Pearce visits Silver City, speaks on public lands

SILVER CITY — Congressman Steve Pearce was in town Saturday to connect with media outlets and to hold meet-and-greets with his constituents. "About 1½ years ago, I met with 18 Forest Service officials," Pearce told this reporter. "I told them basically that we couldn't continue operating like this, just de facto burning down forests." They said they were doing forest cleanup, and Pearce replied: "Yes, 30,000 acres at a time in a million acres of forest. You'll never catch up." He traveled to Grants about a month ago. He said the community was asking him for help to create the jobs they used to have. "It was the forest. 'We need to cut trees,' they told me." "We get to Grants, and the one mill left in New Mexico is there," Pearce said. "One-hundred-twenty-two mills have closed down in the state." The last mill owner was at the table, and he said he had a stewardship contract and if it lapsed, he, too, would have to close. Pearce said he pushed the Forest Service not to let the last guy shut down, so they gave him a 10-year extension on the stewardship contract, which is not yet completed. "I need to know what you are doing to cut trees," Pearce said to the Forest Service, which replied that it had a 90,000 acre-project on the books that was close to final signatures. "Two days later, we went down to the Lincoln Forest, close to Weed," Pearce said. In a three-hour meeting with the Forest Service, including the Deputy Regional Forester Jim Upchurch, Pearce said he explained the problem for a ranch families. "You're blocking off their water. You're telling them they have to move their cattle to market," but the fence is right up to the mountain on one side and the road on the other, "so the family will have to herd their cattle down the one-way road to get them to market, and people will come flying around the corner and meet a herd of cattle. You're telling me this is what they will have to do. I think we can do better."...more

Pearce: New Mexico Jobs Endangered...Again

By U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce

Two decades ago, the Mexican spotted owl was listed under the Endangered Species Act.  New Mexicans weren't told then what that would mean, only that the listing was necessary to save the species.  The details would be sorted out later.  The Fish and Wildlife Service claimed logging was the problem, and implemented a series of restrictions on logging.  Twenty years later, more than 100 timber mills have closed their doors.  A once-thriving industry vanished—and the jobs with it.

Earlier this year, Fish and Wildlife reevaluated their decision.  They casually mentioned that logging wasn’t the problem after all.  In fact, they said we need to bring logging back, because forests have grown so overcrowded that the owl is now at risk because of fires!  Our state lost hundreds of good paying, middle class jobs, all because of one reckless decision.

In 2010, it was the same story all over again.  Fish and Wildlife spent a year and a half pushing to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species.  But this time, the people of New Mexico spoke up.  We remembered the jobs we’d already lost, and we couldn't afford to lose more.  So we questioned their science, we held them accountable.  And we were proven right.
  
Six months ago, the Department of the Interior ruled that “landmark” voluntary conservation efforts by landowners protect the lizard better than the Endangered Species Act.  These homegrown agreements were praised as “a great example” for other conservation efforts.  Top officials at both the Department of the Interior and Fish and Wildlife proclaimed what New Mexicans have known all along: sound solutions that engage local voices can protect both the species and our jobs, without the need for a listing.

It was a great victory for conservation and for New Mexico’s economy: our farming, ranching, and energy production continue today, while lizard populations remain safe.  For a moment, Washington seemed to have learned from past mistakes.  It seemed to understand that listening and bringing everyone to the table works much better than heavy-handed regulations driven by politics and special interests. 

But late last year, while everyone’s attention was elsewhere, Fish and Wildlife quietly announced plans to list another species, the lesser prairie chicken, under the Endangered Species Act.  Shockingly, the chicken is already protected—under the exact same types of agreements that protect the lizard!

Either the Administration has forgotten its promises to New Mexicans, or it’s more interested in power and politics than the solutions it praised only months ago.
 
Power and politics often trump common sense and problem-solving in Washington.  Fish and Wildlife faces constant legal pressure from powerful, well-funded interest groups, like the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians, which have made careers out of suing the government and living on your tax dollars. These groups openly sue for the listings of thousands of species at a time—not to protect the species, but because the Endangered Species Act is a good way to make money and keep a stranglehold on an agency that’s supposed to be accountable to you.

