As President Joe Biden wraps up his final weeks in office before a new Republican administration, New Mexico U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich is calling on the Biden administration to designate the Caja del Rio plateau a national monument.
Snaking between the Rio Grande and Santa Fe Rivers, the Caja del Rio is a crucial travel corridor for wildlife that boasts millennia-old petroglyphs that are sacred to nearby Indigenous communities.
It is at the center of a fiery, years-long fight between the federal government, tribes, land grant communities and conservationists over Los Alamos National Laboratories’ plans to build a controversial transmission line over it in the name of “national security.”
In a statement to KUNM, Heinrich wrote that he and “countless New Mexicans all want to see the Caja protected as a national monument.” The All Pueblo Council of Governors and the Santa Fe County Commission both recently passed resolutions urging such a designation.
While Congress and the President each have the power to establish national monuments, Heinrich’s call isn’t directed at either. Instead, he said, he is, “Calling on Secretary [Deb] Haaland to make sure this landscape is protected and restored for generations of New Mexicans to come.”
The Senator’s support for the move comes as advocates have been working tirelessly to preserve and protect the area’s wildlife and cultural sites.
Andrew Black with the Caja del Rio Coalition said the plateau is particularly at-risk because of mining, transmission lines and road infrastructure.
“This area is considered one of the most endangered landscapes in the state of New Mexico because of those threats,” he said.
Black would like to see the rest of New Mexico’s congressional delegation join Heinrich.
“Calling on Sen. [Ben Ray] Luján, calling on Rep. [Teresa] Ledger Fernandez, Rep. [Melanie] Stansbury, to push and to be real leaders on things like this,” he said. “Where the President does have the power to act and that these things can be done fairly quickly.”
It’s unclear whether Heinrich’s push for Haaland to “make sure” a designation happens will lead to the President taking action on it in his waning days.
