Working Ranch Magazine January/February 2025

T here’s another fight brew ing near Columbus, the small southern New Mexico village that was the site of the first mil itary incursion into the United States. In March 1916, Mexican rev olutionary Pancho Villa led an army of about 1,500 guerillas across the border to stage a raid against the small American town of Columbus, New Mexico. Villa and his men killed 19 people and left the town in flames, according to History.com. In contrast, the present-day fight over establishing the Mimbres Peaks National Monument is a war of words and agendas. It’s centered just up the road in Deming, New Mexico, and even farther east in Las Cruces. On one side are the ranchers and others who oppose establishing yet another national monument along the U.S.-Mexico border. On the other side is a coalition of environmental groups that favor protecting the natural and cultural resources encompassed

within the proposed borders. And the proposed area is significant — somewhere around 245,000 acres, roughly 383 square miles. BACKGROUND The land within the proposed mon ument boundaries is a patchwork of federal land under the purview of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), state-owned property, and ranches that operate both on deeded land and graz ing allotments leased from the state and BLM. There are four mountain ranges within the proposed boundary. New Mexico is home to a hand ful of National Parks and National Monuments. The two closest to the proposed Mimbres Peaks National Monument are the Organ Mountains Desert Peak National Monument near Las Cruces and the Gila Cliff Dwellings near Silver City. The effort to put the wheels in motion to declare a new national monument began with a news conference in December 2023. WHAT THE PROPONENTS SAY The coalition behind the effort to create the Mimbres Peaks

National Monument is called Protect Mimbres Peaks. Organizations involved in the coalition, according to its website, are the Sierra Club, NM Café, Friends of the Floridas, The Semilla Project, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Outdoor New Mexico, Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce, and New Mexico Wild. Listed as supporters are the Conservation Lands Foundation, The Wilderness Society, and the Native Lands Institute. “For the coalition as a whole, there are various cultural resources, a lot of biodiversity, as well as there’s a lot of historic war items that we would like to see preserved for future generations, as well as many benefits that come with those protections, such as having more field staff with the BLM, such as having a local ranger, outdoor recre ation planner, biologist and manager,” said Antoinette Reyes, Southern New Mexico and El Paso organizer for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club. There are different types of mon uments, managed by various fed eral agencies. “This one, because it’s already BLM land, stays as BLM,

BY BURT RUTHERFORD New National Monument PROPOSED FOR Southern New Mexico Ranchers square off to oppose designation of Mimbres Peaks National Monument

LAIMA SWANSON / SHUTTERSTOCK

The country surrounding New Mexico’s Mimbres Peak area near the town of Deming.

72 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2025 WORKING RANCH audited readers run 21 million head of beef cattle.