Otero Mesa

Otero Mesa
Located south of Alamogordo, Otero Mesa covers 1.2 million acres in New Mexico, much of it managed by the Bureau of Land Management's Las Cruces District Office. The Rio Grande Chapter is part of the Coalition to Protect Otero Mesa, which in 2024 asked the BLM to designate the heart of the Mesa an Area of Critical Environmental Concern. We work alongside Tribal leaders, conservation and sportsmen's groups, and local communities toward permanent protection for the Mesa's grasslands, water, wildlife, and cultural sites. That work needs your support as the coalition explores every available path to lasting protection at the federal and state levels ...

Roadless areas

Roadless areas
Since 2001 more than 45 million acres of land (1.6 million acres in New Mexico) have been protected and untouched by new road construction, thanks to the federal government’s “Roadless Rule." The Trump administration has moved to repeal this rule ...
“Roadless Rule” Town Halls across New Mexico
Trump’s Forest Service has moved to repeal the Roadless Rule, an essential piece of environmental regulation that protects 45 million acres of pristine land (1.6 million acres in New Mexico) from road construction and the inevitable logging, mining, and extraction that follows. Plan to attend a town hall meeting to protest this change ...
Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Statement on Gutting of Federal  Roadless Rule 
On August 18, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the U.S. Forest Service had filed a proposed rule to rescind in its entirety the national 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule ...
Stop Trump from Desecrating the Greater Chaco Landscape
The Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter is joining our Pueblo, Diné, and Tribal neighbors as well as other environmental and community groups in opposing Trump’s plan to expose the Great Chaco Landscape to oil and gas drilling ...
Sierra Club Opposes Feds Seizing NM Lands for Border Wall
The Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter stands with State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard in opposing the Trump regime’s plan to seize seven acres of New Mexico lands for Border Patrol facilities ...
Sierra Club’s Rio Grande Chapter Applauds Sen. Heinrich’s Opposition to Trump’s BLM Nomination, Steve Pearce
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a vote on Donald Trump’s nomination of Steve Pearce to run the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Committee, voted against advancing his nomination, along with all of the other Democrats on the committee ...
Move to Revoke Chaco Buffer Zone
On Oct. 30, the Bureau of Land Management sent notification to tribal governments that it would begin the process of revoking the buffer ...