How We're Protecting our Land

The Rio Grande Chapter Public Lands Team is involved in numerous aspects of protecting public lands. We’ve celebrated several major victories in just the last few years:

• Permanent protection for Rio Grande del Norte in Northern New Mexico and Organ Mountains­ Desert Peaks in Southern New Mexico with their designations as national monuments in 2013 and 2014
• Transfer of Valles Caldera to National Parks Service management, which has better resources to manage it than its current structure in 2015
• Federal designation of Columbine Hondo in Northern New Mexico as a Wilderness in 2015

Our advocacy efforts focus mostly on federal lands under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management, but it can include state and local jurisdiction land as well. We work in coalition with other environmental organizations on:

• Reviewing and commenting on updates to U.S. Forest Service and BLM Resource Management Plans.
• Working to protect wilderness on all public lands and helping identify Lands With Wilderness Characteristics for further inclusion.
• Identifying and opposing projects that are harmful to the land, water and wildlife on public lands and do not support sustainability or address effects of climate change.
• Coordinating with other organizations to promote the designation of lands suitable for national monuments.

Current efforts

The Rio Grande Bosque

Albuquerque’s Bosque is a beautiful stretch of riverside forest that bisects the city. In 2012, Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry introduced a development plan, called the Rio Grande Vision, that triggered a wave of dissent within the community. Community members anticipated that development of the Bosque would damage the natural qualities sought by visitors and wildlife alike, and harm the Bosque’s delicate ecosystem.

As a response to the development plan, the Rio Grande Chapter, community members and other local organizations came together to form the Bosque Action Team to formulate a better vision for the Bosque. Our healthier vision includes opposing development between the levees and encouraging alternatives, such as improving access points to the Bosque and funding programs that provide education for students about the Bosque. The Bosque Action Team believes any efforts within the levees should be restorative, strengthening the Bosque as a natural habitat, and preserving its appeal as an "environmental gem."

Chaco Canyon

Due to horizontal fracking  technology that makes extracting  oil and natural gas resources in the Mancos Gallup Shale formation in northwestern New Mexico’s San Juan Basin more accessible, the Greater Chaco region  is experiencing increased oil and gas development. Fracking in the region is causing irrepreable harm to air and water quality, cultural resources,  public health and safety, and more.

The Greater Chaco Coalition/Frack Off Chaco, a collaborative  effort between Indigenous community leaders, environmental organizations, nonprofits, and environmental justice advocates, is calling on the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management and state and tribal governments to address and mitigate the impacts of  increased oil and gas development in the region.

Show articles related to Chaco Canyon and its environs

National Monuments

Since March 2013, the Rio Grande Chapter, working with large and diverse coalitions of community members, business leaders, sportsmen and tribal leaders, has helped win permanent protection with the designations of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in Northern New Mexico and Organ Mountains ­Desert Peaks.

But it doesn’t end there. Many management decisions are left to be made for the 242,000­ acre Rio Grande del Norte National Monument and 496,000­ acre Organ Mountains­ Desert Peaks National Monument. Land ­use plans are still being formulated for the new national monuments. Rio Grande del Norte, for example, is under threat that a major power­ transmission line could run through the national monument. A presidential proclamation allowed new utility rights of way. We and our allies work hard to avoid loopholes that allow development to damage these newly protected gems.

Caja del Rio

The 107,068 acres on this plateau known as Caja del Rio are managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. These are sacred lands for the area’s pueblos. Caja del Rio is principally piñon-juniper savanna and grassland, with canyons plunging into the Santa Fe River and other tributaries of the Rio Grande. The land is dotted with cinder cones and features a dramatic basalt escarpment rich with petroglyphs. Caja is one of the most ecologically rich wildlife corridors in New Mexico. It provides vital habitat for a diverse range of plants and animals. The Caja is one of the last great opportunities to protect the West as it has existed for thousands of years.

Posts related to Caja del Rio protection
Caja del Rio Coalition

Otero Mesa

Located south of Alamogordo, Otero Mesa is the largest surviving Chihuahuan Desert Grassland, covers 1.2 million acres in New Mexico, much of it under the administration of the Las Cruces BLM District Office.

This unique and vast landscape contains many areas with wilderness characteristics. The Mesa in New Mexico is threatened by gas and oil exploration and development that is already ramping up on the Texas side.

How can we protect the New Mexican part of Otero Mesa into the future?

Currently, the BLM is developing a Resource Management Plan for Sierra, Doña Ana and Otero counties that includes Otero Mesa. Now, before that plan moves forward, a supplement covering gas and oil leasing policy as well as identifying Lands with Wilderness Characteristics must be completed. Therefore, the Resource Management Plan that includes Otero Mesa is not likely to be completed for several years. In the meantime, the BLM has decided not to sell any more leases on the Mesa until the RMP has been totally completed.

How You Can Take Action to Protect Our Land

There are many ways that you can get involved to help us protect our public land:

Join the Bosque Action Team

Come to the monthly meetings and help strategize about how we can preserve and protect the Bosque. Contact Richard Barish at richard.barish@gmail.com to learn more and get involved.

Become a Bosque Sentinel

To help protect what makes our Bosque so special, we’re forming a Bosque Sentinels Program. If you are interested, you can select a part of the Bosque that you’d like to monitor. You’ll get to know the terrain and be able to report to Open Space if there are litter, fire or vandalism problems. You’ll get to know the different projects that the Army Corps of Engineers, Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District or the city are carrying out and be able to interpret those projects to other users. You also might become a trained outings leader and take people to visit the area. If you’d like to get involved please email savethebosque@gmail.com.

Meet a few of our great Bosque Sentinels here.

Protect Chaco

To learn more and find out how you can help, please contact Miya King-Flaherty, Sierra Club organizer, at miya.king-flaherty@sierraclub.org or (505) 301 - 0863.

Join our Organ Mountains­ Desert Peaks Action Team

To help protect our national monuments, Contact Camilla Feibelman at camilla.feibelman@sierraclub.org.

Have a voice in land management

To get involved in affecting land­ management decisions at Rio Grande del Norte, contact Tom Gorman at gormantd@gmail.com or 505.­438.­3932

Join the Otero Mesa Action Team

The Otero Mesa Action Team, from our El Paso Group territory, is actively participating with the BLM's Las Cruces District Office in the development of the Resource Management Plan’s Supplement that deals with gas and oil as well as identifying Lands with Wilderness Characteristics on the Mesa. Contact Jerry Kurtyka for more information on Action Team meetings and events at jerrykurtyka@hotmail.com.

Visit our Act on the Issues Page here to find out about how you can act on urgent and other environmental issues.

Header photo by Larry Lamsa