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Concerns Raised About Las Cruces Area Rally

Peter Goodman

Commentary: Our community is illustrating Aldo Leopold’s remark that our "paradoxical mixture of appetite and altruism for our recreational lands” requires tough decisions among opposing interests.

Organizers of the 4th Annual River Run (October 17thwith a smaller event October 10th) proudly proclaim they expect thousands of people, many from outside New Mexico, for a rally in which jeeps, trucks, and off-road vehicles race up and down the Rio Grande. They hope to donate funds raised to a charity and to needy families. They’re particularly excited about organizing a fun event after months of relative isolation.

 

Unfortunately, the rally would be disastrous. A huge gathering of strangers in town, eating, drinking, and laughing together, could easily become a COVID-19 “superspreader” event. State officials in charge of enforcing the Public Health Order, New Mexico State Police, and Doña Ana Sheriff’s Office are on alert.

Rally organizers expect at least a thousand people from Arizona alone; but out-of-state visitors are required to quarantine for 14 days, which would preclude participating in the event.

The event requires a special event permit from the International Boundary and Water Commission, which controls the riverbed. All departments, including Environmental, must review the permit application. The process is usually lengthy. Organizers were unaware of the permit requirement until last week, and may not have applied yet. They also would have to obtain appropriate liability insurance against personal injuries and property damage.

Several conservationist organizations sent IBWC a detailed letter explaining damage the rally could do, including harm to migrating birds and to four riparian habitat-restoration projects.

 

 
Southwest Environmental Center Executive Director Kevin Bixby said, “the river, despite its appearance at times, is a living ecosystem. Those pockets of water – which are fun to drive through – contain fish, on which herons and egrets depend for food. They’re particularly important right now for migrating waterfowl.” The rally would destroy vegetation, erode riverbanks, and spill a lot of oil and gas in the river.

 

Elaine Stachera Simon of Mesilla Valley Audobon Society said the event would harm birds, including migrating birds, by destroying insect larvae and other food sources. “There are other places they could do this. The migratory birds have no alternative. No one is anti-ATV. We’re pro-wildlife.”

Another conservationist said that no sane community, after approving use of public land for the Rio Grande Trail, creating a corridor plan highlighting its river as a functioning survival route for migratory and resident species, spending funds and effort on wetland and riparian restoration, co-hosting Species in Peril workshops and lectures, and spending $200 million to raise levees, would then support “a monster truck/ATV rally with hundreds, if not thousands, of resident and out-of-state vehicles pummeling this same corridor, threatening all these investments and commitments.”

Doña Ana County Commissioner Shannon Reynolds said, “I’m in favor of outdoor recreation, if it’s done right – in cooperation with nature, not an abuse of nature – and with appropriate permitting.”

As often happens, both sides involve good people trying to do what they feel is good for the community. We should listen to all viewpoints – and hope the current controversy educates all of us.

Aldo Leopold suggestewe "quit thinking about decent land-use as solely an economic problem. Examine each question in terms of what is ethically right, as well. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."