LTE: Indebted to Nature

Nathan Newcomer, Media Coordinator for the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, writes on the occasion of Thanksgiving that we too often forget to be thankful for our wild places and roadless areas.

Next week, millions of Americans, and New Mexicans alike, will celebrate Thanksgiving, stepping back for a moment to chew over all that we have to be grateful for. While we load our plates with the traditional slabs of honey-glazed turkey, mashed potatoes smothered in gravy, and other belly-busting delectables, we must take a moment to be thankful for a part of our lives that is often overlooked: the natural environment.

It is our environment, and more specifically, our roadless National Forests that often provide families with a trophy turkey to eat on the day of thanksgiving. These roadless National Forests also provide millions of Americans with fresh, clean drinking water. Additionally, most of us have been to New Mexico’s National forests, monuments, parks, rivers, and wilderness areas at some point in our life, to spend time with family and rejuvenate our spirit. However, this critical aspect of our quality of life now lies on the chopping block of corporate greed and ruin, thanks to the Bush administration’s devious efforts to sell-off and chop down these same roadless forests, great wilderness areas and National Forests.

This past May, the Bush administration repealed the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, one of the most publicly supported rules ever, thereby opening the last unspoiled lands in our National Forests to road building, logging, mining, and drilling. Pushed through by Washington lobbyists for these extractive industries, the administration's new roadless policy would strip protection for the last 30% of America’s roadless National forests, including 1.6 million acres of pristine forests here in New Mexico.

Furthermore, the administration's new approach to managing our national forests puts in place a "pay-to-protect" system. Governors who want just the chance of recovering previously guaranteed forest protections must participate in a costly and burdensome petition process. And even if governors decide to play in the administration's game of forest roulette, no protections are certain. Instead, all roadless petitions first need approval from an advisory panel appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture. If the requests clear that hurdle, they still have to receive the blessing of the Forest Service, including former timber industry lobbyist and current Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey. Despite these hurdles, Gov. Richardson has pledged to petition for the protection of all of New Mexico's roadless areas, and Attorney General Patricia Madrid, alongside the Attorney General’s of California and Oregon have recently filed a lawsuit against the Bush administration’s repeal of the Roadless Rule.

Our state leaders should be commended for their actions and we should all be thankful for their dedication to preserving our natural heritage.

As many here in New Mexico know, our National Forests serve as a precious economic engine for tourism and outdoor recreation. In 2003, nearly 4.5 million Americans visited New Mexico for outdoor recreation alone. These outdoor enthusiasts generated almost half-a-billion dollars for the state’s coffers. Furthermore, nearly 30 New Mexico communities—including Las Vegas, Farmington, Ruidoso, Alamogordo, Silver City, and Santa Fe—depend on the watersheds in these roadless areas to supply them with fresh drinking water. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that over 60 million Americans across the nation rely on national forests for their drinking water. Roadless areas provide clean drinking water for thousands of U.S. communities by purifying the water, slowing runoff, and reducing flooding and erosion—a priceless service that, if preserved, will continue to grow exponentially in years and decades ahead.

This Thanksgiving, we should all be thankful for the precious natural resources that we have left, and the work past generations have done to ensure we have these irreplaceable areas well into the future. We should also keep in mind the shortsighted policies and agendas that seek to denigrate our roadless National Forests, clean water, and ultimately our quality of life. Our last rivers, wilderness areas, public lands, and National Forests are resources that once poisoned and chopped down, will become broken and lost for generations to come.

As the great American poet and humanist Walt Whitman once wrote: "Without enough wilderness America will change. Democracy, with its myriad personalities and increasing sophistication, must be fibred and vitalized by the regular contact with outdoor growths -- animals, trees, sun warmth, and free skies -- or it will dwindle and pale."

No matter how thankful we are for our beloved roadless National Forests, if we do nothing to stop the dangerous policies that threaten the fabric of our natural heritage, then we too will dwindle and pale, and have nothing to be thankful for.