Ulibarri: Mount Taylor restrictions not discussed publicly

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

Sen. David Ulibarri

GRANTS — Area citizens from all walks of life and with all kinds of outdoor interests have expressed concern and alarm over the recent Cultural Properties Review Committee emergency meeting.

Sen. David Ulibarri, D-Grants, said his telephone has been ringing off the hook since the committee’s decision to put parts of Mount Taylor in the State Register of Cultural Properties last month.

People are concerned that the notice for the meeting was short and did not reach Cibola stakeholders until a news release publicized the decision after the meeting. Ulibarri said he heard about the meeting’s action from his constituents.

The senator sent a letter to Attorney General Gary King late last month to ask that the short notice and total lack of publicity to those most affected by the decision be looked into. Ulibarri said he has only received a letter saying the matter will be looked into.

“All our citizens want is a voice and to know,” he said.
The listing affects 600 square miles of Mount Taylor, the senator said, and added that all the people who use the mountain should have a right to speak. “I am concerned that due process was not followed,” he said. Ulibarri said he will continue to look into the notification process and work for more transparency in government activities but that citizens can have an effect.

“They’ve already heard my rhetoric, it is the same old thing (if he repeats). Your voice is as strong as mine, probably stronger,” he stressed. The senator encourages citizens to write, call or e-mail the attorney general’s office, the governor and committees that can help make notice and procedures within government more accessible to everyone. “We have to work together,” he said.

The senator added that citizens called him because they do not know how the decision will affect their activities or business on the mountain and he could not tell them because he had little information himself.

According to Estevan Rael-Galvez, chair of the Cultural Properties Review Committee, the temporary listing will not affect activities like hunting or hiking, but might affect new grazing permits. Mining permit applications, road building, new towers or other structures are not prohibited but are subject to an additional step in the permitting process. A permanent listing would make the additional review a permanent step, but would not prohibit any activity outright.

Ulibarri is in accord with the committee and the preservation office in Acoma in saying that all people with an interest in the mountain should talk to each other. The senator said the way the meeting was handled with so little notice or lead time could be damaging.

“The perception is very bad. It could divide people.”