SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Over the last few years, political debates over the state’s conservation efforts have often boiled down to whether or not New Mexico should be allowed to purchase private land. Now, two Republican lawmakers are trying to block the state from buying land under existing conservation laws.
“We have a fundamental disagreement about what conservation means,” Senator Steven McCutcheon II (R-Chavez, Eddy and Lea Counties) said in a press release. “To the progressives, conservation means you put a fence around land and let it rot or burn. To the farmer, the rancher, and anyone who wants to see our beautiful state preserved for our children it means responsible stewardship. No bureaucrat will ever understand how to better use the land than those whose legacy is dedicated to managing it.”
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Last year, part of the debate surrounding the creation of a land conservation legacy fund included concern from ranchers that the state might buy land without properly managing that land. Now, Sen. McCutcheon II and Sen. Pat Woods (R-Curry, Quay and Union Counties) have introduced two bills to address the concern.