The Bureau of Land Management proposed opening over 300,000 acres of public lands bordering New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park to oil and gas drilling.
The move would reverse a 20-year oil and gas leasing ban put in place by President Joe Biden in 2023, which protected a 10-mile buffer zone around the park from new oil and gas drilling and mining. If the proposal moves forward, new oil and gas leasing will be allowed on public lands immediately bordering the park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its extraordinary cultural significance dating back to the mid-800s.
Undoing protections for Chaco is extremely unpopular among New Mexico voters—71% are opposed to removing current protections to allow new oil and gas drilling on public lands around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
“This is not about energy strategy,” said Maude Dinan, New Mexico program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “It’s an attack on cultural heritage, community health, and all that our national parks were created to protect.”
Appeals court rejects bid to overturn Arizona national monument
On Wednesday, a federal appeals court rejected a bid to overturn the designation of Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona. The judge ruled that the state lawmakers who brought the lawsuit did not have standing to challenge the designation. The national monument, which includes almost a million acres of public land near the Grand Canyon, was protected in 2023 by President Biden using the Antiquities Act, safeguarding the area’s cultural significance to 13 Tribes.
Quick hits
BLM proposes removal of protections on land around Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Santa Fe New Mexican | National Parks Traveler | Source NM
New Mexico Pueblo governors endorse draft federal legislation to protect Caja del Rio landscape
Interior allowed illegal grazing at Arizona monument, judge finds
Appeals court rejects bid to overturn monument designation near Grand Canyon
Plans announced to expand grazing access on public lands
National conservation area growing by 4,000-plus acres in western Colorado
Environmental groups sue Trump administration over mine approval in Montana
See where flowers and leaves are emerging early after record-warm March
Quote of the day
It’s not too late to repair our public lands and keep wildlife from sliding into extinction.”
—Chris Bugbee, Southwest Conservation Advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, E&E News
Picture This
All Iguana do is have some snacks.
We got a feelin’ you’re not the only one. What’s on the menu? Desert Iguanas eat leaves, buds, and flowers, and the occasional insect or carrion. They are very dependent on the creosote bush. They eat the buds and flowers as well as burrow underneath and use the bush to conceal themselves.
Images: All I wanna eat is this flower. A pale lizard eating a yellow creosote bush flower at Joshua Tree National Park. NPS/Sutton
(Featured image: Chaco Culture National Historical Park entrance in New Mexico. Brendakochevar, Wikimedia Commons)