
Diana Murillo-Trujillo is the Mayor of Anthony, New Mexico. She says the monument provides a recreational outlet nearby for the youth in her community.
“We have a lot of kids that want to do stuff and want to see nature,” says Murillo-Trujillo.
Ben Gabriel, Executive Director for Friends of The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks says that he is disappointed in what he says are the administration’s efforts to undermine any of the national monuments in the past 21 years, but he says he is proud to live in a community that supports the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument.
“I do believe that communities across the west are going to come together and show the Secretary of the Interior as well as President Trump that National Monuments are here to stay,” says Gabriel.
Speakers at the rally also talked about what they said was the positive economic impact the monument had on the area.
Carrie Hamblen, CEO of the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce says a new report out by the Outdoor Industry Association says outdoor recreation economy brings in $887 billion in consumer spending annually . https://outdoorindustry.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04 /OIA_RecEconomy_FINAL_Single.pdf
The report also says 7.6 million Americans make a living that depends on outdoor recreation jobs. Hamblen says that local business in Las Cruces have seized opportunities thanks to the Monument.
“We look at how that trickles down to businesses and Las Cruces has seen that here with our local businesses increasing the products that they create, increasing packages, just the number of people that are visiting our community because of our national monument,” says Hamblen.
Hamblen says that organizations and groups have chosen to have meetings and conferences in Las Cruces due to the monument, which she says has helped boost the local economy.
Speakers at the rally also called on supporters to contact their elected officials in Washington, D.C. to voice support for the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument…it’s an effort that some at the rally thought was over after the monument was designated nearly three years ago.
