I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Governor Bill Richardson echoed concerns made by sportsmen today about a land swap in the Whites Peak area. The Stanley Ranch is expected to get the land by exchanging 3,300 acres of its land for the 7,000 acres the State Land Office currently holds in the Whites Peak area.
In a five-paragraph statement, Richardson said he is “concerned” about the the swap, which he calls “ill-conceived.”
“I have heard from dozens of private citizens as well as members of our congressional delegation and local legislators echoing similar concerns,” Richardson said. “And contrary to statements from the Land Office, my Department of Game and Fish and the Game Commission were not consulted on this particular proposal.”
The New Mexican quoted State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons saying the area is hard to manage. “Trespassing, vandalism, theft and illegal off-road vehicle use in the Whites Peak area are rampant, and the site has become impossible to manage,” Lyons said in a statement to the New Mexican.
“I am told the swaps would result in a net loss of almost 4,000 acres to the state, much of it pristine mountain, alpine meadow, lake and riparian territory,” Richardson said. “These are some of the finest public hunting and sporting grounds in the state. ”
Last month, former land commissioner and former Albuquerque mayor Jim Baca criticized a similar land swap by Lyons.
“State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons is trading away valuable commercial property from the state land inventory along the border with Mexico for another ranch,” Baca wrote on his blog. “While this trade is even constitutionally questionable I wonder if the meager grazing fees it will bring in comparison with revenues that might be made off the border land isn’t another rip off of the trust.”
