Commentary: There are hundreds of thousands of parks in the United States, from our smallest towns to our biggest cities.
Las Cruces has six large parks - Apodaca, Klein, Mesilla, Pioneer Women’s, Veterans and Young Park, as well as smaller parks throughout the city.
New Mexico has 34 state parks, including the Mesilla Valley Bosque, which at one time was set to lose its state park status in a transfer to the Game and Fish Department.
Parks are a tiny bit of socialism that almost everybody can agree with. They provide a universal refuge to be enjoyed equally by all members of the community. Parks are for relaxing, for playing, for picnics, for strolling and for connecting with our neighbors.
They provide patches of green life among the concrete and steel that make up a city.
Parks are a vital part of any thriving community, which is why voters in Las Cruces approved general obligation bonds last year to invest in our parks and trails.
Of all the thousands of parks in America, only the very best and most unique are designated as national parks. That elite group had stood at 61 before last week, when President Donald Trump signed legislation to make White Sands our country’s 62nd national park.
U.S. Sen Martin Heinrich and Rep. Xochitl Torres Small were able to get language converting White Sands from a national monument to a national park included in the Defense Authorization Act. Along with changing the status of the site, the bill also included a land swap between the park and White Sands Missile Range.
White Sands will be the second national park in New Mexico, joining with Carlsbad Caverns. Torres Small said the fact that both national parks are in the same region of the state will provide “the potential to make it an economic powerhouse for Southern New Mexico.”
Having two national parks nearby should help in our marketing of the Organ Mountains/Desert Peaks National Monument as travelers plan package trips of these unique sites.
Park Superintendent Marie Sauter said White Sands, with its unique gypsum dunes, was worthy of national park designation. She said her staff is excited about the potential to share the site with more new visitors.
Along with new marketing opportunities, I would assume the designation will also mean increased investment for the site, though perhaps not right away. The president’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 would cut funding for national parks by 14 percent.
Heinrich said he is working with Sens. Lamar Alexander and Angus King to address a backlog of infrastructure projects at national parks.
White Sands has always been a special place for us to enjoy and share with visitors. No matter where your guests have come from, they’ve never experienced anything quite like a sea of white dunes under a full southern New Mexico moon.
There’s always a fear that a national designation like this will in some ways spoil what has been so special. That White Sands will become too crowded, too commercialized. That the peaceful feeling you get when alone among the dunes will be lost among the chattering tourists.
My hope is that proper management of the new national park will mitigate those concerns, and that we will be able to share it more widely with the rest of the world without losing what makes the site so unique.
This designation was a major accomplishment for Sen. Heinrich and Rep. Torres Small at a time when all of the news coming out of Washington, D.C. is about what is not getting done. It gives us something to look forward to in not just the next new year but in all of those that will follow.
Walt Rubel can be reached at waltrubel@gmail.com