For more than three decades, Wesley Leonard has helped inspire and lead the movement to protect wilderness in the southwest. Aided by his ability to eloquently articulate the values of wilderness, knowledge of the land earned from countless hours spent in wild country (he spent 100 days on the trail in 2005), and an enthusiasm for getting out on the ground, he has been involved in the passage of wilderness bills. But what most impresses people about Wesley Leonard is not his past, but his plans for the future. He has a super-sized vision for wilderness in the southwest, along with the patience, passion, and perseverance to see it realized.
Wesley was born and raised in Atlanta, GA. "We always had access to the outdoors. My father bought country homes and sold them at a great loss. It was sort of a hobby of his," he jokes. "We lived in some absolutely wild and wooly places. But this was before the huge boom in Atlanta, and in a way I took it for granted that I would always have access to the great outdoors."
After graduating from Emory University, Wesley moved to Ohio, then to Westport, CT where he worked in sales and marketing. "I started becoming aware of the problem of limited access to wilderness. Living near New York City, it became even more pronounced." Soon after, Wesley's brother moved to El Paso, TX, and providing him with a link to wild country. "I fell in love with the area within minutes of getting off the plane the first time I visited. I loved the wide open spaces, the big sky, and the ability to roam free. I visited every chance I could, and finally realized that I was in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing. I couldn't take it anymore so I packed up and left." One day in 1973, Wesley loaded up his trusty Gremlin and he and his daughter made the long drive to El Paso. They didn't look back.
Up until this point, Wesley had not been a conservation activist. But this all changed when within three weeks of moving to Texas he had "the great misfortune" of meeting famed wilderness advocate and author Dave Foreman. "My life went downhill from there," jokes Wesley. "Dave was living in an adobe shack in Glenwood, NM and working for The Wilderness Society. He was traveling all around promoting an Adopt-a-Wilderness program. I didn't know a whole lot about the areas, but I wanted to get involved, so I told him to give me the least important area in New Mexico and he gave me Otero Mesa. At this time there wasn't much of an understanding of the principles of conservation biology and the value of grasslands, wildlife corridors, and big open spaces; the very reasons why Otero Mesa is such a priority for us today."
In 1977, Wesley found a job with the BLM doing wilderness inventory work. He was well suited to this task, having performed the first citizen wilderness inventory of the West Potrillo Mountains. "I still have the notes and maps from that inventory. Things have come full circle and we're working on exactly the same area now in our Doña Ana County wilderness campaign."
Through a combination of hard work and patience, Wesley helped achieve a number of victories for wilderness. He helped to designate the Apache Kid wilderness in New Mexico's San Mateo Mountains, one of the wildest parts of the state, and worked to create wilderness in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, and Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. He fought oil drilling in the Guadalupe Mountains and worked as a volunteer backcountry ranger for Guadalupe National Park. In the 70s and 80s, Wesley helped get the Franklin Mountains designated as a Texas state park, thus protecting 25,000 acres of wilderness parkland within the city limits of El Paso.
Wesley's primary venue for activism in the 70s and 80s was the Sierra Club, along with fellow wilderness advocate Bob Howard (see Wilderness Hero September 2005). But towards the end of the 80s, the wilderness movement in the state began to wane. "Dave Foreman and Bob Howard left the state, and the Sierra Club shifted its focus. But this opened the door for new organizations."
"In the mid-90s Bob and Dave returned, and in April 1997, the three of us along with other long-time activists conducted a hostile takeover of the New Mexico Wilderness Coalition, and created the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance (NMWA). There was a renewed energy and spirit. Old time activists got back into the movement."
Wesley was a founding member of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and has been on the board since day one, currently serving as chairman. Today, the organization has 4,500 members across the state and is involved in a variety of campaigns to create new wilderness areas in New Mexico and to defend wild lands.
In Doña Ana County, Wesley and a team of staff and volunteers with NMWA and The Wilderness Society have garnered pro-wilderness resolutions from the Doña Ana County Commission, and the cities of Las Cruces, Sunland Park, Hatch, and Mesilla. They have built partnerships with local sportsmen's groups, the Citizens' Open Space Task Force, the Las Cruces Homebuilders Association, and members of the clergy. "It's nothing short of miraculous," says Wesley. "But this is the beginning, not the end. We may be many years away yet from a wilderness bill passing."
Jeff Steinborn, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance's Southern New Mexico Director, is full of praise for Wesley's efforts in Doña Ana County, saying "As passionate as this man is about protecting wilderness, he is also extremely pragmatic and politically savvy about the process. This crucial balance has been invaluable to the Dona Ana County Wilderness Campaign and at this critical time. It has been an honor to learn about Wilderness from Wes Leonard, and to join him in working to protect New Mexico's crown jewels that he has spent his life drawing attention to."
There are no limits to Wesley's wilderness vision. He enthusiastically describes expanding his and NMWA's efforts, even into Texas. "We're looking to the Transpecos region, focusing on Big Bend National Park, which has no wilderness. This is one of the most exciting areas on the continent. On the Mexico side, there are private wilderness areas being established by corporations. Upstream, you have the Big Bend Ranch State Park. Together, it's a huge area for conservation."
"In New Mexico we're working on Sabinosa, a 17,000-acre BLM Wilderness Study Area in the northeastern part of the state. We're also working to defend Otero Mesa from oil and gas development and protect it as a National Conservation Area. And there are still hundreds of thousands of acres of national forest land in New Mexico to work on. There's a ton more wilderness out there."
Although Wesley's wilderness vision is boundless, there are significant challenges to his work. For example, Representative Steve Pearce (R-NM), whose district contains all of the potential wilderness in southern New Mexico, recently supported a proposal to sell off a significant portion of America's public lands.
Thus, in all things wilderness, Wesley wisely counsels taking the long view. "The important thing is not to look for immediate gratification, because it's not going to happen. The first inventory of the West Potrillos was 32 years ago. Even the Ojito Wilderness, a small and mostly uncontroversial area, took four years to designate. Things just don't happen quickly in conservation. The key is endless pressure applied endlessly, and never give up, ever. If you try to do something too fast, you not only get embarrassed, you lose."
Wesley also offers some thoughts on why he has dedicated so much of his life to this work. "I can't overstate the value of wilderness. It's the most basic of values. Everything ultimately flows from wilderness. We've got to conserve, preserve, and restore our wild lands, if for no other reason than survival of the human species. Once people realize that, then we'll make some progress."
Wesley continues to make progress for wilderness in the American southwest. We applaud his efforts, as well as those of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. And we know that future generations will do the same.
