The Rev. Andrew Black leads a tour of the La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs on the Caja del Rio in 2022. Santa Fe County com°®¶¹appers may send President Joe Biden a letter asking that the Caja del Rio be designated a national monument.
The Rev. Andrew Black leads a tour of the La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs on the Caja del Rio in 2022. Santa Fe County com°®¶¹appers may send President Joe Biden a letter asking that the Caja del Rio be designated a national monument.
Santa Fe County com°®¶¹appers are considering whether to urge outgoing President Joe Biden to designate about 100,000 acres of the Caja del Rio as a national monument amid concerns the plateau is not sufficiently protected.
The board on Tuesday tabled approval of a letter that would be sent to several federal officials, calling for Biden to use the Antiquities Act to create a new national monument in Northern New Mexico called the āCaja del Rio National Monument.ā A draft of the letter asserts the ācherishedā Caja del Rio landscape is āthreatened by Los Alamos National Laboratory, illegal dumping, desecration, and irresponsible offroading.ā
Com°®¶¹appers have previously adopted resolutions calling for protecting the Caja del Rio, a high-desert volcanic plateau near Santa Fe that features grasslands and piƱon juniper and cactus forests.
āThe Caja del Rio has been the backbone of life in northern New Mexico for time immemorial, supporting Tribal and traditional Hispano communities, nurturing vibrant wildlife and biodiversity,ā the drafted letter states. āThe time is now to protect this valuable and stunning landscape.ā
On Tuesday, Com°®¶¹apper Anna Hansen ā who, along with Com°®¶¹apper Camilla Bustamante, brought the matter forward ā made a motion to table the resolution.
āThere were some community members who hadnāt had time to read it, and I really wanted to give them that opportunity. I want as much agreement as possible,ā Hansen said in a telephone interview.
Hansen said she expects the com°®¶¹appers to reconsider the letter at its next meeting on Dec. 10, noting she wants to attempt to secure national monument status for the Caja del Rio before President-elect Donald Trump assumes office Jan. 20.
The draft letter indicates a national monument designation would help protect and preserve a plateau many call ecologically and culturally significant. Concerns about wear and tear on the Caja del Rio from recreation and illegal dumping have been mounting for some time.
If approved by com°®¶¹appers at a future meeting, the letter would request Biden designate roughly 106,000 acres of the plateau ā currently managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service ā for the new national monument.
āPlanned development and mismanaged recreation have put the public lands within the Caja del Rio at risk. It is time to make sure this extraordinary high desert ecosystem has the resources necessary to provide present and future generations the opportunity to experience this spectacular landscape,ā the draft letter states.
If approved, it wouldnāt be the lone national monument in the region. Operated by the stateās Tourism Department, the website New Mexico True showcases 14 national monuments in the state, including the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument near Taos, the Bandelier National Monument outside of Los Alamos and Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, about 40 miles southwest of Santa Fe.
Members of the com°®¶¹app, as well as numerous locals speaking at public meetings, have sounded the alarm about Los Alamos National Laboratoryās plans to build a power line that would cut through 14 miles of the plateau to shore up the labās power supply. Federal officials say the new line is needed because the two that now power the lab are becoming strained and will reach their capacity by 2027. County com°®¶¹appers have expressed opposition to the new line.
Santa Fe County com°®¶¹appers are not alone in pressing Biden to declare national monuments before he leaves the White House. The Los Angeles Times reported this month that a Native American-led coalition is pressing the Biden administration to designate three new national monuments in California, including what would be an expansion of Joshua Tree National Park, concerned attempts to protect the lands from mining and drilling could be imperiled once Trump takes office.
āIām someone who believes anything is possible,ā said Hansen when asked about whether she believed the Caja del Rio would receive national monument status.
The New Mexican reached out to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday for comment; a spokesperson for Interior said the department had ānothing on this.ā
A new memorandum of understanding between the Forest Service, the BLM and Tesuque Pueblo was signed earlier this month, intended to ensure tribal access to sites in the Caja del Rio and to preserve places of import, using traditional insights to help manage the land.
