New Mexico & El Paso
The devastation left after the northern wildfires last year has changed ways of thinking about what can burn and under what conditions. Scientists at the National Soil Moisture Monitoring Network Conference determined that fire managers must evaluate more factors, particularly the correlation between soil moisture and plant moisture to adequately predict fire risk and conditions of advanced drought. Ideal prescribed burn “windows” will be fewer.
In October, the New Mexico Game Commission unanimously voted to approve new bear and cougar hunting rules that will be in place for the next four years. Cougar-hunting quotas remain unjustifiably high in 16 of 18 cougar zones. Cougar hunting with dogs is already allowed year-round. Cougars and bears that die outside of hunting either, from depredation complaints or as roadkill, will not be counted against the hunting quotas.
After four days of hearings and dozens of hours of testimony and public comments, New Mexico adopted Clean Cars II standards through 2032, as well as Clean Trucks and Heavy-Duty Omnibus Standards on November 16. Starting in model year 2027, automakers must ensure that 43 percent of the new vehicles they sell in New Mexico are zero-emission vehicles (electric or plug-in hybrid).
By Antoinette Reyes, Chapter Permian and Southern NM organizer After 10 years of work by environmental and frontline communities in New Mexico and around the country, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham joined EPA Administrator Michael Regan at the UN
If you have hiked Petroglyph National Monument North, you know its rugged beauty and cultural significance. New Mexico Gas Company is proposing a $180 million facility for storing and regasifying liquefied natural gas (LNG) on 25 acres close to these petroglyphs, and just two miles from Ventana Ranch and Double Eagle Airport. The facility poses health and safety risks to surrounding communities and could raise the prices of gas by $3 a month for the next 30 years for ALL gas customers. The LNG proposal comes before the Public Regulation Commission on January 8.
The Greater Chaco Coalition commends New Mexico State Land Office Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard for the renewal of the 2019 Executive Order No. 2019-002. This order reinstates a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing covering 72,776 acres of state trust lands in the Greater Chaco area through December 21, 2043. The Commissioner’s commitment is one step on the path to ending the sacrifice of Indigenous lands and lives to toxic, destructive fossil fuels in Greater Chaco and beyond. 12/14/2023.
Winter 2024 outings for the Rio Grande Sierra Club Chapter, including bike tours, snowshoeing and zero-waste tours.
On the two-year anniversary of the launch of the Honoring Chaco Initiative (HCI), the Greater Chaco Coalition is calling on Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to follow through with her promise to protect all of Greater Chaco and move forward with the Honoring Chaco Initiative.
Now in its 9th edition – the popular Day Hikes on the Santa Fe Area by the Northern Group of the Rio Grande Sierra Club.
In late spring 2023, New Mexico Game and Fish opened the bear and cougar hunting rules for review as it does every 4 years. The public was invited to provide comments. But the agency only provided a document totaling 1.5 pages that encompassed statements about its proposed black bear (Ursus americanus) and cougar (Puma concolor) rule changes with no specifics about what was being proposed. A few more pages were provided in August with a little more detail about the proposals but very little about the justifications for those proposals. The public has little information about the studies NMDGF relies upon to make population determinations, and no population management objectives (other than implicit hunter satisfaction and future hunting opportunities) have been made public for either species.