NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
August 9th, 2017
Contact: Carrie Hamblen, CEO/President
Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce
carrie@locallascruces.com
575-323-1575
Statewide Business Organizations Run Newspaper Ads
Urging Interior Secretary Zinke to Not Change New Mexico’s National Monuments
(Las Cruces and Taos, New Mexico) – Six New Mexico business and tourism organizations are running full-page color newspaper ads this week urging U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to not recommend changes to the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande del Norte National Monuments. The ads ran this past Sunday in the Las Cruces Sun News and Santa Fe New Mexican and will run in the Taos News tomorrow. They are signed by Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce, Santa Fe Green Chamber of Commerce, Partnership for Responsible Business, High Tech Consortium of Southern New Mexico, Visit Las Cruces, and TAOS.org, and supported by 270 businesses statewide.
President Trump ordered Zinke to conduct a review of National Monuments designated under the Antiquities Act since 1996. Zinke visited southern New Mexico last month as part of that review and witnessed strong community support for leaving both monuments as they are.
The business organizations note in the ad that the monuments have brought new visitors, residents, and jobs to nearby communities. Numerous local elected bodies have passed resolutions supporting the monuments and their existing boundaries. The ad closes by saying to Secretary Zinke: “Support our economy. Honor our heritage. Don’t change our monuments.”
A copy of the ad can be viewed below.
