By Mary Alice Murphy

The Grant County Commission work session began with county reports on Sept. 10, 2019.

Detention Center Administrator said the facility has two vacancies and two applicants. "We have been pretty full lately. On September 5, we had 105 inmates and our average has been 101."

Road Superintendent Earl Moore said the Rosedale Road project is finished, except for the paving, for which they will come back with a second application.

Community Development and Planning Director Michael "Mischa" Larisch said the Whiskey Creek Volunteer Fire Department expansion is coming to an end. "The Grant County Airport terminal renovation will begin after the temporary terminal building arrives on Oct. 1, and we get Advanced Air set up inside. We continue to work on the Tyrone ADA project. I'm also working on Water Trust Board applications for fixing drainage on Fleming Tank Road and on Bandoni."

The first to speak in public input was Tom Shelley, who described himself as a county resident and rancher. "I want to speak to the proposed Wild and Scenic designation for stretches of the Gila, San Francisco and tributaries. I am representing myself. I love the river and the wilderness. I'm a fifth-generation rancher in the wilderness. I've been all over it. I'm a conservationist. I worry about the abuse that the designation above and below my allotment will cause. I am asking you to table or reject the designation. A lot of supporters say nice things, and talk about clean water, but we need honesty. What's being promised is economic development, but they want to exchange known economic development for what the proponents are putting in their frequently asked questions. Take grazing as an example. They say that will continue as now. However, reading farther into the document, it says that agencies have the right to limit or get rid of grazing. This designation is just a new basis for litigation. In Oregon, a judge took grazing off part of the forest after a lawsuit from environmental groups that BLM had failed to adequately manage a stretch of the wild and scenic river. In April 2018, a federal judge dismissed another complaint from an [Oregon environmental group] and the Center for Biological Diversity; you may have heard of them. After 15 years of litigation, the judge finally agreed to throw out the lawsuit because the plaintiffs hadn't established fault of the U.S. Forest Service in managing the Wild and Scenic designation. You may wonder what these environmental groups will do with this designation. They don't have to win a lawsuit to put a rancher out of business. All of these groups have also said that they the reason they support the designation is that it will stop any diversion on the river. So please consider our businesses, our families, our ranches, and even our mines. Thank you for considering my comments."

Haydn Forward of Catron County said he is in opposition to the Wild and Scenic Rivers act. "The term is nice, and we all want to embrace it, but it is absolutely camouflage. What it will do to property and water-rights owners within ¼-mile of the high-water mark of a designated stretch is concerning. The folks who favor this act are using terms to protect themselves. Words such as should be, expect, to the best of our knowledge and items to be proposed. None of us here is a child and we all know that those terms are actually a swinging door to allow them to change any of their positions. They say no private property along the river will be designated recreational, wild or scenic. But they are not telling you of a lot of consequences of the designation. We have to realize that any tributaries are also encompassed into wild and scenic. So private property along the tributaries can be impacted. It's quite frightening how the designation will continue to grow. Presume you have acequias that you will need to clean out the silt. Proponents can say, you can't clean them out, because commercial activity is not allowed on the wild and scenic designation. Section 6, (g) (1) stating that any owner of private property is allowed to use it for a period not to exceed 25 years is frightening. And (g)(2) states that the property shall be subject to termination whenever the appropriate secretary is given reasonable cause to find that such use and occupancy is being exercised in a manner which conflicts with the Act. If you are improving the property or selling fruits of your labor that may be deemed commercial, and that is not allowed. The water rights go away and the property rights go away. The intended consequence is to take away our rights."

Jim Paxon, chairman of the Sierra County Commission, said he spent 34 years in the Forest Service, 15 on the Gila National Forest Black Range District. He said the Organic Act of 1897 became the basis to create the Forest Service, which was designated as multi-use. "The water and the timber were for the use of the residents. In 1924, the Gila Wilderness came into being. There have been attempts to paint Aldo Leopold as a preservationist. And that is so wrong. He understood the benefits of grazing to forest management. He is the one who championed the multiple uses of grazing and timbering. The wilderness is now very protected and closely managed. Any designation of wild and scenic is not merely another layer of bureaucracy, but an attack on private property rights and of the multiple uses of the national forest. Beware of any legislation that can take away the private landowner's right to use his land. Read the fine print in the act."