The push to list the lesser prairie chicken comes straight from a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity.  It was chosen not because of science, but to attack our energy production, farming, and ranching here in southern New Mexico.

New Mexicans are honest, hardworking people.  If you tell us we can save our jobs and businesses by investing our own time, money, and efforts to protect a species, we’ll do it!  And we have done it, very successfully, for years. We've done it so well that top officials at federal agencies have praised our achievements.  We've held up our end of the bargain.  But now, Washington is going back on its word.

The Endangered Species Act is one of the most heavy-handed, unbending laws we have.  As we've already seen, it gives bureaucrats the power to destroy entire economies with hardly a second thought.  And these bureaucrats have already proven that they can make decades-long, job-killing mistakes—mistakes that cost the middle class dearly.  In fact, Dan Ashe, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told me in a closed door meeting that his agency is not required to take into account the impact that a listing has on your job. This is unacceptable.

New Mexico already has one of the weakest economies in the nation.  In the last three years, every single state has gained more jobs than we have.  This is no time to be playing games with our already fragile economy.  Our jobs, our livelihoods, our communities, and our culture are endangered. 
Enough is enough.  Tell Washington to stop playing political games with our jobs.  Tell Washington to stand by its promises, and drop its plans to list the lesser prairie chicken.

Not mentioned by Pearce is the section of the ESA authorizing appropriations for the act expired in 1992.  However, each year Congress has continued to fund the Act, even in years where Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress.  House rules prohibit consideration of measures  that contain unauthorized appropriations.  The House Rules Committee can issue a special rule which waives the prohibition.  So as you can see, the Republicans in the House have to turn to extraordinary measures to continue to fund the Act.  

One has to admire Pearce though, for all his activities which have drawn attention to the Act and forced the envirocrats to select more "reasonable" methods of implementation.  The last Congressman who drew attention to the Act's failings and pushed through significant reform legislation was Richard Pombo.  The next election he was targeted by the enviros and defeated.  

Our problem is not the lesser prairie chicken, its the chickens in Congress. 

Manti Te'o & Wolves

Manti Te’o Syndrome

Magical Playgrounds

Metastasized ESA

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            The question must be asked. What do Valhalla, Carenhall, and Lennay Kekua have in common?

The answer is they exist in the minds of mortal illusionists who have conjured up insanely narcissistic self assessments of their importance. They are private places to go strut your stuff. They are magical places where the mists are moved to reveal even more magical realms of existence. They are mental playgrounds for dreamers.

Valhalla was conceived as a majestic and enormous hall located in magical Asgard ruled over by the god, Odin. In front of the hall stood a sacred, endangered and golden tree, Glasir, and the hall’s ceiling was thatched with golden shields. Those who were chosen to enter Valhalla were honored heroes who died in combat fighting for important causes. The chosen were led by valkyries into the kingdom joining other heroes. Half of the chosen reported to Odin himself while the other half reported to the gorgeous goddess nymphet, Freyja.

It was there the chosen could go running au naturale through the Hall forever … and ever.

Carenhall actually existed. It was ostensibly Herman Göring’s hunting lodge and grounds named after his own Fryja, his late wife, Caren. The Nazi elite would gather and go running au naturale through the glades and mystical haunts of Göring’s sacred hunting grounds. It was there the big fellow collected his own perspective of what was best for the environment. One such preference was a clinal variant of melanistic roe deer from Spain. It was also there he planned to display his looted treasures.

The ending of Carenhall came when the Brandenburg government demolished it along with Caren Göring’s tomb. They wanted no Nazi shrine. The illusion was halted, reality was restored, and the world would pay dearly for the diabolical deception of what those tyrants imposed upon the victims of their crimes.

Lennay Kekua

Manti Te’o … vaunted super star. The man with the exotic name was set to lead Notre Dame back to the magical sports shrine it once was. He was everything the Gipper and Touchdown Jesus could possibly want. A big, fast, smart, minority who could control the line of scrimmage, strike fear in the hearts of opponents, and catapult love into the hearts of adoring fans.

The problem is this man … this kid … was elevated onto a national platform with an illusory propensity for endearment. The secret place in his mind had form and a name, Lennay Kekua. She not only never existed she was fabricated for sympathetic gain.

