U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, along with Representatives Teresa Leger Fernández, Melanie Stansbury, and Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, called on July 22 for the Department of the Interior to extend the public comment period regarding a proposal to revoke a 20-year mineral withdrawal protecting lands around Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
The lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary Doug Burgum expressing concern about the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to allow only 14 days for public comment on the Trump administration’s proposal. They requested that the department extend this period to at least 90 days and withdraw its plan to remove protections for Chaco Canyon. The delegation also invited Secretary Burgum to visit Chaco Canyon before taking any further action.
In their letter, they said: “Since your confirmation, we have written numerous letters and spoken to you directly expressing why protections for the greater Chacoan landscape are important and popular in New Mexico. Yet the process to revoke the protections continues to move at a rapid pace… We would like to register immense concern and frustration with the fourteen-day public comment period. Fourteen days does not represent the scope of this action, is arbitrary, and not representative of the work that went into implementing PLO No. 7923.”
They continued: “The Chacoan region is a natural and cultural landscape and not represented by isolated individual sites. The withdrawal you are proposing to erase was built from over a decade of community and Tribal input… The previous public process was robust and ended in protection of the Chacoan landscape. In contrast, the current process to remove protections is based on an inadequate and incomplete review. It certainly does not constitute full and meaningful Tribal consultation.”
The lawmakers referenced prior commitments made by Secretary Burgum before Congress regarding tribal consultation: “You committed before the House Natural Resources Committee to send an official with decision-making authority to conduct in-person consultation with every Tribe with an interest in Chaco. The draft assessment itself shows that commitment has not been met,” they noted. Several Pueblos received only invitations or informational meetings rather than formal consultations.
Concluding their appeal, they urged Secretary Burgum, “to extend the review process on his proposal,” engage meaningfully with Tribes in good faith, lengthen the comment period as requested, visit Chaco Canyon personally, and ultimately reverse plans for revoking existing mineral withdrawal protections.