Rio Grande Chapter

Game Commission to make another important decision — this time about endangered
Mexican wolves — on Sept. 29 On Monday, the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter launched a radio campaign targeting Gov. Susana Martinez regarding her Game Commission’s decisions to allow trapping of cougars and increased bear-killing by trophy hunters. The ads ask New Mexicans to urge Martinez to direct her Game Commission to reverse the cougar and bear votes. Listen to the recording here (to donate to keep the ...

Bears and Cougars are part of New Mexico’s natural heritage. They are beautiful and important animals in nature. But the New Mexico Game Commission has approved the use of painful and cruel traps and snares on private land and on 9 million acres of state trust land to kill cougars and has increased — again — the number of bears that trophy hunters can kill in our state. Click here to tell Gov. Martinez: Your Game Commission has gone too ...

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New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn testified in front of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday regarding August’s Gold King Mine spill in the Animas River, promoting New Mexico’s management of natural resources. But Flynn’s actions at the Environment Department have put New Mexico in greater danger of such water-contamination disasters in the future. “The Animas River toxic spill provides an opportunity for Ryan Flynn and the state of New Mexico government to re-evaluate their neglect of, and indifference ...

The Sierra Club has endorsed two outstanding candidates, Pat Davis and Israel Chavez, in the Oct. 6 Albuquerque City Council election. Pat is running in District 6 to replace retiring Councilor Rey Garduño. District 6 includes the University area and the southeast heights, among other areas. Pat is a former police officer who has run the Progress New Mexico site for some years. He has been endorsed by teachers, firefighters and other unions, as well as outgoing Councilor Garduño and ...

By Nellis Kennedy-Howard, Beyond Coal senior campaign representative, New Mexico A tremendous day in Farmington, New Mexico – really quite historic. On Aug. 20, more than 100 people gathered at a session hosted by the Bureau of Land Management to testify in support of reforming the outdated federal coal-leasing program, which shortchanges taxpayers by undervaluing our public coal and subsidizing polluting coal operations. The listening session, held in Farmington, N.M., was certainly an unprecedented event where the multitudes far outnumbered ...

Carbon emissions from burning coal are destroying our climate. Pollution from coal plants is making our air and water unsafe. At the same time, an outdated federal coal-leasing program still allows big coal companies to shortchange American taxpayers for mining on public land. It amounts to a giveaway to some of the worst polluters in America, and it’s time for it to end. Tell BLM to stop selling our public coal at firesale prices The Bureau of Land Management has ...

By Allyson Siwik, Gila Resources Information Project and Rio Grande Chapter Executive Committee & Rachel Conn, Amigos Bravos executive director Published in Albuquerque Journal Aug. 24, 2015 We have watched in horror and sadness as images of an orange, heavy-metal-laden plume of mine wastewater flow down the Animas River from an accidental release at the inactive Gold King Mine in Colorado, impacting communities, farmers, wildlife and recreation along the way. Our thoughts are with the people who have been adversely affected, ...

PLEASE JOIN US!
Sign-up is by contact with leader (phone, or email if shown). To go you’ll need to sign a waiver that the leader will provide. Dogs only allowed as noted. Trips are normally FREE (pay when carpooling) and open to non-members (spread the word!), though we do like it if you join the Club to increase our local and national clout. October Friday, Oct. 2, to Sunday, Oct. 4: Strenuous backpack in the Southern San Juan Wilderness in ...

Our Farmington meeting on Aug. 13 to prepare for the BLM’s coal-royalty listening session drew many active, thoughtful participants and led to an overwhelming pro-reform turnout at the BLM session a week later (see article here). Because of the developments of the Animas River spill, we also discussed water quality in the Four Corners and how to prevent future disasters and the chronic contamination that happens constantly in the Animas but goes unnoticed. People in the Four Corners are ready to fight ...

Please mark your calendars to attend the New Mexico Game Commission meeting on Aug. 27 at the Santa Fe Community College Jemez room.  The final proposal for new hunting rules for bears and hunting and trapping rules for cougars should be released July 31.  Commissioners will make a final vote on these rules, which could irreparably harm bears and cougars in New Mexico, at the Aug. 27 meeting.  The Commission meeting begins at 8:30AM. Please fill out and turn in ...