SENATE MEMORIAL 55

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2015

INTRODUCED BY

William P. Soules

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING AND HONORING THE PUBLIC LANDS LEGACY IN NEW MEXICO.

     WHEREAS, approximately twenty-six million acres of land in New Mexico are owned by the people of the United States and managed for the benefit of all citizens by federal public land management agencies; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexicans have the good fortune to live near these federal public lands and to benefit from them economically; and

     WHEREAS, at least sixty-five percent of New Mexicans participate in some form of outdoor recreation every year; and

     WHEREAS, the outdoor recreation economy in New Mexico generates four hundred fifty-eight million dollars ($458,000,000) in tax revenue and six billion one hundred million dollars ($6,100,000,000) in consumer spending each year, while employing more than sixty-eight thousand people; and

     WHEREAS, healthy public lands with quality fishing, hiking, cross-country skiing, camping and other recreational resources are major factors in attracting new businesses and jobs to New Mexico that might otherwise locate elsewhere; and

     WHEREAS, preserving access to outdoor recreation on public lands protects the economy, businesses, communities and the people of New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, access to and use of large tracts of healthy, viable, contiguous public lands are essential to the perpetuation of traditional New Mexico land uses such as hunting, fishing, grazing, firewood gathering and pinon nut and herb gathering; and

     WHEREAS, all of these activities have long been a part of the traditional New Mexico lifestyle; and

     WHEREAS, eighty-nine percent of New Mexico sportsmen and sportswomen use public lands to hunt and fish; and

     WHEREAS, hunters and anglers spend more than six hundred ten million dollars ($610,000,000) annually on recreational activities in New Mexico, contributing more than two hundred sixty-five million dollars ($265,000,000) in salaries and wages and fifty-one million dollars ($51,000,000) in state and local taxes while supporting seven thousand nine hundred jobs; and

     WHEREAS, both the Enabling Act for New Mexico and the constitution of New Mexico state that the "people inhabiting this state do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated and ungranted public lands lying within the boundaries thereof";

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the nation's and New Mexico's founders' foresight and wisdom be honored by protecting a public lands legacy that is vital to the state and national economies and to the health and well-being of the residents of New Mexico; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the United States secretary of the interior, the director of the United States bureau of land management, the chief of the United States forest service, the governor and New Mexico's congressional delegation.

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