Whtie Sands Administrative History

Whatever optimism that James Thomson detected in the mid-1970s evaporated as the decade drew to a close. Donald Harper came to White Sands as Thomson's replacement in 1978, embarking as superintendent upon a difficult journey for the next eleven years. Forces nationwide and within the Tularosa basin influenced Harper's actions, as did his own style of management. Not the least of these issues was the decline of financial support for government in general, and the NPS in particular, caused by the victory in the 1980 presidential election of Ronald Reagan over the incumbent, Jimmy Carter. Reagan, a conservative Californian who campaigned on a promise to restore American military supremacy, appointed as his secretary of the Interior James Watt, a conservative Wyoming lawyer and advocate of the return of western public lands to private ownership. Watt believed, in the words of Alfred Runte, that "what funds might be added to the existing park budget obviously would be spent on the access, comfort, and safety of park visitors rather than on the sanctity of park resources." Watt also preferred to support the high-visibility national parks of the West (the service's "crown jewels"), with funding reduced for other categories of the system. This would mean further deterioration of White Sands' physical plant, fewer career opportunities for staff, and reversion to recreational use of the park after the 1970s emphasis on historical meaning and ecological experiences. [18]

In his early years as park superintendent, Don Harper compiled the first of several management plans as per NPS regulations. His report of December 1981 revealed the shortfall between park needs and administration support. It also pointed out in microcosm the concerns expressed in the NPS document, State of the Parks-1980, that "external threats to the national parks posed the gravest danger to their resources throughout the 1980s and beyond." Yet where other NPS units faced obstacles that Runte described as "air and water pollution, energy development, and urban encroachment," White Sands added to this list the military and space buildup of the Reagan era. This had been designed to restore American pride in its armed forces, to halt the perceived resurgence of Communism worldwide, and to rejuvenate a national economy reeling in 1980 from double-digit percentages of inflation and interest rates, exponential increases in energy prices, and a psychological drift or "malaise," in the words of President Jimmy Carter. [19]

The Harper plan for White Sands management lacked the sense of hope that had pervaded similar documents earlier in the 1970s, focusing instead upon the spread of African oryx, the growth of water-absorbing salt cedar (tamarisk) in the Garton Lake area, and the seepage of Holloman AFB sewage from its treatment ponds into Lost River, with a potential to enter the dunes' water table. Harper also noted that the 20 species of cactus on monument grounds appealed to thieves who took the plants from the dunes, and the infestation of Mexican Freetail bats in the residential compound, which could pose a danger of rabies and plague. Despite all this, visitor projections would continue to climb, with Harper predicting 790,000 visitors by 1985, and a staggering 1.01 million by the turn of the century. [20]

The management plan thus underwent extensive review and revision at regional and national NPS headquarters. Melody Webb, SWR chief of history, noted that "the Mescalero and Fort Sill [Chiricahua] Apaches possibly visit WHSA for religious purposes." She asked Harper "to consider addressing this issue in connection with the American Indian Religious Freedom Act [1978]," as White Sands "needed to acquire the data to fulfill the act's mandate" to identify and protect Indian sacred places on public land. The Air Force also asked permission to conduct hydrology tests in Dog Canyon to determine the extent of its water supply, only to decide against further study after sinking three wells. [21]

Holloman AFB's interest in Dog Canyon water stemmed from efforts in the early 1980s to locate major new supplies for the Air Force, the city of Alamogordo, and WSMR. Don Harper had estimated in his 1981 report that by the year 2000, White Sands alone would increase its water usage to 5.5 million gallons. To meet the needs of so many water-intensive users in the area, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) agreed in 1980 to study the feasibility of the Tularosa Basin Project." Harper called this "an imaginative and daring plan to convert salt water to fresh and [to] generate electricity." Part of the non-fossil fuel research promoted by President Carter, the project would cover an area of one million acres (40 miles square), with desalinization equipment powered by nuclear energy. The LASL hoped to produce 1.1 million acre-feet of water annually (comparable to half the storage at nearby Elephant Butte Reservoir and enough water to supply a city the size of Albuquerque for two years), and also to generate 2,000 megawatts of electrical power. A related activity would be "a large mineral extraction industry," as the highly saline water of the basin would leave behind deposits that could be mined for other industrial uses. The 1981 resource study did note that the project could lower the water table at the monument, thus harming the wildlife at Garton Lake and stopping "the replacement of new gypsum sand crystals to the dune field." [22]

Figure 61. Horseback patrol (1970s).
(Courtesy White Sands National Monument)