Additional comments sought on Chaco Culture protections

When now Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was the US Representative for New Mexico's First District she was one of the sponsors of the Chaco Culture Heritage Protection Act of 2019 that would have codified the 10-mile buffer zone around Chaco Canyon. Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo just one of New Mexico's Indigenous Nations who consider the Greater Chaco Wash as sacred. 

A survey conducted by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) showed that during the Trump years the Bureau of Land Management was plagued by staff shortages, high turnover and partisan rancor. Santa Fe-based Wild Earth Guardians joined other interested parties and sued the Trump Organization's BLM to stop oil and gas encroachment on Chaco Culture National Historic Park. 

New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich has asked Sec. Haaland to end leasing within a 10-mile radius of the park because Chaco is an International Dark Sky Park at risk to oil and gas flaring. In partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs the BLM completed a draft resource management plan for Chaco and a decision has just been released. 

Indigenous leaders and environmental groups reiterated this week that the broader look would be a more meaningful step toward permanent protections for cultural resources in the San Juan Basin. The environmental assessment bolsters that argument since it notes that the proposed withdrawal would not affect existing leases and that much of the interest by the industry for future development already is under lease or falls outside the boundary of what would be withdrawn. In June, the All Pueblo Council of Governors traveled from New Mexico to Washington to urge the Interior Department to finalize its proposal to protect the Chaco area, arguing that public land management should better reflect the value of sacred sites, cultural resources and traditional stories that are tied to the region. [U.S. outlines effects of withdrawing land near Chaco park from oil drilling]

Comments have to be postmarked by 10 December and can be sent to the Bureau of Land Management, Farmington Field Office, Attn: Sarah Scott, 6251 College Blvd., Suite A, Farmington, NM 87402. Scott can also be reached at sscott@blm.gov or at 505-564-7689.

Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning has called nearly every Trump era ruling illegal including its failure to manage mustangs safely while blows to morale and an exodus of employees have contributed to horse mortalities during gathers. So, earlier this year Interior Secretary Deb Haaland released the outline for a restructured BLM promising to return its main headquarters to DC while increasing its role in the Mountain West by improving a demoralized Grand Junction, Colorado presence.

Learn more at NM Political Report.

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