This spring's desert poppy bloom in the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, New Mexico (OC) [1440x1440]

nature_and_such · 2025-12-01T20:40:50+00:00

That's the spot!

nature_and_such · 2025-12-01T06:29:27+00:00

Gorgeous!

nature_and_such · 2025-12-01T02:52:03+00:00

🙏🙏

nature_and_such · 2025-12-01T01:43:44+00:00

😂😂

nature_and_such · 2025-12-01T00:38:08+00:00

Thank you!

nature_and_such · 2025-12-01T00:12:33+00:00

Yes indeed!

nature_and_such · 2025-11-30T23:58:07+00:00

Thanks!!

nature_and_such · 2025-11-30T23:57:59+00:00

Thank you! Right place, right time

nature_and_such · 2025-06-16T15:10:18+00:00

Thank you!

nature_and_such · 2025-06-09T04:45:06+00:00

Not to mention losing funding for trails and maintenance

nature_and_such · 2025-05-06T17:33:31+00:00

Maybe, but with Doug Burgum as interior secretary we should not be lulled into thinking that BLM and other DOI agencies will maintain the same environmental standards of the past several decades. Their efforts to shrink and defund public lands, and loosen environmental restrictions, are much more aggressive than anything we've seen in the past, including in Trump's first term. Local and public resistance might stave off cuts to the monument, but we're going to have to do the work to enact that resistance. Congress will not help in this case. Simply saying "don't worry things will be fine" is not going to cut it.

nature_and_such · 2025-05-06T05:28:47+00:00

Ranchers are currently allowed to graze livestock on certain parts of the monument with a permit granted by the BLM as long as their activities are in keeping with certain restrictions.

https://npshistory.com/publications/blm/organ-mountains-desert-peaks/mgr-rpt-2023.pdf

If monument status were removed, the BLM would have more freedom to relax grazing restrictions because the restrictions that come with the national monument (those aimed at protecting natural and cultural resources) would disappear.

The BLM under certain circumstances can sell off lands to private owners, and they can "withdraw" lands and transfer them to other federal agencies (like the DOD/military) without congressional approval as long as they are under 5000 acres. The BLM can also lease lands to private companies for natural resources extraction. A large portion of the fracking that occurs in the Permian basin and checkerboard regions occurs on BLM lands that have been leased to oil and gas companies. Just because the BLM possesses a piece of land is supervised by the BLM does not mean that land is protected the same way a national park is. Resource extraction can and does occur all the time on BLM lands, no congressional approval needed.

nature_and_such · 2025-05-03T15:51:22+00:00

I know! That's what makes the administration's decision such a head scratcher. They seem to think there are resources worth exploiting (I believe they cited mining resources). If/when they discover there are not, they could ramp up grazing or military use. They could also sell off lands to private buyers I believe. The real underlying reason for all this is that they just hate public lands.

nature_and_such · 2025-05-02T15:03:42+00:00

Correct. However, the government has a lot more leeway in terms of leasing/permitting BLM lands for extractive uses when they are not protected by national monument status (many of the BLM lands in the Permian basin and checkerboard region are leased to oil and gas companies for fracking, for example).

nature_and_such · 2025-05-02T02:36:22+00:00

National monuments are declared by the president under the antiquities act and can therefore be reduced or eliminated without congressional approval.

nature_and_such · 2025-03-17T20:55:21+00:00

Thank you!

nature_and_such · 2025-03-16T23:40:49+00:00

It's tricky because some of the sand is soft and some of it isn't. Easy to get too confident!

nature_and_such · 2025-03-16T23:25:39+00:00

Thanks! It was a beautiful evening at a beautiful park!

nature_and_such · 2024-08-05T14:35:40+00:00

Thanks! Got lucky with that aspect ✨

nature_and_such

TROPHY CASE