If you want to anger northern New Mexico farmers and ranchers, put a newfangled name tag on the streams that supply water to grazing rights. They’ll go bullistic.
State Environment Department officials learned that the hard way Jan. 7 when they listened to and tried to reason with ranchers at a public meeting in Alcalde. Ranchers are a pretty savvy group when it comes to state and federal “protections” and labeling of streams to protect them. They were having none of it.
“You can’t blame these people for being angry. Historically, we’ve lost so much. Further regulation is very threatening,” County Commission Chairman Alfredo Montoya said.
Stockman’s association president Carlos Salazar and Rio Arriba County Manager Lorenzo Valdez went at the bureaucrats full force. And they both had good points. Once the government gives a label to a stream or a piece of property it allows future bureaucrats and politicians the ability to further encumber or regulate it. Salazar and Valdez were having none of that.
Repeatedly Water and Waste Management Division Director Marcy Leavitt tried to assure the crowd the Division was not after grazing rights. It appeared the opposite to Salazar and Valdez.
“I know how these things work,” Valdez said. “I’ve run community meetings (for Rio Arriba County). In the end, this (meeting) is due process. You do the democracy thing and then do what you want to do anyway.”
That says a lot about how Valdez operates. Apparently that’s how he runs his community meetings: due process and then do what he wants.
The fact the state noticed the meeting a day before didn’t bode well for them or with attendees. It just reeks of impropriety. Ranchers from the north are the last group you want to anger. The state needs to wade into this stream issue slowly, with a lot of public notice and input.