Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks under threat

Local conservation groups are worried that the Trump Administration could shrink the boundaries of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument or allow extractive mining or leasing.

Leaked documents and individuals who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Washington Post have indicated that OMDP as well as two smaller national monuments in northern New Mexico – Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and Rio Grande el Norte – are being considered to either shrink the boundaries or open up the land to extractive permitting. This has local conservation groups worried.

Patrick Nolan, executive director of the Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, said that the Bureau of Land Management currently manages 495,000 acres of the OMDP.

Mark Allison, executive director of New Mexico Wild, told the Bulletin that the boundaries around OMDP were carefully considered and included an on-the-ground inventory of archeological, historic and cultural values.

Nolan said the monument boundaries contain pictographs, cultural sites of importance to various Indigenous cultures, old homesteads from the state’s land grant era and a portion of the Butterfield Overland Trail traveled by stagecoach with passengers, mail and freight in the mid-1800s.

Carrie Hamblen, chief executive officer and president of the Green Chamber of Commerce in Las Cruces, said that if Trump issues an executive order to alter OMDP’s boundaries or allow extractive permitting, that the order would impact the city economically.

A study the Green Chamber commissioned in 2022 found that the OMDP generates $35 million in positive economic impacts and that visitation to the monument supported 305 jobs.

The study also found that in 2022 visitors to OMDP resulted in $1.9 million in tax revenue and $13 million in taxes over a decade.

Hamblen said the last thing she wants to see is an oil rig against those mountains. She said the Organ Mountains are “an iconic symbol of our area.”

This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has considered remapping the OMDP. Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke traveled to Las Cruces in 2017 to assess the possibility. But after his visit, Zinke did not recommend reducing the OMDP’s size. The Trump administration, instead, targeted two national monuments in Utah.

Nolan said this new consideration seems to be part of a larger plan to dismantle the national park system. He called the current effort “much more aggressive” than the first Trump administration’s efforts.

Nolan said that exploratory mining could also be a threat if Trump changes the rules to allow permitting. Nolan said that if the land is available for oil and gas leasing, companies could buy up the land to use as leverage for other land swaps elsewhere.

Republican Party of New Mexico Chairwoman Amy Barela said in a statement to the Bulletin that it supports the Trump administration’s review of federal land, including the OMDP “to ensure a balanced approach to conservation and economic growth.

“New Mexico’s economy heavily relies on oil and gas, which accounts for nearly 40% of the state’s tax revenues, funding critical services like schools, roads, and hospitals. Responsible development of energy and mineral resources on federal lands can create high-paying jobs, strengthen local communities, and bolster the state’s budget, which depends on royalties from oil and gas activities on non-tribal federal lands. President Trump’s America First policies will deliver economic opportunities for New Mexicans while preserving the beauty and significance of our state’s landscapes,” Barela said.