I learned to hunt with my father, absorbing his patient instruction in the skills and the art of the hunt. That was quite a few years ago; now my best hunting companion is my grandson, Alden.Alden, Ace (my bird dog) and I love the solitude we find when our hunting adventures take us beyond roads and vehicles. As we leave the modern world behind, we relive the quieter days of New Mexico's pioneers, when so much of our state was wilderness. I love the peace and quiet that allows us to enjoy nature's gentle sounds. I want to have that escape and experience for future generations for my grandchildren. That is why I want to see important wild places in Doña Ana County preserved as wilderness.We in New Mexico could easily forget how blessed we are by the abundance of public lands. If we do, there is a risk that we will lose the special quality of places like the East or West Potrillos, one of our gloriously wild sanctuaries and a favorite haunt of mine.The threat to such places is not as glaring as an open-pit mine. It is the subtle creep of more and more development and the temptation to tame wild lands with more roads.Thank goodness for Aldo Leopold. And thank goodness for Clinton Anderson. In the early 1920s, these two young men met and became friends at a function of the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Leopold's efforts led to the establishment of the world's first wilderness area our great Gila Wilderness. But he knew that the kind of protection he was able to get, which relied on administrative orders from federal agency officials, could readily be altered by unelected officials. Anderson went on to become Secretary of Agriculture under President Harry Truman and later, our U.S. Senator. It was as a powerful Senate committee chairman in the same chair now held by Pete Domenici that Anderson became the lead sponsor and champion for the Wilderness Act.This landmark bill would make any list of the most significant conservation measures in our history. One of the most important things it did was to give decisions about America's public land wilderness areas to our elected representatives in Congress. Under the act, only Congress can decide to confer wilderness protection on an area of federal land and only Congress can alter the boundary or lift the protection in the future.That is what I want for my grandchildren the firm and permanent protection for places like the East Potrillos that comes from wilderness designation by federal law. With wilderness protection, we know what we are getting, and since 1964 Congress has wisely extended this protection to a few special areas across New Mexico.Now it is time for Congress to take up the job of wilderness protection here in Doña Ana County.My hat is off to Sen. Domenici, who has gotten this ball rolling. His initiative has set in motion many discussions among our local government leaders, and a wilderness plan for our nearby public lands has already gained wide public support. As was true with the Wilderness Act, this local wilderness protection effort is thoroughly bipartisan.Alden and I will be heading out again soon, with Ace in the lead, of course. But I know the most important day is far in the future, when Alden may take a grandson or granddaughter of his own into the East or West Potrillo Mountains. To make that day a reality, I will do what I can to encourage Congress to protect Doña Ana County's spectacular wilderness areas.For me, protecting wilderness is all about a great day of rambling across one of these precious solitudes. But there is a common-sense, practical side to this, too. Protecting wilderness is good business. Consider the conclusion of William Schudlich, chair of the New Mexico Council of Trout Unlimited, in a comprehensive study of the economic benefits just from hunters and anglers using the public lands of our state:"If New Mexico is to remain in a place of beauty where people want to live and visit, a place where our children and their children will want to live, a place where the recreation and tourism industries will remain strong, we must hold on to the small portions of the state that remain roadless. Wild lands represent a huge asset on the balance sheet of New Mexico; an asset that we can no longer afford to trade for short-term gain."Permanent protection of Doña Ana Country's precious wild lands Broad Canyon, the Potrillos, the Organ Mountains and our other natural treasures should be a priority. After all, they are our common ground.Sanford Schemnitz is an avid sportsman and professor emeritus of wildlife science at New Mexico State University.
