Environmental Project

Equal footing: Conservation leasing proponents say proposal will place the environment on the same level as other land uses

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Joseph Yaroch visits the public lands in southern New Mexico twice weekly to hike or run. Though he says he supports the overall concept of multiple use for public lands, he is concerned about erosion and poor soil quality resulting from land uses. Yaroch primarily visits areas around Picacho Peak and the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument, which have received poor scores for rangeland health. “Placing conservation on equal footing with other uses will strengthen the ability of the Bureau of Land Management to improve the health of the soil and vegetation in these areas. This will help preserve the integrity of these areas for generations to come,” he said in comments submitted to the BLM regarding conservation leasing.

Environmental Project

Conservation groups, federal lawmakers seek to end use of ‘cyanide bombs’ on public lands

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In 2017, a 14-year-old Idaho resident named Canyon Mansfield took his labrador retriever, Kasey, on a walk on public lands, unaware that a federal agency had set a device known as a cyanide bomb out to control predators. His experience with that device, known as an M-44, is now one of the stories driving efforts to ban the use of M-44s on public lands. Two efforts are underway to do so—federal legislation reintroduced earlier this month in Congress and a petition conservation groups filed Thursday with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The petition effort is led by the Center for Biological Diversity and Predator Defense, but dozens of other groups have signed on. 

The petition effort seeks to end the use of M-44s on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. In an East Idaho News video from 2017, Mansfield said that he saw a little pipe that looked like a sprinkler sticking out of the ground “and so I go over and I inspect it and I touch it and then it, like, pops.

Environmental Project

What to know about federal conservation rulemaking

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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is considering allowing public lands to be leased for conservation purposes.

Environmental Project

Lands around Chaco officially withdrawn from oil and gas leasing

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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland officially withdrew lands surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park from mineral leasing on Friday morning. The withdrawal order, which has been years in the making, means that no new oil and gas leasing can occur on federal lands within 10 miles of the park for 20 years. This does not apply to Navajo allotments. 

The withdrawal has been divisive among Native communities. The Navajo Nation withdrew its support for the buffer zone earlier this year citing economic concerns. Many of the allottees who live near Chaco say that leasing their mineral rights is one of the few ways they can make money off their lands and that, even though the withdrawal does not impact their mineral rights, it would make it harder for them to lease their rights.

Environment

Shutdown is over, but federal workers remain uncertain

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On Monday, federal employees will return to work. For now. After more than 30 days, the partial federal shutdown ended Friday. During that time, almost 11,000 New Mexicans—and 800,000 people nationwide—were either furloughed or working without pay. But many people remain wary, given that the deal worked out between Congress and the White House only reopens the government for three weeks, through February 15.

Environment

New Mexico bears the brunt of D.C.’s environment decisions

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Given the fire hose of news from Washington, D.C. every day, New Mexicans can be forgiven if they miss stories about environmental overhauls from the White House and funding mishaps in Congress. But ignorance isn’t bliss when it comes to climate-changing methane emissions, less money for public lands and parks or the intergenerational impacts of mercury exposure. At NM Political Report, we’re continuing to track the federal changes that affect New Mexicans. Here are a few of the most important issues that popped up recently. Udall: Climate change ‘moral test of our age’
At the end of last month, Congress let the Land and Water Conservation Fund lapse.

2018 elections

On the (hiking) trail with Heinrich

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Last weekend, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and his wife Julie pulled up to an Albuquerque trailhead and were greeted by a group of eager supporters with hiking poles and hydration packs at the ready. Almost immediately, Heinrich became an impromptu trail guide, educating his constituents on the different native plants along the trail and which animals use them as food sources. At least twice, unsuspecting hikers recognized the affable sportsman who has worked in Washington, D.C. since 2009. One family hiking towards the top of the trail passed the Heinrich entourage on its way back to the trail head. As the two groups converged, one woman looked at Heinrich and asked, “Is it really you?

Environment

NM Environment Review: No-go on solar plus public lands, nuclear waste and more

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On Wednesday, Gov. Susana Martinez signed the budget passed earlier this year by state legislators. But she refused to sign a bill that would have reinstated state tax credits for solar. That bill reinstated a tax credit that had expired after a decade, one that had spurred the deployment of 220 million BTUs per day of solar heating energy and 40 megawatts of solar electricity. The tax credit would have given people who install a solar thermal system or photovoltaic system at their home, business or farm a ten percent credit of the purchase and installation costs, up to $9,000. Previously, Martinez has praised the state’s “all of the above” energy resources, but by declining to sign the solar tax credit bill, she effectively vetoed it, but without having to explain why. This week, there’s an interesting water case before the Second District Court, over a private company’s plans to drill for groundwater in the Sandia Mountains.

Donald Trump

2017 Top Stories #5: National monuments under fire

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About 739,000 acres of public lands in New Mexico became a big news story this year. At the end of April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review a number of national monument designations, including two in New Mexico, made under the Antiquities Act since 1996. See all of our year-end stories

The two New Mexico monuments were the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument near Taos and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces

The executive order was a gift to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who had been seeking a way to diminish protections of two monuments in Utah, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. At the signing ceremony for the order, Trump recognized Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, Utah Sen. Mike Lee and in particular, Hatch. “Believe me, he’s tough.

Environment

Zinke decides against shrinking NM monuments

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The Trump administration announced big changes to some national monuments, but U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has said the boundaries of two monuments under review in New Mexico will be left intact. A day after President Donald Trump visited Utah and announced he would drastically reduce the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, Zinke released his recommendations for the other monuments under review. At the urging of Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, Trump signed an executive order earlier this year directing Zinke to review all national monuments designated since 1996 that are larger than 100,000 acres. That included two in New Mexico, Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in Taos County and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces. During a press call on Tuesday, Zinke said he based his decision not to alter boundaries of the two New Mexico monuments on conversations with the governor, the state’s congressional delegation, ranchers, conservationists, and city officials.