BRC Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in New Mexico Proposes New Management Plan

[Simone Griffin]

In southern New Mexico, near Las Cruces lies the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument containing 496,330 acres. The Bureau of Land Management is updating the resource management plan that will direct the future of all uses throughout the entirety of the monument. The BLM has given Alternative A as the current management and 3 alternatives, B, C and D. Alternative D is the recreation alternative that actually expands areas that will allow OHV use by 1% depending on the area. Although we would like to see even more open as there are already restrictive management designations and laws protecting this area. It is refreshing to see the BLM look at expanding uses in some capacity once in awhile. Submit a comment to the BLM by July 5, 2024. If you have specific information or requests on this area please include them at the beginning of the letter that will be sent to elected officials as well as the BLM planning team.

Full Briefing:​

Alternative B: This is the most restrictive of the proposals. It will close areas to OHV use. It will designate three new ACEC’s, close areas to recreational shooting and portions of an allotment will be unavailable to grazing. It will undesignate an ACEC and an RNA but only because they are within Congressionally designated Wilderness already. Over 4,000 acres of the Broad Canyon ACEC would be designated. Over 9,000 acres would be designated as the East Potrillo Mountains ACEC and over 900 acres as the Picacho Peak ACEC. ACEC’s are area’s of critical environmental concern and historically restrict access for all users.

Alternative C: The “compromise” alternative and the BLM’s preferred alternative for this plan. It will close some areas to grazing and OHV travel. The same areas in Alternative B closed to recreational shooting will be closed under C as well except a smaller portion of the Dona Ana mountains. The ACEC and RNA will be undesignated just as in B.

Alternative D: All areas not closed to OHV use will be limited to designated roads. All ACEC’s will be undesignated. Dona Ana Mountains ACEC would be released as an ACEC also the Organ/Franklin Mountains ACEC which is currently over 54,000 acres. Under Alt. B this ACEC would be expanded and under Alt. C this ACEC would be reduced to 36,000 acres. Releasing these ACEC’s should be a priority.

Currently under Alternative A, 49% of the monument is closed to motorized use. Alternative D proposed to have 48% of the monument closed.

Camping at Sierra Vista and Baylor Canyon will be limited to a two day limit. Alternative B is proposing to close camping in these areas altogether.

Recreational target shooting will be restricted to specific areas.

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['84 Bronco II]

Thanks for posting this! This was a huge land grab done by executive order during the Obama administration, and the city of Las Cruces has formed a "green committee" that is heavily influenced by the Southwest Environmental center and pushing for closures.

We're going to need all the support we can get from the offroad community to fight this.

 

[06h3]

I will write in.

 

['84 Bronco II]

I will write in.

Awesome, I am planning on taking the time to read through the management proposals and putting a comment together this week. I will try to post some pictures of what is under threat of closure this go around, but there have already been massive closures over the last 20 years. People seem to have forgotten, but Las Cruces used to be one of the hottest spots in the country for rockcrawling. We've already lost so much, we can't afford to lose any more.

At first glance, Box Canyon, a good portion of the Doña Ana Mountains, Kilbourne Hole, and the foot hills of the Organ Mountains are under threat of closure.

 

['84 Bronco II]

Some Context for the current stage in the process:

Some tips from the BLM on writing comments that have value:

 

[06h3]

Our local dirt bikers actually got an entire TMP cancelled. Admittedly the area didn't effect rock crawlers much but they had a lot at stake.

Instead of saying, dont close my trails. Give examples of the routes you use, clubs use them, blah blah blah with picutres and routes. If they still dont care or respond well then get the local elected officials involved.

