Managed Environmental Bias
Coordination Eminence
Anderson Family and the Lower Gila
Box ACEC
Mitchell and
Ellice (Thomson) Robertson had four daughters. They homesteaded southwest of Cliff, New Mexico
on Sycamore Creek. The four girls Nila, Helen, Jewell, and Ruth were around
animals as a matter of existence. Little Helen was maybe more horse crazy than
her siblings to the point her dad had to make her stay away from a mare he
didn’t trust.
Mitchell
came in one afternoon and Helen was there wanting to be with dad and the horse.
She asked to hold the horse while he unsaddled and fed. He told her she could
but to be careful. Helen’s interpretation of being careful was to do a good job,
and she wrapped the reins around her little hand.
As her dad
made his way back from the corn crib, the mare spooked and ran off … dragging
and kicking at Helen as she ran. Mitchell, in a panic, called for her to turn
loose, but the wrapped reins held her suspended until the horse finally kicked
her free.
Having no
car and miles from any neighbors, Mr. Robertson caught the mare and headed for
help. By the time they got a car and on the way to a doctor in Silver City,
the little horse crazy Robertson girl, Helen …died.
Eighty Years later History continues
Down the
river at Redrock, the son of Helen’s sister Ruth, Walt Anderson, lives at the
same family ranch his grandparents moved to in 1929. He is the unbroken link of
Andersons to
call the place home.
Every
morning he walks from his house and the same view his grandfather, Fred,
admired stands in stark relief. The barns, the saddle shed, and the corrals are
within sight. To the northwest he can see Black Mountain.
To the northeast, Elephant Back and Clark’s
Peak form the horizon. The Gila River lies just
beyond the field where hay and pasture is grown. This is home to Walt in more
ways than just existence.
In 2011,
Mr. Anderson, his fellow board members of the Hidalgo Soil and Water
Conservation District (HSWCD), and the Hidalgo County Commission (HCC) learned
the BLM intended to expand a local Area of Critical Environmental Concern
(ACEC) by 65,000 acres. As the impact of the plan unfolded, Walt learned that
his 2250 acres of private land would be swept into the plan. His neighbors
would have another 8½ sections of deeded land impacted, similarly. Fifteen
sections of New Mexico
State trust land were
also involved. The remainder of the land would be federal holdings including
the Anderson
allotment.
Inquiries
by HSWCD resulted in a BLM response that the plan set the foundation to ‘save’
the Lower Gila Box. The HCC and HSWCD were astounded at the arrogance of the
action.
Meetings
were requested and the scope of the plan was revealed. For starters, there were
at least three endangered species that would benefit from expanding the
agency’s management of the area. There was an issue with the Clean Water Act
and there was an issue of brush control within the plan’s footprint.
Further prompting indicated
cultural surveys revealed the need for expanded federal controls. The BLM was
worried about potential energy corridor construction, off basin surface water
storage (tied to an Arizona/
New Mexico
water settlement), water temperatures in the Gila, and feral animal intrusions.
The area would be “managed for the public” by
the elimination of the state and private ownership. Furthermore, the area could
be closed to the sale and or lease of minerals, closed to vehicle use, and the
river channel could be closed to cattle grazing.
Aha!
Promises made don’t mean Promises kept
HCC and HSWCD were furious.
First, it is not the BLM’s role to
determine local economic issues without input. Second, there is the organic
legislation that gained western support from the constitutional assurance of
managing public lands for the matter of disposal … to managing federal lands
for the matter of retention.
In getting the Federal Lands Policy
and Management Act (FLPMA) passed, Congress promised local government they
would be part of any planning process that impacted their communities. Congress
intended and clearly specified that local planning would be considered early …
not after a plan is finalized.
Congress promised that federal
agencies would keep apprised of local plans.
Congress assured that consideration
would be given to all local plans.
Congress assured that agencies
would objectively assist in resolving differences in local and federal land
planning.
Congress assured that meaningful
involvement would always occur including public notices.
Lastly, Congress assured that federal
planning would be consistent with local planning.
Local government across the West
has long realized the pillars of FLPMA are kept only as long as the
environmental agenda is in phase with the local governing philosophies. That
has become a fact that is no longer even veiled.
In order to protect citizenry
against the rampage, local governments have sought protections within the Act
to forge defenses against federal land schemes. The issue of Coordination has become the focus.
Playing off the two foundational
pillars, prior notice and the necessity of seeking consistency with local
planning, coordination is the action of putting local government at the
planning table. It doesn’t mean the Feds would comply with all local planning,
but it does imply that local governments have a line of defense in dealing with
federal actions.
It is worthy to note the
implications of coordination. First is the legal definition which includes
‘harmonize’ and ‘synchronize’. The second sets forth ‘equal’ and ‘not
subordinate’. Local governments are not subservient.
It is important to recognize that
implication to local government. Constitutionally impaired legislators have no
idea what sovereign individuality means. As such, Americans are saddled with
the disadvantage of being sacrificed to bureaucratic actions, but local governments
have the opportunity to elevate sovereign individual rights.
‘Any local unit of government’ has the
conditional right to enter into coordination with the Feds. That unit of government,
however, must have a land plan in order to inaugurate the relationship.
The Dust Up
Hidalgo County
prevailed in a temporary removal of the Lower Gila Box ACEC from discussion. They
also learned a number of things that must be used in future defenses.
They must strengthen their
land use plans. A good argument can be made that FLPMA offers promises, but
local government must not allow those promises to become meaningless without
active participation.
In discussions since the ACEC issue
was tabled by the BLM, a Council of Border Conservation Districts (Council) has
come together in southwestern New
Mexico for mutual support. HSWCD is a founding member.
In debating the dilemma of the
ongoing discovery of learning of federal plans only after they appear in the
Federal Register or the headlines of local newspapers, a fundamental need
arose. The Council agreed their prominence or eminence at the planning table
was not nor had it ever been held inviolate by the actions of the land agency.
Therefore, if local government was going to experience the promises clearly
intended by Congress, they would have to commit their own efforts through policy
and intent to form an aggressive, primary voice at all planning tables.
Their insistence for their expected
coordination eminence had come to mean something very profound to the Council. It
is fundamentally crucial. They adopted the concept as the founding principle in
their approach to future relationships with the agencies.
The Lesson honored
Walt Anderson’s mother remembers
her childhood when she and sister, Jewell, herded turkeys to support the
family’s existence. In the fall, black walnuts from the native trees in
Sycamore would be gathered and cracked. The big pieces went into the jar for
cooking and the little pieces were fed to the turkeys.
Those people and their neighbors
weren’t footnotes in the history of southwestern New Mexico. They are the history. They
struggled, they bled, they endured …
The prominence or eminence of
impact to the individuals whose very existence is threatened by federal actions
is profound. If the history they represent endures similarly, it will
not be accomplished by unfulfilled narrative from FLPMA or any other law. It
must come from a dedicated body of participants whose existence is predicated
on similar values and beliefs. It is that simple, and … it is that serious.
Stephen
L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New
Mexico. “Walt’s mother and my father grew up just
miles apart on Sycamore Creek. Years ago, we stopped at the site of the
Robertson homestead and my dad told me the story of Helen Robertson …he
struggled.”
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