By Hannah Grover
As U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum takes the reins of the largest land management agency in the country, he is tasked with deciding whether oil and gas leasing remains off limits near Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Burgum’s nomination on Thursday.
President Donald Trump on his first day in office directed federal agencies to review public land withdrawals that the Joe Biden administration implemented. That includes the moratorium on oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historical Park — a sacred landscape that is already dotted with pumpjacks and other oil and gas infrastructure.
The review of the mineral leasing withdrawal was buried in the executive order titled Unleashing American Energy.
The executive order specifically states that U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture secretaries “shall reassess any public lands withdrawals for potential revision.” The agriculture department oversees national forests.
In terms of New Mexico, there are two main withdrawals that could be impacted: the aforementioned Chaco buffer zone and the Buffalo Tract withdrawal in the Placitas area that was implemented to stop future gravel mining. Both Chaco and Buffalo Tract are sacred Indigenous lands.
The withdrawal of mineral leasing from lands around Chaco is more controversial than the Buffalo Tract withdrawal, and undoing the Chaco withdrawal was mentioned in Project 2025.
The protections of Chaco Canyon have caused a rift in Indigenous communities in New Mexico. The closest residents to the park are Navajo allottees who often rely on fossil fuel extraction for money in an area with limited options for economic development.
Navajo Nation officials sued the federal government in January over the moratorium. The lawsuit was filed just days before Trump took office.
But not all members of Navajo Nation are on board with oil and gas leasing near Chaco. Some of the Eastern Agency chapters fear the health impacts of emissions from extractive industries. Former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez has been a vocal proponent of the buffer zone around Chaco and pushed for the moratorium on new leasing.
Chaco Canyon is also the ancestral home of the Puebloan people, who generally want to see future fossil fuel extraction halted or limited in the sacred landscape. The moratorium on mineral leasing near Chaco came in the form of a secretarial order issued by former Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo. It only applies to federal lands and does not apply to allottee lands.
“The Trump administration does not understand what is important to New Mexico. Communities have worked for decades to protect Chaco Canyon and we must all work to protect it for future generations. Trump’s focus on undoing progress driven by communities completely distracts from the fact that he’s doing nothing to address the everyday struggles that people face,” Haaland said.
It also coincides with a moratorium on leasing on state lands that was implemented by State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard and pre-dates the secretarial order.
The land ownership around Chaco forms a checkerboard pattern with allottee lands interspersed among federal and state lands. Allottees say this makes it hard for them to attract oil and gas development.
Looking back at Trump’s previous term, the president eyed Chaco Canyon as a potential source of energy development. During that time, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Farmington Field Office was drafting an amendment to the 2003 resource management plan. Former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who served under Trump, prioritized getting the amendment drafted. Bernhardt visited Chaco during his tenure accompanied by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico. The recommended decision called for allowing oil and gas leasing within the current 10-mile buffer zone.
That amendment process was scrapped last year citing decreased oil and gas extraction and the moratorium.
The process of drafting the amendment began in 2013 after environmental groups argued that changes in oil and gas drilling technology meant the impacts of the extractive industry were not adequately evaluated in the 2003 plan.
The BLM and DOI did not respond to requests for comment by deadline Friday.