ALBUQUERQUE — The Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter is calling on New Mexico officials to act against the Trump regime’s latest attack on our environment. On Monday federal officials rescinded the 2024 Public Lands Rule for the Bureau of Land Management.
The rule ensured conservation, wildlife, clean water, cultural resources, and Indigenous Knowledge would be fully considered alongside development across more than 250 million acres of public land. Rescinding the rule strips the agency of critical tools needed to manage land health and respond to growing climate and ecological challenges, while also harming local communities built on recreational tourism who depend on healthy landscapes.
The move is part of the administration’s agenda to weaken protections in order to benefit extractive industries. As it has with similar attacks on our environment, the administration pushed the rule forward with a truncated public comment period and ignored more than 130,000 comments submitted on the rule– 98% were in support of the Biden-era protections .
The Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter urges our state officials to join other states in opposing this latest attack on New Mexicans, our environment and communities who need more safeguards than ever as climate-related disasters increase.
“The Bureau of Land Management has a responsibility to the land, not to corporations and their corrupt allies in the Trump administration,” said Chapter Director Camilla Feibelman. “Our public land supports tourism, recreation and local economies. And, as our wildfire and drought conditions continue to get worse, this short-sighted move would all but guarantee greater risk for the people of New Mexico. We need our officials to act now and protect us.”
Even with recent policy changes, the responsibility to care for public lands has not changed. The Bureau of Land Management continues to have both the authority and obligation to manage lands for long-term health, balance competing uses, and address the very real degradation facing many landscapes today. Land conservation and management has overwhelming public support. The Sierra Club and its allies will continue to resist all smash-and-grab attempts by the Trump administration to loot our public resources.
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<05.07.26 – Public Lands Rule Press Release.pdf>
Trump Administration Ends Public Lands Rule, Putting New Mexico and National Land Conservation at Risk