He said Section 4 (a) allows the government to study national forest lands and submit to Congress and the president proposals for national wild and scenic rivers, allowing acquisition of lands so proposed. If 50 percent or more of the acreage is federally owned it does not preclude the condemnation where necessary to acquire scenic easements to allow public access. "So, the private property owner under the wild and scenic designation has no way to protect his private land from public access. How is that fair?"

He, too, referred to section 6 (g), saying that owners retain the rights for noncommercial residential purposes for no longer than 25 years or for a term ending at the death of the owner, or the death of his spouse or of either of them.

"Noncommercial means the owner cannot have a hayfield, a fly-fishing business or a camping site," Paxon said "This is a dangerous and slippery slope that some radical environmentalists are wanting to use to pull the wool over your eyes. This proposal is anti-private property; it is anti-small landowner; it is anti-multiple use that the Forest Service was founded on and continues for more than a century; and to me in many ways is anti-freedom. I am against this designation."

Van "Bucky" Allred, Catron County commissioner, thanked the commissioners for allowing the New Mexico Central Arizona Project Entity to use the room for the Arizona Water Settlements Act meetings. "This water is important to us. The Wild and Scenic Act changes nothing, they say, other than it will keep everyone out. Our county government passed a resolution against the designation in May 2018 and sent it to our senators. We have yet to hear from them. We invited them to come sit at the table to hear our concerns. All these people are doing is setting up potential litigation that will cost our counties and municipalities lots of money to fight to protect people's property rights and water rights and the chance to develop any resources to add to our tax base and improve our quality of life. We have decades of experience with these types of programs. I know it's not directly part of this, but it is part of the spotted owl, the wolf. None of these programs has been good for our county. So, I ask you commissioners to vote against this proposal. It's just another lock-off in the aggression against private property rights."

Chris Overlock, Grant County resident, said he had to speak for the wild and scenic designation. "The Gila River is very important to the area. Wild and scenic designation will be a positive for the area. We have to preserve our natural environment. My ancestors came in 1881, but that doesn't matter. I encourage you to go with the wild and scenic designation."

Anthony Gutierrez said he is a lifetime resident of Grant County along the Gila River. "Although I am the New Mexico CAP Entity executive director, I am not speaking on behalf of it or the AWSA. I refer to the frequently asked questions sent to us by New Mexico Wild. In the very first question about eligibility, it states a river must be free-flowing, which I ask you to pay specific attention to the word. It also addresses in the second paragraph a place where families gather. In my 50 years plus, I have seen the gathering places continue to diminish. Places we used to go to and enjoy are no longer accessible. The most popular places are the lakes. Bill Evans is full in the summers and few other places along the river are accessible. Farther on in the document, it says the designation will permit structures to enhance fish and wildlife. But it also states that it prohibits dams that could impact designated segments. In the resolution, you say the designation recognizes the special quality of the headwaters, but the wild and scenic designation also has impact on the tributaries and the area below Bill Evans Lake, where citizens live, and also potentially on development of AWSA water. So, if you refer to the recreational segments, you will see on the map they are very few and very limited. The AWSA is development of water. The portion not in the FAQs is a definition of impact. Impact is what they use for restrictions and litigation. It's difficult to take the word impact and have a defense against the designation. It's a means for environmental groups to create litigation."

He was cut off for talking for five minutes.

