Emily Matheu, you indeed 'don't get it', Taos, NM is home to UNESCO World Heritage Site - Taos Pueblo. The oldest continuously habituated 1st Nations Peoples' site on the North American Continent, And you are Not one of it's residents.
It is the Sole Concern of We the People to restore the 1st Nations People to as near as possible State of Nationhood as when their Initial Treaties were Signed and Ratified. Over 380 treaties between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
Your intrusion solely for self gratification pales to the Natural Rights endowed to The 1st Nations People living on the Sangre' de Christos mountains.
If you believe standing on Teddy Roosevelt's Antiquities Act of 1906, reconsider. This Act in it's land grabbing imperialistic totality was a concoction of Theodore Roosevelt's warped sense of Justice where-in, "if it is Not Written that I Can Not: Then I Can!"
The present SCOTUS so hell-bent on "Historical Relevance" of the Constitution when it applies to 2nd Amendment and Social or Moral issues will have to come to terms with this Un-Constitutional Antiquities Act which flat out steals Land and Antiquities from their Rightful Owners. i.e. The 1st Nations People. Contravening Centuries of Treaties We the People have a pressing need to restore to good faith.
It is a bitter pill that the 21st Century America will not be able to swallow if it is still choking on granting emancipated Slaves Children's Children freedom. 400 years of enslavement 150 years of Writ of Freedom, 75 years talk of Equality.
1st Nations People; 531 years of genocide. Not even 1 day of Honoring 380 Treaties.
United States
New Mexico trail clash echoes culture war across US West
By Andrew Hay
July 7, 20233:14 PM MSTUpdated 41 min ago
[1/4]Spencer Bushnell, a mountain biker, rides in front of foothills, where the U.S. Forest Service is facing rising demand for trails and access to the national forest, in Taos, New Mexico, U.S., June 27, 2023. REUTERS/Andrew Hay
TALPA, N.M., July 7 (Reuters) - Physiotherapist Spencer Bushnell lives less than a mile from farmer Carlos Arguello in Taos, New Mexico. But they are worlds apart on proposals to lace the foothills they love with up to 71 miles of mountain bike and hiking trails.
The two volunteered this year for a U.S. Forest Service working group to tackle surging trail demand and disappearing public access to hills studded with piñon and juniper trees after a post-pandemic, "Zoom boom" wave of new residents and second-home-owners.
That put the neighbors on the frontline of a culture war raging across the West as multi-generational families, conservationists and sometimes conservatives fight trail systems sought by incomers and recreationist locals. Opponents say the trails will harm water supply and wildlife, raise wildfire risk and stoke gentrification.
Two bike trail projects have been nixed in as many months on public land in Oregon and Colorado. The Taos process has split the mountain resort town of 6,600.
Bucking hay bales off his fields irrigated with foothills water, Arguello said he and other "locals" on the group last month dropped out of the process and withdrew their trail proposals - which had exclusion zones for elk areas and cultural heritage sites. The locals did not want to be seen as advocating any trails because of opposition from their community, he said. That left mainly proposals from pro-trails residents on the table.
"This is an assault on our watershed," said Arguello, 67, who fears an international mountain-bike destination is in the making, rather than trail proponents' vision of a phased plan to increase community livability over 15-20 years.
As the sun was rising over Taos Mountain, Bushnell biked near upmarket homes bordering the national forest where owners have built fences and gates in the last two years to block entrance. "This community is losing its public access to its own public lands," said Bushnell, 41, who grew up biking on trails built in Bend, Oregon as that city boomed.
Across the United States, Americans are moving to places with trees and trails, many working remotely.
Trail use on public land has as much as tripled since the start of the pandemic, according to Carl Colonius, planner for New Mexico's Outdoor Recreation Division, who pioneered a plan for managing demand on Taos' Talpa foothills.
Studies by the Headwaters Economics think tank say trails attract new residents and entrepreneurs, boosting public health and tax income, but the influx can lead to less affordable housing and force out long-time residents unless economies diversify.
In Taos' tourism-dependent county, known for its blend of Indigenous, Hispano and Anglo cultures, the average price of a condo increased 69 percent since 2019 to $327,000, according to Zillow. Under five percent of working households can afford the median home price in a county where the largest income bracket is households earning under $15,000 a year, studies have shown.
The group hardest hit has been Hispanos such as Arguello - the descendants of colonial settlers - whose share of the county population has fallen around 20 percentage points in the last two decades from over half to about a third, according to census data.
Darryl Maestas says newcomers show a sense of entitlement when they propose carving a network of trails where Puebloan Indians and members of a Catholic religious brotherhood have held ceremonies over the centuries.
"Either the other side doesn't get it, or they don't care and just want it all anyway," said Maestas, a farmer who returned to family land after three decades working from South Korea to Afghanistan as an aircraft mechanic for the U.S. military.
The imposing area was first taken from Native Americans by Hispanos, turned into common land by Spanish land grants, then occupied by the USFS in the late 1960s after being clear cut by a timber company.
Homemaker Emily Matheu moved to Taos from Oakland, California four years ago and has advocated for trails.
"I was told on the mamas group Taos doesn't need any more people here like me, people that move here from California and buy a condo and use the outdoors as their personal gym," said Matheu, 43, referring to a Facebook page for mothers.
USFS District Ranger Michael Lujan said he would continue community engagement on the foothills over user conflicts and forest damage on their 43 miles of informal trails.
Reporting By Andrew Hay; Editing by Donna Bryson and Alistair Bell
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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