No decision on wilderness bill for Doña Ana County

New Mexico’s U.S. senators are continuing to push for new conservation and wilderness areas in Northern New Mexico, but they have not decided whether to try again this year for permanent protection of land in Doña Ana County including the Organ Mountains. Asked if there are plans to try again this year for permanent wilderness designations for land in Doña Ana County, Bingaman spokeswoman Jude McCartin said that’s currently “unclear.” The senators proposed a bill last year that would have designated hundreds of thousands of acres in Doña Ana County as wilderness – the federal government’s most restrictive conservation designation. The bill died in the Senate, and now the area is represented in the House by Republican Steve Pearce, who has a long history of criticizing Doña Ana County wilderness proposals...more