Dianne L Stallings

Ruidoso News

Change from national monument to national park would be economic boost to entire region, commissioner says

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich is holding off introducing a bill that would change White Sands from a national monument to a national park until county commissioners from affected areas weigh in on the proposed move.

Lincoln County Commissioner Tom Stewart delivered that news during a commission meeting last week while reporting on a session of the Joint Land Use Study implementation group on which he serves as county representative.

Member entities of JLUS seem in agreement about the economic benefits of the change and representatives were anxious to bring the information back to their counties and municipalities for an opportunity to voice their support, Stewart said.

“He won’t (introduce) the bill unless both counties, Dona Ana and Otero, agree,” Stewart said of the Democrat from New Mexico. “There may be an opportunity for other municipalities and counties to sign up in support. It would be a huge economic boost for the whole region and that’s why it came up at JLUS.”

The bill would create White Sands as a national park and would complete a land exchange between the White Sands Missile Range and the monument, something supported by the military, Stewart said during an interview Thursday.

“The bill has not been dropped yet. Heinrich is preparing the groundwork and it probably will happen next year,” he said. “The Army has agreed. There are areas they can’t turn over, because of unexploded munitions and the like. One of the big areas they are looking at is south of the (permanent roadblock on U.S. 70) and is part of the (White Sands) missile range. I’m told some features there are conducive to putting up interpretive signage. The idea is as a national park, you get a lot more tourism and that’s what Heinrich is thinking.”

While the swap would not be for equal amounts of land, because the park would gain more than the military, the armed forces see the benefit and the details have been worked out, he said.

“The (deal) would be a huge boost for the whole region and that’s why it came up at JLUS,” Stewart said. “The national monument is part of the consortium, which was formed so that everybody continues to talk, the national forest, the space facility, the military and communities, all keep communicating. (The change to a national park) was a big discussion at the last meeting and everyone was positive and wanted to make sure they had a chance to support it.”

Management of White Sands would not change, because the National Park Service handles both national monuments and national parks. The public should not experience a difference, except that national parks enjoy higher visibility, are considered more prestigious and attract more out of state and international travelers, a representative from Heinrich’s office said previously.

White Sands already is the most visited national park service unit in the state, she said. The monument saw more visitors than any other national park service site in New Mexico every year since 1995, an average of more than 502,000 people each year during that period, almost a third of all visitation to National Park Service sites in the state..

In 2015, those visitors generated $25.7 million through visitor spending in the local economy and supported about 400 jobs.

National monuments are created to protect one or more resources, but national parks cover a variety of significant natural resources. In the last decade, several important discoveries qualified the monument to become a park, such as finding critical species and mammal tracks in the gypsum dunes dating back to the Ice Age, she said.

Monuments are created by congress or the president, but national parks are only created by congress.