Officials tout Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks as comment period ends

A comment period that is part of a review by U.S. Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument is set to close Monday night. And Monday morning, leaders from four local governments, including Mayor Ken Miyagishima of Las Cruces, gathered to re-emphasize support for keeping the monument and its nearly 500,000 acres intact. A comment period that is part of a review by U.S. Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument is set to close Monday night. And Monday morning, leaders from four local governments, including Mayor Ken Miyagishima of Las Cruces, gathered to re-emphasize support for keeping the monument and its nearly 500,000 acres intact. Miyagishima at a news conference on Dripping Springs Road urged Zinke, Trump and U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce to leave the OMDP national monument at its current size. Out of the tens of thousands of comments submitted to the Interior Department, "you're going to see thousands and thousands from here locally, residents from all over southern New Mexico and throughout New Mexico for that matter, saying: 'Please keep this,'" Miyagishima said. "Rep. Pearce, I know you want to reduce this, but I'm asking you please not to," he said. "Your (proposed) reduction of 80 percent-plus is really going to be detrimental."

Miyagishima says a reduction where the monument would only include the Organ Mountains would be "detrimental". But he doesn't say how it would be detrimental, and it's easy to understand why. 

Everyone knows the icon and main attractant to the monument is the Organ Mountains. It is their image which appears on travel literature and all the websites. And where did the mayor conduct his press conference? At the entryway to the Organ Mountains, of course. Why not at one of the areas that would be detrimental to drop? Why not at Jim and Faye Hyatt's ranch in Luna County. Most people don't know this monstrosity goes clear into Luna County, so why not there so you could explain to the public how removing that area from the monument would be "detrimental". 

Would the Mayor say that removing everything from the White Sands National Monument except for the White Sands would be detrimental? No, and it was ridiculous for him to say that about the Organs. 

And then we have Commisioner Billy Garrett:  

Continued Garrett: "We respect the ranchers, but the ranchers aren't the only ones who care about this monument." 

If you have such "respect" for ranchers why have you never raised the issue of this monument proclamation having the most anti-grazing language of any BLM managed monument in existence? Not a peep from you. What kind of respect is that? Perhaps the respect we would .expect from a retired Park Service employee and that agency's policy is to allow NO grazing in the monuments they manage. We don't need that kind of "respect".