SOLD

MIAMI DREAM, 14.70 +/- deeded acres . Approx 1,583 sq ft 2 bedroom 1 bath home. Real country living with barn wood siding, porches, recent remodel for remote workspace. Irrigation and horse facilities, 57 Wampler St., Miami, NM $370,000

MAXWELL 45, Excellent irrigated pasture with utilities in back of property, including installed septic system, with private views of mountains. 40 irrigable acres and a domestic water meter installed. Great to put down home and bring horses. $249,000 $239,000

BAR LAZY 7 RANCH, Colfax County, Moreno Valley 594.38 +/- deeded acres, accessed off blacktop between Eagle Nest and Angel Fire. Historic headquarters. Currently used as summer grazing, pond and trees accessed off county road on rear of property as well. Presented “ASIS” New Survey, $4,000,000 $3,800,000

CIMARRON BUSINESS, Frontage opportunity, house, big shop and office buildings, easy view off Hwy 64. Formerly known as “The Porch.” $295,000

SPRINGER VIEW, 29.70 +/- deeded acres. Large house being remodeled, shop, trees, old irrigation pond. All back off highway with great southern aspect. 311 Hwy 56, Colfax County. $209,000 $205,000

MAXWELL, 408.90 +/- Deeded Acres. 143.05 Irrigable Acres/Shares with TL pivot covering approximately 80 acres, with balance dry land. Property has one water meter used for livestock, but could support a home as well. There are two troughs located in the middle of the property. Electricity for pivot is back toward the middle of the property as well. Property has highway frontage on NM 505 and Highline Rd, a County Rd. Back up to Maxwell Wildlife area. Colfax County, NM.$599,000

by Frank Dubois

Conservation Leases for Enviros and Diminished Water Rights for Ag New Public lands rule

The Department of Interior has issued a new Public Lands Rule which, according to a statement, gives the Bureau of Land Management the tools “to improve the resilience of public lands in the face of a changing climate; conserve important wildlife habitat and intact landscapes; plan for development; and better recognize unique cultural and natural resources on public lands.”

Interior also says their proposal is “a tool authorized by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA).”

To start with, I did a search of the pdf version of FLPMA for resilience and resiliency. In both cases, pdf reported that “no matches were found.”

I did a similar search for intact landscapes, and even for the word landscape. Both came back with “no matches were found.”

I’ve learned to be suspicious of any elected or appointed official who uses words to describe legislation that aren’t even present in the statute. That usually means they are using their own preferences in administering the law rather than Congressional intent in passing the law.

Interior states, “The proposed rule directly responds to the growing need to better manage public lands, waters, and wildlife in the face of devastating wildfires, historic droughts, and severe storms.”

Devastating wildfires! The feds mismanagement leads to more, larger and hotter fires and this is justification for us to grant more authority and more dollars to BLM? I don’t think so.

The Interior statement says the proposal will authorize conservation leasing and defines those leases as “a time-limited lease of public land that allows interested organizations to conduct specific restoration or mitigation activities” and combine that with, “It will also be utilized during the existing land management planning processes to identify public lands…or intact landscapes that may be best managed for their contri- butions to healthy, functioning ecosystems or water quality.” Sounds like lands with wilderness characteristics to me. They could very well be planning to contract with “interested organizations” to identify those intact landscapes. The Interior Secretary says the proposal can be utilized to “conserve the most important places for the benefit of the generations to come.” We all know what those “important places” will be.

I have often written of BLM’s jealousy towards the Forest Service and other land management agencies, and that shows up here also. The statement says the “rule includes a road map to align the BLM with other land management agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, in ensuring the agency is inventorying and assessing the health of public lands, including watersheds, forests and wildlife habitat.” Sec. 201 of FLPMA directs the Secretary to “prepare and maintain on a continuing basis an inventory of all public lands and their resource and other values” and that “This inventory shall be kept current so as to reflect changes in conditions and to identify new and emerging resource and other values.”

So no, this proposal is not about inventories. It is about giving BLM more dollars and more personnel to place them on an “equal footing” with other agencies.

Water and the drought

The feds have issued a draft EIS to “address the continued potential for low run-off conditions and unprecedented water shortages in the Colorado River Basin.”

The draft presents two options to address needed cuts in water allocations.

The first option would have the feds make the cuts based upon the existing priority system for water rights. Under this traditional system, there would be small cuts or no cuts for entities that hold older senior rights such as the California’s Imperial Irrigation District. That district uses the single largest share of Colorado River water to provide for 500,000 acres of farmland in the Imperial Valley. However, those entities with junior water rights would undergo large cuts. An example would be the Salt River Project which supplies water to Phoenix and Tucson.

The second option presented says cuts would be made on an equal percentage basis. This across-the-board approach would apply to all water users, including those with senior water rights. The deputy secretary of Interior said this could be accomplished by using the Interior secretary’s authorities to “provide for human health and safety” in emergency conditions.

It appears the legal beagles at Interior believe the Secretary can overturn years of established water rights by using his authority to “provide for human health and safety”, and thereby transfer water from rural residents and agricultural use to city residents and municipal use.

It also appears the second alternative is the preferred alternative of the feds, if for no other reason than to use it as a threat against the ag producers to bring about “voluntary” reductions.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation. ▫