ALBUQUERQUE – New Mexico’s only Republican member of Congress has joined the fight between ranchers and the federal government over access to water on national forest lands, saying the state can do more to protect the private property and water rights of its citizens.
The U.S. Forest Service has fenced streams, springs and other watering holes to protect the habitat of an endangered mouse. The agency has repeatedly defended its actions, saying it has responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act to ensure the survival of the rodent.
But U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce told a group of reporters Wednesday that the agency is blindly implementing laws without regard to the effects on livelihoods, customs and culture in rural New Mexico.
“They’re required to look at those things, but they tend to enforce one piece of the law at the exclusion of the others,” Pearce said during a conference call from Washington, D.C.
The congressman, whose district covers most of the southern half of the state, said the federal government is trampling on property and water rights in New Mexico as it has in other Western states.
Tensions have flared in Nevada and Oregon, and Pearce said the complaints heard in those states are no different than what New Mexico ranchers are concerned about: dwindling rights, few options for redress and the effects on their families.
“I think that the ranchers are crowded into a corner,” he said of those in New Mexico who have been affected by the fencing for the meadow jumping mouse.
Fifty state lawmakers have written to New Mexico’s top water manager, voicing concerns that the federal government has overstepped its authority.
State Engineer Tom Blaine said in April that he was concerned about the federal mismanagement of public lands and that his office was investigating complaints from locals about recent federal actions.
Gov. Susana Martinez’s office has yet to weigh in.
Arguing that water is a state issue, Pearce said New Mexico needs to stand up to the federal government, like it has with lawsuits against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over pollution from a Colorado mine spill and the fight over plans by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to release more Mexican gray wolves into the wild.
