State Land Office and BLM discuss land swap

The New Mexico State Land Office held the first of four meetings to discuss a possible land swap between the NMSLO and the Bureau of Land Management Monday evening.

The land swap would see NMSLO giving BLM parcels in and around the Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks National Monument in exchange for parcels around the Santa Teresa Industrial Park and the Las Cruces Industrial Park.

Since the NMSLO’s mission is to earn more money for things like schools and hospitals, it wants to protect lands in the national monument all while getting land that will better support the mission of the agency.

County Commissioner Shannon Reynolds was at the meeting and he said that he supported the land swap because it would better preserve the national monument because the protections for the monument are “not quite as solid as you think.” 

“How many people would like to have a zip line coming down the mountain here on Organ Mountain Desert Peaks? Or how about one of those slaloms? Well if another land commissioner when elected wants to actually take the state land and lease it out to somebody to do that, they can do it,” Reynolds said during his comment. 

Patrick Nolan, executive director of Friends of the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks, also praised the decision to move 77,000 acres into federally protected hands. 

“These [lands] will be protected according to the monument proclamation in a way that the state land office could not protect them,” Nolan said. 

The final public meeting will take place on Sept. 25 in Sliver City.