Recently a group of environmental activists proposed to make 250,000 acres of land in Southern New Mexico the latest national monument. The plan is to make four non-contiguous (meaning not connected) pieces of land part of a new national monument. Those areas are in the Florida Mountains, Tres Hermanas, Good Sight Mountains, and Cookes Range, all of which are near Deming. 

The lands are already under federal control (by the Bureau of Land Management or BLM), but a monument would further restrict the use of these lands. I own Spanish Stirrup Rock Shop, LLC and the SS Stone Gallery in Luna County and Lincoln County, New Mexico. I mine precious stones in the area being considered for the monument and I’m afraid the restrictive nature of these lands would put me out of business. For example, after the 2014 designation of the Organ Peaks Mountains all rock hounding in an area called Kilbourne Hole was eliminated.

My work supports my family. And I’m not alone in being concerned. As the federal government creates more restrictions on land it eliminates the economic use of those lands. Ranchers, hunters, and small-time mining operations like my own will face limitations like road closures and prohibitions on vehicles (even bikes). These in turn limit hunting and fishing. Finally, grazing and logging are generally banned in national monuments. 

While advocates promoting the monument often cite monument status as an economic positive, the reality is that there are only so many people willing to travel deep into wilderness areas unaided by motorized vehicles. Loss of existing businesses like my own are not accounted for in these studies. 

Overall, tighter federal control and allowing of fewer uses of federal lands as a monument designation entail will hurt, not improve the economy in Luna County and New Mexico. Sadly, most economic analyses of national monuments come from a coterie of well-funded left leaning environmental groups that have a direct interest in pushing greater federal control over the land. 

There is no question that these mountain areas are beautiful. That is accurate as they are currently managed (with a light touch). But the federal government is ill-equipped to actively manage and enforce restrictions on hundreds of thousands of additional acres. In fact, according to the Congressional Research Service (a non-partisan arm of the federal government) in FY2022, the most recent year for which estimates are available, the federal government had combined deferred maintenance estimated at $35.53 billion.

Finally, perhaps the biggest issue in this entire debate is the process…perhaps better stated as the lack of a process. The federal law used to lock up our lands is the Antiquities Act of 1906 which was signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt. 

The act resulted from concerns about protecting mostly prehistoric Native American ruins and artifacts—collectively termed “antiquities” on federal lands in the West, such as at Chaco Canyon. Removal of artifacts from these lands by private collectors had become a serious problem by the end of the 19th century. 

To that end, Presidents have long enjoyed (and many have abused) the power to place monument areas under restrictive federal control. The Act was never intended to take hundreds-of-thousands of acres out of any economic role, but to allow for contained, very sensitive areas to be protected. 

If the advocates for this monument are serious, they should NOT advocate for a monument designation issued by President Biden or any other individual. This should be a collaborative process that is undertaken with the explicit support of elected officials in Luna County and bi-partisan support in Congress and a signature from the President. 

Locking up large tracts of land should not be undertaken by one person.

Lori Coleman

Luna County