Opposition to changes to the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument grows

Southern New Mexico residents joined the congressional delegation and many others in opposing a Donald Trump administration effort to target the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. 

Opposition to announced and reported plans by the White House to reduce the amount of federal lands, largely in the Western United States, has grown in recent weeks. Nearly 200 people signed a letter last week addressed to New Mexico’s Congresional leadership asking that the OM-DP and the Rio Grande National Monuments continue to be federally protected sites.  

Las Cruces resident Phillip Simpson told the Bulletin that he signed the letter because he recreates in the OM-DP National Monument.  

“I do a lot of day rights into the monument and, occasionally, overnight backpacking rides,” Simpson said. “It’s important to protect it from oil and gas and other development. Once we lose it, we can’t get it back.” 

Simpson said he believes the OM-DP is important to the tourism economy of Las Cruces. 

“That would be lost if we sold it off,” Simpson said.  

In April, all five members of the congressional delegation including U.S. Rep. Gabe Vaquez, who represents the second congressional district, and U.S. Senators Ben Ray Lujan and Martin Heinrich, all Democrats, sent a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior calling on the department to keep the southern New Mexico monument intact. 

“The areas protected under national monument status across the state are culturally valuable, archeologically and geologically unique, and represent a conservation legacy that should not be erased,” the lawmakers wrote. “National monuments are vitally important to our history and any proposals to reduce their boundaries will not be reflective of the voices of New Mexicans.” 

Among the archaeological sites in the monument are petroglyphs.  

The members of Congress said that the Organ Mountains-Desert Peak National Monument was also an economic boon to the area. They said that in 2022 alone, visitation to the monument resulted in $1.9 million in tax revenue for the area, which they said was more than 50 percent above the initial economic impact prediction.  

At the same time, the lawmakers opposed the move to make changes to the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico, near Taos. 

Southern New Mexico residents have also expressed their opposition to the plan to target the monument. 

The Las Cruces Bulletin spoke to Patrick Nolan, the executive director of Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peak, earlier in June about the protests against the plans. 

“I think they're important because they protect our history and culture that goes well beyond any of us that have been around, and it's really important to protect those resources,” Nolan said. “It also brings management resources into the landscape to help manage trails and impacts of outdoor recreation.” 

Nolan said he wasn’t sure what the exact plan was, but noted that the Trump administration considered changing the borders of the monument during his first term, in 2017.  

“They could change the borders,” Nolan said. “So large acreage could then be unprotected and open to mining, drilling or extractive industries.” 

The coalition of nearly 200 New Mexicans who sent the letter to the congressional delegation thanked the members of Congress for their opposition to the Trump administration policies on public lands. Some of the signatories head conservation or other groups but some were ordinary citizens like Simpson, who described himself as retired. The letter also included teachers, business owners, attorneys and more. 

“New Mexicans value our public lands—not just for their economic contributions through sustainable tourism and recreation, but as irreplaceable cultural, environmental, and communal resources,” the letter read. “A recent poll conducted by New Bridge Strategy for the National Wildlife Federation shows that New Mexico voters overwhelmingly oppose proposals that allow oil and gas companies to exploit public lands without paying fair market rates, reduce community input, and weaken safeguards for wildlife, recreation, and water resources.” 

Nolan noted the diversity of those who signed onto the letter. “There was the Friends of the Organ Mountains and the Sierra Club, but then were just tons of teachers, retired folks, just more average Joes.” 

Earlier in June, supporters of the national monument gathered at the Tortugas Mountain West Side Sunset Vista Trailhead in Las Cruces to express opposition against the Trump administration efforts on national monuments. 

"It's time for New Mexicans to show how overwhelmingly we support the monuments and public lands that define our communities, protect wildlife, drive our economy, and provide public access for all," New Mexico Wild Executive Director Mark Allison said ahead of that protest. 

While the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument is the most obvious example of the plans to target public lands, a plan put forward by Senate Republicans would seek to put other public lands across the West, including in New Mexico up for sale. 

On Monday, June 16, Vasquez criticized the plan to sell 3.3 million acres of public lands across the country, including many acres in southern New Mexico. 

“There’s been no public input and no consultation with the communities who live, work, and depend on these lands. And the proposal itself doesn’t even require public hearings on the disposal of the land. Stripping public lands out of the hands of the American people to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy is not just bad policy — it’s morally indefensible.” 

 Reporter Noah Raess contributed to this story.