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Born and raised in New Mexico, I’ve been blessed my whole life by our enchanted lands and treasured wildlife. My family ranched, constructed, farmed – whatever it took to live in our state.

I started hunting, fishing, exploring and learning from my earliest years and haven’t stopped. We took family walks and trips just to enjoy a chance encounter with wildlife. We delighted in arthropods, phoenix-like, arising each monsoon from dry sand within sandstone pools. We competed for first sight of the slightest wildlife slither, run or flutter, and to note the newest scent and sound. I saw the kissing fish of the Zuni Mountains, also known as the endangered Bluehead Sucker, now protected under the Endangered Species Act. But I never got to see the famed passenger pigeon, which disappeared into extinction after the last of that species, Martha, died in a zoo in the waning days of a September.

Who questioned the decrease in passenger pigeons which had soared in such numbers that their bird clouds covered the midday sun and darkened miles of sky? Did anybody take note, take action, as these birds disappeared from our planet? This is why the Endangered Species Act is so essential to species preservation. Citizens, you and I, use the ESA to give protection to endangered species. The maintenance of every species is important to balance our natural landscape – and directly support our own lives. Maybe questions weren’t raised loudly enough then, but now we have the benefit of established scientific measures to know that current rates of species extinction are unsustainable. We also now have a changed moral outlook toward our natural world. We questioned, we spoke, we acted and we passed the Endangered Species Act.

Now it is time again to defend our home, our world, through this act. Certain members of Congress, some passively, some actively, promote tearing through our shared natural heritage, leaving destruction and extinction in our wake. They are disregarding and in some cases pursuing the elimination of the Endangered Species Act. They are after the ESA.

In April, I was one of four Defenders of Wildlife who traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit with our New Mexico legislators to give voice to the many species so effectively protected by the ESA. Accompanying me were 34 signatures from organizations in New Mexico affirming the protections of the Endangered Species Act. Thousands of New Mexicans are represented by these plant societies, wildlife groups, school clubs, green chambers of commerce, refuge friends, private businesses and faith circles. We know the importance of keeping our home safe and sustainable for all. We know our shared natural heritage is not for exploitation.