Rant

Okay, I know I should not rant about the New Mexico State Land Office but I just can’t help myself. The rape and pillage attitude of Commissioner Pat Lyons continues. He steadfastly defended the land office’s support of a forest burning power plant in Estancia today in the Albuquerque Journal. The State Tree, the food producing Pinon, is destined to be thrown into incinerators to power electric generators. This is wrong on so many levels. I will admit that the Pinon Juniper forest is thick due to over grazing by Lyon’s cowboy buddies. Some thinning is okay, especially of Junipers. But it is not okay to denude hundreds of square miles of trees that soak up green house gases, especially the Pinon that provides food crops. We all know that Lyons is taking care of some ranchers by clearing land so they can produce more cattle by stripping the desert landscapes of vegetation.

Lyons is also now putting up for bid the Moon mountain property in Ruidoso that has been fought over. The locals want the land saved as open space. Lyon’s wants his developer buddies to jam more homes into an already water short community. After being shut down on a secret trade on this deal last year, Lyons is now auctioning the land to the highest bidder during a depressed real estate market. Does that even make sense? Any bets that the guy who wanted to do the secret trade with the Land Office will end up with the winning bid?

Business as usual at the Land Office! If any of Lyon’s current assistants try to replace him as Land Commissioner these affronts can be hung around their neck.