Now in its 9th edition – the popular Day Hikes on the Santa Fe Area by the Northern Group of the Rio Grande Sierra Club.
Science is missing from the bear and cougar proposals
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.
In the news – NM Game Commission to decide hunting limits for mountain lion, bear
October 23, 2023: Mary Katherine Ray is interviewed by Public News Service.
Fall 2023 Outings
Rio Grande Sierra Club hikes and outings for October-December 2023
Supporting the Rio Grande Chapter, Honoring Carole Evans’ Life
Carole Evans, a passionate activist, passed away in Albuquerque, New Mexico on August 31, 2023 at the age of 78. We are deeply grateful to Carole’s family for their commitment to and concern for enjoying and protecting the Bosque. We share in their loss.
Hiring: Chapter Climate Organizer & Chapter Coordinator
Our Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, representing over 35,000 members and supporters in New Mexico and West Texas, is hiring for two positions: chapter coordinator and climate organizer.
Energy Transition Act Delivers $115 Million Back to PNM Customers
PNM agreed today to deliver $115 million back to PNM customers in a settlement agreement with advocacy groups. These savings come from switching from expensive coal to solar with battery storage and from expected savings from Energy Transition Act bonds. PNM should have issued bonds when the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station closed in September. The bonds were meant to refinance PNM’s previous investments in the plant that customers would otherwise still have to pay off after the plant was no longer producing electricity.
Bridge to the Ancestors
From March 24th through April 2nd, Antoinette Reyes joined the Carrizozo Comecrudo tribe in their bridge to the Ancestors Walk / run across Texas, which the tribe hosted to bring attention to the impacts of oil and gas extraction on people, sacred indigenous sites, communities and our landscapes as a whole.
Greater Chaco Coalition Calls for Stronger Protection Efforts for the Greater Chaco Landscape in Response to Congressional Hearing
The Greater Chaco Coalition (Frack Off Chaco) reaffirms its unwavering commitment to safeguard the culturally significant Greater Chaco Landscape. The Coalition is voicing its concerns over the proposed bill that threatens to nullify the Biden administration’s administrative withdrawal, and hinder the progress made through the Honoring Chaco Initiative.
New Mexico’s iconic cougars and bears: more valuable than a stuffed trophy
New Mexico’s wildlife management agency is throwing caution to the wind by ignoring sound science and the state’s worsening climate threats, as they call for unsustainable and unjustifiable levels of bear and cougar trophy hunting. Game officials have doubled down on permitting trophy hunters to kill New Mexico’s rare and iconic black bears and cougars—864 black bears and 563 cougars annually—all with the aid of radio-collared hunting hounds—for each of the next four years.