U.S. Forest Service

All of New Mexico’s largest active wildfires have ignited in areas facing the most severe drought conditions in the entire country.

Supporters of public lands will gather in Santa Fe on Monday to oppose pending legislation that would sell off millions of acres in 11 Western states, including New Mexico.

Congressional Republicans are proposing to sell off millions of acres of public land in the West over the next 5 years. Some of that land includes parcels just outside of Albuquerque in the Sandia Mountains.

A new podcast by journalists Andy Lyman and Laura Paskus aims to keep New Mexico news and people front and center. On their inaugural episode of “Lesser Known New Mexico,” the two spoke with Source New Mexico’s Patrick Lohmann about his recent coverage on the potential restart of uranium mining in the state.

A newly released report shows widespread livestock grazing is destroying streamside habitats in New Mexico and Arizona.

As the Southwest heads into peak fire season, the Trump Administration’s cuts to federal agencies are set to hit some local recreational economies hard – especially as conditions ripen for wildfire.

Recent polling shows that Western voters – both Democrat and Republican – overwhelmingly approve of these agencies and the work they do.

A week ago, on orders from the Trump administration, federal officials began firing thousands of employees at agencies including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Energy, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Forest Service, which is part of USDA. Searchlight spoke to three New Mexicans who were fired.

The Indios Fire, which has been burning in the Santa Fe National Forest since May 19, is not expected to grow any larger, according to fire officials. As the fire dies down along with the complexity of the situation, command of the firefighting effort changed hands Monday from a regional team to a local one.

The U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are at the center of a lawsuit put forward by several conservation groups accusing the federal government of failing to protect endangered species on the Valles Caldera Preserve.