Sen. Martin Heinrich and Rep. Melanie Stansbury joined conservation leaders Friday at Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge to celebrate their successful efforts to prevent the sale of public lands during recent reconciliation negotiations in Congress.
Heinrich, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Stansbury, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, were joined by Conservation Voters of New Mexico President Demis Foster and New Mexico Wilderness Alliance Executive Director Mark Allison at the refuge south of Albuquerque.
The Democrats highlighted their work to strip land privatization provisions from what Heinrich called the “Big Bad Bill” — Republican reconciliation legislation that would have allowed the sale of federal public lands.
“I take a great amount of solace and pride in the coalition that we built to kill land privatization in the reconciliation bill,” Heinrich said. “We were backed by an uprising on social media, from bird watchers to bow hunters — it spanned the entire political spectrum, and they made themselves heard.”
Heinrich said the broad opposition across all states forced Republicans to remove the land sales provision from their legislation.
“Now we need to take this incredible coalition that we have built, and we need to do things like defend the Land and Water Conservation Fund,” Heinrich said. “You can count on your congressional delegation to be at the tip of the spear when we do that.”
Stansbury emphasized the importance of continued vigilance in protecting New Mexico’s natural resources.
“Our story as New Mexicans is a story of generations of resilience,” Stansbury said. “When New Mexicans face hard times, we fight back for our communities and continue to build. Every day, I am proud to be in the fight for our public lands, waters and the federal workforce that supports their stewardship.”
The lawmakers used Valle de Oro as an example of successful conservation efforts. The refuge, established through community advocacy, has been transformed from degraded land into what officials call one of New Mexico’s “crown jewels” for wildlife habitat and public recreation.