By BEN NEARY
NMWF Conservation Director
The New Mexico State Land Office will take public comments through Aug. 16 on a rancher’s proposal to open a road across state trust lands to reach landlocked portions of the Coronado National Forest.
Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard held a public hearing Thursday in Lordsburg on the proposal. She said she will make a final decision after reviewing comments.
Rancher Seth Hadley, whose family owns the sprawling Diamond A Ranch, has agreed to construct a road on the northern side of the ranch to the national forest boundary. He proposes to construct a parking lot at the boundary to allow public access for people to enter the forest on foot or horseback in the Deer Creek area of the Peloncillo Mountain range.
The new road segment would tie into Horse Camp Road, and would cross about a quarter-mile of state trust land to reach the Diamond A Ranch.
The New Mexico Wildlife Federation has been working to gain access to the Coronado National Forest in the area for years. The federation strongly supports the Diamond A proposal.
The Diamond A Ranch in recent years has floated the idea of allowing public access to the forest in exchange for county road closures elsewhere on the ranch. However, there are no such stipulations on the ranch’s current offer to build the road.
Craig Johnson, outdoor recreation program specialist for the State Land Office, said at Thursday’s meeting that the office is responsible for raising money for public schools, universities and hospitals from state lands. While the office traditionally has placed a heavy emphasis on energy production, Johnson said it’s increasingly looking to outdoor recreation.
“Here we are today talking about access to the Coronado, which we know a lot of recreationists and sportspeople are anxious to get at,” Johnson said.
Ray Trejo, Southern New Mexico outreach coordinator for the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, spoke in favor of the proposal.
“Access into the Coronado National Forest is a birthright, in my opinion,” Trejo said.
There’s a network of U.S. Forest Service roads on the northern end of the Coronado National Forest in the Peloncillo Range but access has been cut off over the years by private landowners.
“We know there are certain individuals who have had access to this and have used it as their own personal playground, so to speak, and that’s just fundamentally not fair,” Trejo said. He said he would like to hunt the area with his father, who’s 80 years old.
Several people who have hunted the area in the past expressed concern that the Diamond A Ranch itself has closed off public access to the national forest. They expressed concern that the ranch may seek future closures.
Jesse Deubel, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, said that access to the northern Peloncillo Range is difficult currently. He said he has a deer tag for the area this winter, but said without horses it would be hard to get an animal out of the area even if a hunter hiked in from the south.
Addressing concerns that Hadley may seek to block off other access in the future, Deubel said the critical point is that the current proposal before the land office only improves things for the public. “There’s nothing in this proposal that’s negative for the public,” he said.
Gabe Vasquez, a Las Cruces city councilor, said he’s hunted deer in the area and strongly supports the new access proposal.
“This is one of the most beautiful landscapes in all of New Mexico,” Vasquez said. ”It’s very difficult to get into the heart of this country. I would like to afford that opportunity to more people.”
Kerrie Cox Romero, director of the New Mexico Council of Outfitters and Guides, said she supports the access plan. She said she spoke with Hadley about it. “I do believe him when he says that he’s got the best interests of sportsmen,” she said.
The road construction across state trust lands would cross a parcel currently leased by rancher Levi Klump. Addressing the meeting, he said the area currently has very restricted hunting access.
“I am the only person who is affected by this proposal on a daily basis,” Klump said. He said others would only be affected “at their convenience, or if they get drawn for a permit.”
Klump, whose ranch borders the nation forest, said, “I’m very disappointed that this proposal was even put forward with the other options that are out there.”
Meira Gault, another area rancher, serves on a county land use advisory panel. She said she was concerned that the proposed easement across state land should be set for a particular term, not left open.
Johnson, with the land office, responded that the agency was considering allowing the easement to remain in effect as long as the road was used to reach the forest.
Doug Ruppel, district ranger on the Coronado National Forest, said his office has been talking with the Diamond A Ranch for years about the agency’s desire to develop public access. He said his agency always has stressed that it doesn’t want to lose any access on Geronimo Trail or around Cloverdale.
Ruppel said the Forest Service could connect the existing road network to the road that the Diamond A proposes to build to the forest boundary with little trouble provided that the access point misses a designated roadless area.
Direct public comments on the proposal by Aug. 16 to: Alysha Shaw at the land office at ashaw@slo.state.nm.us.