There is a popular hiking, biking, bird watching, and horse riding trail outside of Albuquerque called Otero Canyon. The trail is on part of land that has never been fenced or used for anything other than recreation. However, it also sits outside of Kirtland Air Force Base and a portion of the land is what is called "military withdrawal land." This land was given to the Department of Defense when Kirtland AFB was originated right after WWII, but the Air Force has never had use for it in over 50 years.
The Otero Canyon trails extend from National Forest Land into this military land, and for at least 20 years there has been no concern by the military over the use of it as a recreation area. However, because of the significant amounts of money available for Homeland Security, Kirtland decided to request funding for a project to fence this land off. Most people will agree that this is an unnecessary taxpayer expense and the land is better served to be left open to the public. We support the DOD in securing the base, but not at the expense of this trail network. Clearly more adequate solutions are available.
Please take the time to click on the url below and sign the petition to stop the closure of Otero Canyon. Also please pass this onto others that you know of that might be interested in signing this petition.
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