In every sense, Lennay Kekua became the same fraudulent rendering as Valhalla was to Germanic heroes and Carenhall was to the bloated ego of Hitler’s ‘fat man’. It was all a lie, and that kid will pay for his actions the rest of his life. Regardless of the process that will tediously play out in maneuvering to paint him as a victim … he perpetuated a lie. His penalty is immense. If he survives the national humiliation, he will still be labeled for what he is.

These hoaxes are defined and have names. Those associated with these deceptions are in the process or have paid the price for the creation of a nonexistent paradise. That may or may not be the case of an infinitely more egregious hoax being perpetrated on real victims in the West.

Manti Te’o Syndrome expanded

In a recent issue of a country living magazine, a home owner in Maine was featured. The home was located on several acres. The dwelling and the associated land was a private paradise with hiking trails and seclusion. What topped the image of that haven was the proximity of “10,000 acres of state conservation land”.

Aha! Valhalla is forming once again. In fact, we have entered into the realm of the newest elitist fad. To have a second home in the sticks has long been the marker distinguishing the movers, but to have conservation trust land next door separates the real movers from the shakers. It means paradise. It is a glorious cause!

The creation of conservation trust lands is actually code for the creation of another golden tree of Valhalla. Wilderness is the gold mantle piece, and it is being expanded under the same auspices as the Valhalla shrine. It exists in the minds of the beholder, and it harms no one until it emerges into the real world.

Ask Manti Te’o if he would now rather have his Lennay Kekua perpetuated affectionately in his mind or in front page headlines across this country. Likewise, ask the victims of the gray wolf introduction in New Mexico and Arizona if they would rather have the reintroduction concept only in the mind of the zoo tycoon who contrived the plan, or in their real life existence with the wolf.

In 1982, the plan was hatched to establish 100 Mexican wolves in the middle of 5000 square miles of wilderness along the New Mexico-Arizona border. Today, there are just over 50 collared wolves in that fantasyland. Hopefully, that must make the folks who need to know there is a lonely howling wolf somewhere out there in the wilderness appreciative of all the rural community hardship the program has created. If that is the case, that means there is some justification for the conflict because there has been no heaven on this earth created for those people who face the real consequences.

The program has been a human relations nightmare.

Recently, an announcement was made revealing the program will be expanded. Letters were sent to local government in the affected areas. The 5000 square mile recovery area is going to be expanded to … 296,390 square miles!

It appears the Yellowstone of the South, the Gila, imposes too many restrictions on the wolf’s success not to mention its persistently troublesome human-wolf conflicts. The imagination of the wolf planning team is shedding all form of modesty. They are stampeding toward all or nothing. They are going to roll the dice. The entire state of Arizona, the entire state of New Mexico, and nearly a third of the state of Texas will now become wolfdom’s Valhalla. Certainly, there are qualifications, but, if the planners have their way, the new recovery area is going to be gargantuan.

ESA metastasized

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has no conditions regarding the cost to society. It is a hammer being used to destroy rural communities. Seemingly, all we can do is watch the process.

The citizens in the wolf recovery area know they have no recourse for defense. Like the victims of past hoaxes, they stand in a hailstorm with no shelter. What they have needed is the expansion of their cataclysm to impact people who do have the means to confront the insidious onslaught. This expansion offers that opportunity.

 It will be interesting to observe how important the wolf is to society when it starts competing for regional management priorities with affluent municipalities.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “For the pragmatic among your ranks, the Canis lupus baileyi price now equates to $625,000 per cuddly piece. Does that make anybody mad?”

Most NM delegates a fiscal cliff yes

All but one of New Mexico's senators and representatives voted yes on a fiscal cliff deal that delays spending cuts, extends unemployment insurance and blocks most tax hikes on all but the wealthiest New Mexicans. But New Mexico's lone congressional Republican was a "no" vote Tuesday night, along with 150 other fellow GOP House members. “I cannot support this or any plan that doesn’t provide a solution,” said Rep. Steve Pearce (R - NM). “Washington doesn’t have a tax problem, it has a spending problem."...more