You can search for alien life forms near Roswell,
N.M., and not see them, but you can’t miss all-terrain vehicles.
For the past 20 years, motor-bikers have carved tracks all around
3,530-acre Haystack Mountain. But unfettered roaming may end soon.
The Roswell District of the Bureau of Land Management has finished
a draft management plan for the Haystack Mountain Off Highway
Vehicle Area. Although the plan expands the area to almost 9,000
acres through easement purchases and land exchanges, it confines
vehicles to specific trails within the areas, says Howard Parman,
an agency spokesman. The BLM is also considering putting in parking
lots and public toilets to help manage increasing use, at a total
cost of at least $219,000. Critic John Trujillo, vice-chairman of
the Chaves County Public Lands Advisory Committee, says he’s
skeptical of a plan that spends so much on a single user group and
adds that the agency only has three rangers and a special agent to
monitor the district’s 3.1 million acres. “How will they keep the
riders confined to the trails in Haystack?” he asks. Agency
officials will answer questions at an open house at 7 p.m. Nov. 20
in Roswell. The public comment period will last until Dec.
3.
For information or to send comments, write
the Bureau of Land Management, Roswell Resource Area, 2909 W. 2nd,
Roswell, NM 88201, or call Paul T. Happel at
505/627-0203.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline More ATVers than aliens.
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