Local government supports protection of Chaco Canyon

Santa Fe County Commission backs national legislation, Rep. Deb Haaland speaks in favor

The Santa Fe County County Commission on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution urging Congress to enact the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act, SB 1079, to "withdraw the federal lands around Chaco Canyon from further mineral development and ensure the protection of Chaco Ruins and the greater landscape surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park."

Before the vote, US Rep. Deb Haaland spoke to the board of the cultural, spiritual, historic and ecological importance of the site.

"Chaco Canyon is not just my ancestral homeland. It's a treasure for all New Mexican, but it's a treasure for the entire world that's something we need to preserve that families should be able to enjoy without the sounds of drilling and industry booming into the area," said the congresswoman, who represents New Mexico's 1st District in the Albuquerque area.

Haaland quoted Edward Paul Torres, governor of Isleta Pueblo and chairman of the All Pueblo Council of the Governors, when she said that the area around Chaco Canyon is " 'a living landscape'… while people don't actually live there anymore, the spirits live on that area and it is a very spiritual place." In terms of the environment, Haaland highlighted that "public lands account for 25% of carbon emissions nationwide. Climate change is the issue of our time."

The push to stop drilling around Chaco Canyon has received broad support in New Mexico, including from Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard, who issued moratorium on new oil, gas and mineral leasing to halt extraction on the lands surrounding the historic site in April.

On Tuesday, Haaland told the board that the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act has received a positive response in Congress. "I have found tremendous support with my colleagues in the House, not only with the Democrats, but there are some Republicans who have been extremely supportive of Native American issues—which I am very proud of, because we all know that if you can reach across the aisle to work together on something, that it's more powerful," she said.

Haaland expressed optimism that the bill will pass based on the recent success of SB 47, originally called the Public Lands Package and later renamed the John D Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act, which Haaland cited as an example that our government is not totally dysfunctional. The act received overwhelming bipartisan support and passed 92-8 in the Senate and 363-62 in the House. It was signed into law by the president on March 12.

Heralded by many as the "biggest public lands package in recent history,"  the John D Dingell Jr. Act included the permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, protection of 600 miles of streams and rivers, and the decree that public lands will be open for hunting, fishing and shooting unless there's a valid reason for these activities to be banned. Most significantly, the bill authorized the protection of nearly 1 million acres of public land as official wilderness areas, including 272,586 acres in New Mexico within the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument and the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. Protection of New Mexico lands under the act "represents the most acreage of wilderness designated in New Mexico in a single year since 1980," according to a press report by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance.

Haaland sees this as reason to believe that the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act stands a good chance.

"Parts of one of my bills, the Antiquities Act, made it into the [John D Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act] and the president signed it. So whenever people say Congress isn't working and the US government isn't working, we can say yes, it is working; we always need to find ways to agree on things so that we can move legislation forward that benefits our entire country," Haaland said at the County Commission meeting.

But outside of the hall, Haaland told SFR that getting the bill through the Senate still poses a significant challenge. This, she said, is where the endorsement from local political entities such as the Santa Fe County measure, introduced by Commissioner Anna Hansen, could help the odds: "It means a tremendous amount to me to know we have this support. … When we have hearings on bills in Congress and in the Senate, if people want to make a case for getting bills passed, they will use endorsements from folks. So we are going to say that we have the support of the Santa Fe County Commission."

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