from the New Mexico News Connection - A statewide news service for New Mexico
SANTA FE, N. M. - In a letter to President Obama, more than 100 economists and academics from universities around the country point out that America's public lands are an important part of its infrastructure, worthy of protection and investment.
At New Mexico State University, Dr. Christopher Erickson explains how that approach could benefit his local community of Las Cruces.
"We have a new national monument at the Dinosaur Trackway, and that needs to be developed. And development of that would be a way of attracting people into the community. It'd make the new national monument accessible to the public."
The letter says quality of life and recreation opportunities are priorities for today's companies and workers. It asks the president to support spending to get public lands in better shape, as well as protecting new areas.
Dr. Walter Hecox, a professor who heads the State of the Rockies Project at Colorado College, says those who are suggesting selling off public land to help pay the national debt are short-sighted.
"It'd be like having a discussion about selling off the Washington Monument because it doesn't make money. And if we don't in the West begin to be active in raising these concerns that it's the very foundation of a vibrant economy, then I fear that we will lose in Congress."
Research from the State of the Rockies Project found 77 percent of voters in five Rocky Mountain States agreed with this statement: "We can protect land and water and have a strong economy with good jobs at the same time, without having to choose one over the other."
Headwaters Economics is an independent nonprofit research group that organized the letter and its signers. Its executive director, Dr. Ray Rasker, says the public lands are economic assets that call for a special kind of balance.
"So, when the choice comes to use those lands for either protection or for resource extraction, it doesn't mean you don't do resource extraction, but it means there's a significant opportunity cost if you do it wrong. Because the clean water and the scenery and the recreational opportunities are what is attracting most of the growth right now."
And Toner Mitchell, who runs a fly-fishing shop in Santa Fe, underscores how his business is affected by protection of public lands.
"Santa Fe's economy is very tourist-based - hotels, restaurants. And folks who bought into the real estate boom preceded their permanent residence by visiting. We have skiing, hiking, fishing - and it's all the national forests that make that possible."
See the letter online at http://headwaterseconomics.org.
Beth Blakeman reporting, nmnc@newsservice.org
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