Don Luhrsen lives on the Lower Mimbres. He said that this time of year, many rivers in the area go underground, but it doesn't mean they don't continue to feed the aquifer below. "For instance, the Mimbres continues to feed the aquifer that serves the Deming area. I spent a few years with the Forest Service and retired as a district ranger in Arizona. It was a shock to me to go back and to discover that the whole state of Arizona had declared wild and scenic all their streams. Management was more and more difficult, especially as groups began to oppose livestock grazing. To me, what I see in my many visits with Commissioner (Harry) Browne, is that this is just another step in his agenda to eliminate grazing in the county. I have a concern that the Forest Service has limited monitoring capabilities. Environmentalists are not monitoring. They are just expressing opinions of what they see and it's often just a snapshot, not a long-term view of what's going on. I ask you to oppose this wild and scenic river designation. It takes away from grazing rights; it takes away from ranchers; it takes away from farmers who use the water from the rivers, and it ends up with streams that get no management at all. They become overgrown, the fisheries begin to deteriorate and it's just a lose-lose for everybody."

Daren Allred of the Grant County Cattle Growers said the group represents 100 families within Grant County and some in Catron, Luna and Hidalgo counties. "I'm here to address the wild and scenic rivers designation. We are conservationists. We care for our country. I ask you to oppose this designation. Please give an opportunity for more public input, and sort through the facts before you make your decision."

J.T. Hollimon, a resident of Cliff, said: "The issue is never the issue. This is not about the river, but it is about power and control and the ability to sue and to take control of the water. That's what the environmental groups do. They sue. The issue is not the river; the designation will control the usage of all those areas. They did it with the spotted owl. Now it's all burned down, so there is no spotted owl. There is no logging. There is no multiple use. That's what we're looking at here; it's about control."

Hazel Donaldson said she was raised on the Gila River. "We have moved back here from Apache County in Arizona, where we spent 40 years. Apache County is unique, with most of it, except for about 10 percent in private hands, being held mostly in federal hands, and some by the state. I came to realize how important it was to keep control in local hands. In Apache County, it was controlled by federal agencies. We had a home in Nutrioso. We were surrounded by national forest. Every time there was an issue, there would be public meetings. We would talk, we would plead, we would beg, and it never mattered. The reason it never mattered was that the decisions were taken care of by the agencies in D.C. or in federal courts, where the group that had lawyers sued. We didn't matter. When we cried that they couldn't take our logging industry away, they did it anyway. Nobody listened to us. When we started to cry out about how overgrown the forest was, and how much we were a tinder box, nobody listened to us in the public meetings. The Rodeo-Chediski Fire took much of the forest. We took care of Navajo County residents, because we felt their pain. We spent days there with all the residents in our little bitty town. You know who weren't there? All the ones who sued in federal court. They weren't there; they didn't help. As J.T. said, it's not about the people, it's not about the resource, it's about control. If you let control go to the bureaucracies or the environmentalists, they won't be there for you. I've seen it first-hand. Neighbors taking care of neighbors is the best policy. Please vote no on wild and scenic designation."

Don Stailey lives on the Gila River. "My family has been there since 1921. They bought a farm that had water rights from 1875. We stayed on the farm, with the water rights that preceded New Mexico as a state, that preceded the formation of the Forest Service. It's hard to understand how someone wearing rose-colored glasses can come and tell us they will take away our water rights from us. I don't think the good Lord intended for that to happen. The Gila River was made in our Mogollon Mountains by the one we call God. It is beautiful; it always has been. I believe we can do what we want with the water and it will not change the beauty. I ask you not to support the scenic and wild river designation. Ladies and gentlemen, let's take off our rose-colored glasses and see the river as it really is. Thank you."

In the last bit of public input, Assessor Raul Turrieta said the county needs to respect the rights of property owners. "Thank you for allowing public input at the work session. I sit on the New Mexico Counties Board and on several committees. In a little bit of news, New Mexico Counties won the 2019 Savvy Award for its rebranding marketing campaign. There were 700 entries. We were one of 70 first place winners. I won't be here for the regular meeting on Thursday, because I will be at the gathering of New Mexico Counties. Tell me anything you want me to tell them at the meeting."

The next article will cover the Gila Regional Medical Center update and continue with the HMS monthly report.

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