Email and hand-delivered a copy of this Letter to the Editor to offices of the Alamogordo Daily News on November 14, 2007.
Another way to stop the listing of White Sands National Monument (WSNM) on UNESCO's Tentative List of U.N. World Heritage Sites would be for Cliff Spencer, Superintendent of WSNM, to withdraw the APPLICATION. Why should Mr. Spencer withdraw the APPLICATION? Because Mr. Spencer's APPLICATION avoids all references to buffer zones. If you read the case study of what occurred at Yellowstone National Park http://www.sovereignty.net/p/land/wildlandtom.htm, you may have the reason for the omission of buffer zone's in the APPLICATION.
The Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention FORMAT FOR THE NOMINATION OF PROPERTIES FOR INSCRIPTION ON THE WORLD HERITAGE LIST state 'Where no buffer zone is proposed, the nomination must include a statement as to why a buffer zone is not required for the proper conservation of the nominated property.' Emphasis added.
I have read the APPLICATION from cover to cover. There are no questions about buffer zones that are answered. Further, no maps were provided to the Otero County Commission showing the boundaries of the nominated property and buffer zone. Here are two examples where buffer zones were ignored/omitted:
1.f. of the APPLICATION was to include the area of the nominated property, area of the buffer zone and total of the two. WSNM's APPLICATION simply gives the area of the National Monument. No area of the buffer zone. No total of the two.
4.b.(v) of White Sands' APPLICATION was to include the number of inhabitants within the property and the buffer zone with a total of the two and what year the count was taken. WSNM took another route and made up their own question: Are there any other risks or threats that could jeopardize the property's Outstanding Universal Values? (Answer: No) and completely avoided the topic of inhabitants of the property, inhabitants of the buffer zone and the total inhabitants of the two areas.
I believe that employees of WSNM are in violation of several Otero County Ordinances dating back 14 or more years: http://co.otero.nm.us/index.html Kudos to Otero County, their website is vastly improved.
WSNM's APPLICATION is the work product of Cliff Spencer and Dianne White, former Resource Specialist at WSNM. Mr. Spencer's phone number is 479-6124, ext. 210. Dianne White is now back in the employment of the U.S. Forest Service. Her number is 434.7272. Perhaps Mr. Spencer and Dianne White have an explanation for the absence of buffer zone information in the APPLICATION. It could be a 'clerical' error. Remember when Congressman Stevan Pearce and Otero County were listed as supporters of the APPLICATION?
By the way, when you call Dianne White at the U.S. Forest Service you can also ask to speak to Cliff Spencer's wife (Mrs. Spencer) and Mr. Spencer's Chief Ranger's wife (Mrs. Jensen). It's a small world.
Janet White
A contributor to http://oteroresidentsforum.blogspot.com/
Alamogordo
Posts and Comments from Readers
Please include yourself in the discussion. Post a comment.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Letter to the Alamogordo Daily News Editor
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment