For Immediate Release: Dec. 17, 2024
Contact: Miya King-Flaherty, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, miya.king-flaherty@sierraclub.org

Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter statement calling for Caja del Rio National Monument designation

Sante Fe, N.M. – Last week, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich called on Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to designate the Caja del Rio landscape as a national monument, which would permanently protect the region from mining and other destructive land uses.

The Caja is a culturally and ecologically rich landscape. It is subject to the desecration of petroglyphs, persistent illegal dumping and unregulated shooting, poaching and killing of threatened and endangered species, destruction of critical wildlife habitat, irresponsible off-roading use, and the threat of a 14-mile transmission line across the Caja del Rio Plateau proposed by Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In September, the Santa Fe National Forest released a draft decision approving Los Alamos National Laboratory’s proposal for a 14-mile transmission line across the Caja del Rio Plateau west of Santa Fe despite the tens of thousands of public comments submitted opposing the project. Caja del Rio runs across the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and state trust land.

The Santa Fe County Commission and the All Pueblo Council of Governors passed resolutions urging President Biden to declare the Caja del Rio as a national monument. State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard issued an executive order banning mining and the construction of large transmission lines (115 kv or above) and major thoroughfares on state lands.

In response, Northern Group representative of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, Teresa Seamster released the following statement:

“Nothing connects us more to ourselves and each other than a mutual joy of being on the land. The Caja is a vital and encompassing place for each of us who go there to look, learn, enjoy and pray, and for the wildlife that roams throughout the landscape and makes the rocks, treetops and burrows their home.”

“We hope President Biden and Secretary Deb Haaland will follow through on calls to designate this landscape as a national monument.”

Photo by Teresa Seamster