 

['84 Bronco II]

So I read through the proposed Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument (OMDPNM) Resource Management Plan (RMP), and here are the key take aways and points to address in comments as far as motorized use is concerned:

1. Alternatives B and C would close all forms of motorized recreation in most of the Doña Anas, all of Box Canyon and surrounding trails, Kilbourne hole, and Alternative B would additionally close all roads off Baylor Canyon Road in the foothills of the Organ Mountains.
2. All roads created after May 2014 (The date of the Executive Order establishing the monument) in the remaining areas open to motorized use are subject to immediate closure - Unclear how the BLM plans to determine this, likely through aerial and satellite imagery. The RMP and Analysis of the Management Situation both make allusions a proliferation of user made OHV routes in recent years implying that many of the trails have been made since May 2014, yet the vast majority of roads and trails on OMDPNM have existed long prior to the monument designation.
3. All roads within areas open to motorized use created between December 1993 (The implementation of the previous Mimbres RMP for the area) and May 2014 are subject to review and closure. It sounds like they want to close most routes that aren't access to a biking or hiking trail. It is particularly unclear how they are going to establish when roads were created for this period since high resolution satellite imagery wasn't readily available for most of this span of time. There likely hasn't ever been an exhaustive inventory of all the roads and trails in the area on the BLM's end.
4. The 2019 Dingell Act established 10 Wilderness areas within the monument despite the existence of historical roads, some of these roads are over 100 years old, as well as trails that were permitted for the Chile Challenge when it was still held in Las Cruces until 2013. Wilderness areas are supposedly areas of intact and roadless land which these are not.
5. The BLM claims only 1% of monument visitors engage in OHV use based on a sample size of 165 responses. Where/how did they survey visitors? OHV Use is arguably the Primary use in the Robledos/Sierra De Las Uvas, Doña Anas, and Potrillo Mountain portions of the monument where there are no visitor centers or developed amenities and no officially designated hiking trails. The Ruby and Modoc Mine roads were the only real motorized trails still existing in the actual Organ Mountain portion of the monument until they were closed by the Organ Mountain Wilderness. These trails were not accessed from the developed Dripping Springs and Aguirre Springs areas.
6. The BLM lists rock crawling is an "emerging" activity, despite a documented history of rock crawling/recreational four wheeling and off road racing in the area for over 60 years. The nationally-recognized Chile Challenge event put on by the Las Cruces Four Wheel Drive Club began in 1990 and featured trails throughout the monument area. Some of the earliest rock crawling competitions such as the 1998 BFG Rock Crawling Championship were also held within the monument area. Recreational four wheeling and rock crawling are arguably traditional/cultural uses of the area that predate both the Mimbres RMP of 1993 and the designation of the Organ Mountain Desert Peaks National Monument in 2014.
7. The BLM's "Use Value" based on the Oregon State University College of Forestry database associated with OHV recreation is wildly inaccurate. The "Use Value" is an attempt to correlate the economic impact of a given form/type of recreation in relation to alternatives. The value is meant to reflect the average amount of money an individual is willing to pay to engage in that particular recreational activity through fuel, equipment, etc. The OMDPNM Analysis of the Management Situation assigns a Use Value of $52.74 for OHV use, yet assigns a Use Value of $73.98 for Hiking, and $197.88 for mountain biking. The methodology for arriving at these figures isn't entirely clear, but when accounting for vehicle purchase price, fuel, modifications, maintenance, tow vehicles/trailers, camp/lodging fees, etc., it is hard to believe that any non-motorized form of recreation could have an economic value comparable to OHV recreation.
8. Both the Draft RMP and Analysis of the Management Situation for the OMDPNM attempt to justify closures of motorized areas by pointing out the nearby Aden Hills and Red Sands OHV areas. Both of the OHV areas are flat, featureless patches of desert that represent extremely low value recreation opportunities for OHV users in comparison to the high value opportunities that currently exist within the OMDPNM. Areas of the OMDPNM, which have never officially been designated as OHV areas, have always had much higher usage by OHVs than the designated OHV areas.

 

['84 Bronco II]

Some pictures of the areas under threat of complete closure to motorized vehicles:

Box Canyon

 

['84 Bronco II]

Spring Canyon (takes off from Box Canyon)

Kilbourne Hole

 

[06h3]

PM me your number. I have some advice and thoughts on how to fight this. I’ve seen success in the Grandview TMP out in Idaho. I can text you how it went down and what works.

 

['84 Bronco II]

The Doña Anas

 

['84 Bronco II]

Some cool old pictures of the Jeep races in the Doña Anas during the '60s