Protect Chaco Landscape & Boundary Waters. Stop Burgum, Stop Lee's Bill

Our national lands, national monuments, and tribal lands are a supremely precious legacy which we hold in trust. I am outraged that this Trump administration wants to desecrate these lands by opening them to roads, ICE enforcement,toxic mining, drilling and logging. To wreck these lands would be the profoundest betrayal of our stewardship, of our debt to the future. It would be raping and pillaging. Please vote NO on Mike Lee's "Border Lands Conservation Act," a bill which is a recipe for ruin & destruction. I am also outraged by Doug Burgum's intended assault on the greater Chaco landscape. The Department of the Interior appears to be rushing to revoke protections of the greater Chaco landscape to open it to oil and gas drilling. This is a direct violation of federal law and of federal trust and a violation of treaty responsibilities to our Tribal nations. In short: It is ILLEGAL. Let me remind you of what Senator Martin Heinrich and reps. Melanie Stansbury, Ben Ray Lujan, Gabe Vasquez, and Melanie Leger Fernandez have written to Doug Burgum: "Chaco Canyon is a sacred cultural landscape central to the identity of Tribes throughout New Mexico. The value of this living landscape does not end at the park boundary. It stretches for miles throughout the greater Chacoan landscape, where Pueblo communities continue to conduct pilgrimages and share stories with current and future generations. Reversing PLO No. 7923 places this heritage at risk. An informal buffer existed in this area for nearly a decade and the withdrawal of federal minerals in the area does not apply to lands held by Navajo allottees who maintain their mineral rights. The process to put the current withdrawal into place took 2.5 years with two opportunities for public comment, including a 120-day initial comment period. It also built off of the one-year leasing moratorium that Secretary Bernhardt placed on the 10-mile zone under President Trump's first term. It is outrageous that your Department would elect to completely reverse this process with only 14 days planned for public comment to Sec'y Burgum. Approximately 4,730 documented archaeological sites exist within the 10-mile withdrawal area. Each one of these sites is unique, irreplaceable, and represents the history and story of Chaco Canyon. By proposing to remove the withdrawal completely, you are proposing to expose generations of sites, artifacts, and religion to heavy machinery that will erase them for good. We continue to extend the invitation to visit Chaco so you can experience firsthand the profound cultural and spiritual significance of this sacred landscape. Your legal and moral responsibility as trustee to these Tribes requires your direct attention and involvement in this issue and for meaningful engagement with the Tribes before any action is taken." Our precious irreplaceable lands should not be constantly put in peril by Mike Lee, Doug Burgum, and greedy exploiters who want to ruin a sacred legacy for private profit. I am counting on you to do oversight on these attempts and also to block all laws (like Mike Lee's bill) or other actions that would ruin these areas.

First sent on November 8 by Mary