Rio Grande Chapter

What was once a concrete dumpsite in the drought-stricken southwest became a four-acre oasis, known as La Mancha Wetlands, along the Rio Grande near Las Cruces. The La Mancha Restoration Project, a vision of Kevin Bixby who then lead Southwest Environmental Center, took years of planning, permitting, fundraising and hard work to come to fruition in 2010. It provides habitat for numerous species of waterfowl and other wetland dwellers ...

For Immediate Release
July 30, 2025
Contact: Antoinette Reyes, Antoinette.Reyes@sierraclub.org The EPA Delays Implementation of Critical Methane Pollution Controls, Jeopardizing the Health and Air Quality of Thousands of New Mexicans Las Cruces, N.M. – Yesterday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin issued an interim final rule delaying implementation of Biden-era changes to Section 111b of the Clean Air Act, which updated greenhouse gases (GHG), volatile organic compounds (VOC), and methane pollution standards for new and existing oil and gas facilities. Methane is ...

In a direct assault on the movement to mitigate the climate crisis, the Trump administration will formally propose a plan to rescind the EPA’s longstanding greenhouse gas endangerment finding ...

Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter outings for July-September 2025. We look forward to seeing you outside! ...

This spring marks the 11th year of wolf pup cross-fostering. Seventeen Mexican wolf pups were transferred from captive dens into wild dens to increase the wild population’s genetic diversity. Now the Fish & Wildlife agency has released good news about the wolf Asha ...

Over the course of the last year and a half, the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter and Amigos Bravos, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center’s Tannis Fox, took part in a critical rulemaking for New Mexico’s clean water supply. A Water Quality Control Commission proceeding addressed whether to prohibit the discharge of “produced water” ...

The Fast Fashion trend is driving huge production of cheap goods with a very short life cycle with the help of online “influencers.” US consumers throw away an average of 81.5 pounds of clothing a year, most of it headed to landfills. What can you do? ...

Today (June 18, 2025) the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that New Mexico and Texas, and groups like the Sierra Club, did not have the right to challenge Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses for “interim” high-level nuclear waste storage facilities in their respective states.  The NRC denied intervention for these entities in the licensing process and therefore the court claimed that the states did not have the right to challenge the license ...

In a powerful show of widespread support for public lands, environmental protections, and responsible land stewardship, hundreds of New Mexicans signed onto a letter sent to the entire New Mexico congressional delegation, thanking them for their leadership in pushing back against renewed threats to public lands from the Trump administration and its Congressional allies ...

A powerful coalition of over 80 organizations—from Indigenous and frontline community groups to national environmental organizations, faith leaders, farmers, health professionals, scientists, and small business owners—joined thousands of individuals today in delivering a clear message to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM): stop auctioning off public lands to oil and gas corporations ...