HOUSE MEMORIAL 46

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Bob Wooley

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS THE INCREASING THREAT TO LIVELIHOODS IN NEW MEXICO AND NEIGHBORING STATES FROM WILDLANDS REGULATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF THE FEDERAL ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OF 1973.

     WHEREAS, governments, notably the federal government, are increasingly restricting how property owners may use their land; and

     WHEREAS, this is particularly true in the western United States, where federal laws and regulations seek to protect endangered species, viewsheds and open space to the detriment of ranchers, farmers and other rural property owners; and

     WHEREAS, these laws and regulations fly in the face of the basic American principle that people have "natural, inherent and inalienable rights, among which are the rights of... acquiring, possessing and protecting property"; and

     WHEREAS, these laws and regulations interfere with ranching, farming, timber production and other uses property owners should have a right to conduct on their own land; and

     WHEREAS, often, these restrictions limit the property owner's rights in order to provide some vague, ill-defined benefit to society and without compensating the property owner for the loss of use or the loss of revenue because of use limitations; and

     WHEREAS, federal regulations are too often developed by planners who have no real-life experience in rural living, so they establish regulations that make ranching, farming, timber production and other uses increasingly difficult and less profitable; and

     WHEREAS, the severe adverse economic impacts of federal laws and regulations, notably the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and wildlands regulations, are affecting not only ranchers and farmers, but small businesses in rural communities that support ranching and farming and tax collections for local governments and the state;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the federal government be requested to take steps to ensure that property owners in New Mexico and neighboring states are protected from ill-considered laws and regulations that restrict land use and hamper people's ability to make a living and unnecessarily and adversely affect the economies of rural communities and local and state governments; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the federal government develop a plan to compensate the full amount of loss to any property owner, business, local government and state that has a historical record of loss due to land use restrictions; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma congressional delegations and the federal secretaries of the interior and commerce.

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