Please send this to EVERYONE you can think of. Drop a note to Sec'y Joanna Prukopp at the email given below. Doesn't have to be fancy. Just a few lines telling her what you think of this 'public input process', her notice of the meeting, and the Roadless areas.
Joanne

NEW MEXICO STATE GOVERNMENT SEEKS INPUT ON ROADLESS RULE


During the Feb 2006 legislative session NMOHVA joined other organizations in trying to pass House BIll 521 and Senate Bill 708. This would have provided a series of public meetings, for input into Governor Richardson's petition regarding roadless areas in the state's five national forests. The legislation called for having meetings in the areas affected by the roadless area designations. That legislation was opposed by the the Governor and the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resource Department (EMNRD). The legislation was killed in the Senate Conservation Committee through procedural games (they refused to let the bill be discussed and delayed it until the session ended.)


Despite this, the legislature did provide funds for meetings, by adding an amendment to the budget bill. This required that meetings be held in the places identified in the legislation. The Governor unconstitutionally crossed out the hearings but kept the funding for EMNRD. (It is illegal for the Governor to change the wording in a bill.)
Now they are supposedly using that $50,000 to have ONE MEETING for the whole state.

They've given very short notice for the meeting announced below. This is deliberately intended to exclude most New Mexicans from being heard in public decisions. By having only one meeting, and on the university campus, it is obviously designed to allow for stacked and unrepresentative input into the process.

Read the notice below. It is hardly a call for an unbiased meeting. It calls for you to come show your support for the Roadless areas. A public meeting is supposed to be an open forum, not propaganda or a pep rally for a special interest group. It virtually proclaims that the Roadless rule is universally popular. The wording to "provide your suggestions for protecting roadless areas" is particularly insulting. It presumes that no one could possibly oppose the roadless areas.


You can send an E-mail to Secretary Prukop of the Dept of EMNRD, and express your opinion on this deliberate attempt to prevent meaningful input into the process. Request that hearings be held in your area and an extension of the comment deadline. Her address is:


joanna.prukop@state.nm.us


Regardless of any response from Secretary Prukop you may receive, please send in comments postmarked by May 1st and forward this to as many people you know who will be affected by this attempt to create de facto wilderness in the state.


The document attached in Word contains the comments sent in to the Colorado Roadless Task Force by the Mountain States Legal Foundation. It contains some points you may want to consider when drafting your comments.

The label "Roadless" is deliberately confusing. "Roadless" areas aren't roadless, they are full of roads and trails.
If you want to understand more about this go to the Blue Ribbon Coalition website, www.sharetrials.org. There's lots of info there.

BE AWARE... the Forest Service's own website says that the Roadless areas represent approximately ONE-THIRD of all the national forest acreage. Creating restrictions in Roadless areas is the first step in creating new Wilderness areas where we are locked out. The notice below says Roadless areas do not preclude OHVs. That's true until the Governor and his enviro cronies get their hands on it. Right now the Roadless areas are JUST AN INVENTORY. The big question and the battle will be over whether to keep the designation and how to manage those areas.

Joanne Spivack
President, New Mexico Off Highway Vehicle Alliance

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PUBLIC MEETING
NATIONAL FOREST ROADLESS AREAS:
WHAT DO YOU THINK?


Wednesday, April 26, 2006, 7 - 9 p.m. UNM Conference Center Auditorium 1634 University Blvd. NE, Albuquerque (Just north of Indian School Rd.)


The New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department and the state Department of Game and Fish invite members of the public to an open house regarding national forest inventoried roadless area management.


In accordance with new rules adopted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2005, Governor Bill Richardson is preparing a petition that will propose protection of roadless areas in national forests within New, Mexico. In 2000, more than 20,000 New Mexicans commented on the previous USDA roadless rule, with about 95% favoring continued protection of road less status on about 1.6 million acres of inventoried road less areas in national forests in New Mexico. Affected national forests include, the Carson, Cibola, Gila, Lincoln and Santa Fe. Roadless area status does not prevent the use of-off-road vehicles, which is decided in individual national forest plans.


This is your opportunity to provide your suggestions for protecting roadless areas: Suggestions also can be, mailed to Secretary Joanna Prukop, EMNRD, 1220 So. St. Francis Dr., Santa Fe, NM 87505. Letters must be postmarked by May 1, 2006, to be considered for the petition.


For more information, or to request accommodations for persons with disabilities, please contact Wayne Lee at (505) 476-3226 or wayne.lee@state.nm.us.


--

Howard Hutchinson
Executive Director
Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties
P.O. Box 125
Glenwood, New Mexico 88039
Phone 505-539-2709
Fax 505-539-2708
aznmc@earthlink.net