Oh… my… GOD!!!
Can the Valle Vidal really be almost saved? According to the Santa Fe New Mexican,
Senate OKs Valle Vidal Protection
By ANDY LENDERMAN | The New Mexican
November 17, 2006Both New Mexico senators threw their weight behind protecting the Valle Vidal from oil and gas drilling Thursday, and it worked.
The Valle Vidal Protection Act of 2005 — authored by U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M. — cleared the Senate floor late Thursday night. U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., announced his decision earlier in the day to support Udall’s measure, after months of intense political pressure from all over New Mexico. Hunters, anglers, Republicans, Democrats and environmentalists lobbied Domenici relentlessly to protect the national forest property, famous for its high mountain valleys, rambling forests and elk herds, from development.
“We’re very confident the president will sign it,” Domenici spokesman Chris Gallegos said. “It moved very quickly. Everybody is pleasantly surprised.”
You can read a two-year-old essay on the Valle Vidal here, and I also have a fine six-minute, 5.4 MB MP3 of spontaneous commentary from a trip to the Valle Vidal available for download. In the essay just referenced, I had this to say:
I then decide to take a certain a dead-end road, which leads farther up into the mountains than I’ve ever been. I find a valley where I stay at least an hour and never see another soul. There are pine cones in the tops of spruces, where chickadees go round and round. Bluebirds flit here and there across the quiet grassy meadow. A red-tailed hawk turns circles overhead, and big gray birds I’ve never seen before go pecking in the creek. It’s mostly cloudy now, with a little bit of sun, and every now and then a shaft of light drops down to hit the slopes and detonate a yellow aspen. The air is clean and pure. I feel an otherworldly sense of peace.
Something is very, very different here. As I watch the birds and listen to the water, I have the strongest sensation it’s because they’re happy. I don’t know how else to describe it. Not just in a decent mood, but deeply, firmly, solidly engaged with everything around them in the quiet of the moment. And then it hits me: this is someplace where the eye of God looks out and all is as it should be. Air and water completely pristine, gifts of creation not yet fouled and lost forever, right here, right now, uncompromised, exalted. Why, this isn’t of another world at all: this is our own planet, our own Mother…
THIS IS THE TRUTH, AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS A LIE!
All Bush has to do is sign the bill, and the Valle Vidal will be protected from energy development for the forever. Say a prayer and think good thoughts, we’re almost there.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
This is good news, John, but never say never. We thought the Alaska arctic wildlife refuge was protected forever, too.
I realize where you’re coming from, of course. I just think it’s a good idea to promote the “forever” stance.
You have a point, John. I truly do hope it is “forever”.
Well, the bastard hasn’t signed the bill yet, so we still have that hurdle.
“This is the truth, and everything else is a lie”
Exactly. Exactly what someone I know came to appreciate while living in a forest.
This is “scenery” to the inhabitants of cars passing through on the obscenely shaved swaths that are highways.
There’s no way to explain this sensibility to those who haven’t experienced it. The perfect joy of being there – the shift in perspective. The respect gained for every other creature who is. Why, a heavy smoker might quit out of embarrasment to keep it up in view (or sniff) of those other “happy” fellows . Very nice, Mr. Farr. From back in Babylon, again.
Hope, you have perfectly expressed what I was getting at and obviously understand. “The respect for every other creature who is…”
I wish more people could see this.