Wilderness boundaries and some protections for at-risk animals and rivers are determined by National Forest management plans. Three forests in New Mexico have plans that are due for an update and the Forest Service is taking public comment on proposed changes.
Forest plans are supposed to go through revisions every 10 to 15 years. More often, they get revised every 30 years.
The new draft plans for Cibola, Santa Fe and Carson National Forests are thousands of pages long. Among the most significant changes are small expansions of forest wilderness.
Logan Glasenapp is with New Mexico Wild. He said the plans don’t do enough to safeguard animals.
“Our bears, our mountain lions, our wolves. These animals need large areas of undisturbed and undeveloped land to thrive, to reproduce and to reduce their interactions with the human population," Glasenapp said.
Additonally, Glasenapp wants even more land to be allocated for the protection of wildlife.
The new draft plans would also strip some protections for rivers.