WildEarth Guardians

Thursday, September 7, 2006
Campaign to Protect Ecological Crown Jewels of State Lands Initiated

WildEarth Guardians Bids Seek to ''Unranch'' Endangered Habitats
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Santa Fe, NM - WildEarth Guardians submitted two new applications this past week to acquire grazing leases to more than 2000 acres of New Mexico State lands as a part of the organization’s campaign to protect the ecological crown jewels of New Mexico state school trust lands. In addition to bidding on parcels to acquire them, WildEarth Guardians will be asking Commissioner Pat Lyons to do a better job of protecting ecological values on state lands.

The site of one of the competing bids includes 640 acres and over a mile of the Rio Puerco northwest of Albuquerque and is potential habitat for the endangered Southwest willow flycatcher. The second site WildEarth Guardians hopes to protect is a 1440 acre parcel located northwest of Alamogordo and contains over a mile of the Lost River, which provides an essential water source for the state endangered White Sands Pupfish.

The group selected the two parcels based on a comprehensive state-wide analysis to identify the ecological crown jewels of New Mexico state lands and protect them from damaging activities. These parcels were prioritized because they have perennial or ephemeral streams and habitat for endangered fish and birds.

If the group wins the leases it vows to protect these crown jewels by fencing out the cattle and beginning to actively restore the streams and wetland habitats. “We know we can restore these arteries of life and we’ve seenamazing recovery on other sites,” said Jim Matison, WildEarth Guardians Restoration Director. “But only if we givethem the opportunity to come back to life by removing the harmful pressures of livestock grazing and infestations of non-native vegetation.”

WildEarth Guardians offered to pay at least twice what the ranchers are currently paying, revenues that will benefit the public school system. Because of an absence of competition more than 99% of all state land grazing leases arerenewed at the minimum rental rate.

The White Sands pupfish, which is classified and threatened by the State of New Mexico occurs in only fourlocations, one of which is in the Lost River within Holloman Air Force, just downstream from the state land the group hopes to protect and restore.

“This is great opportunity for WildEarth Guardians to help the State of New Mexico protect the White Sands Pupfish, a critically endangered species that exists here and nowhere else in the world,” said Matison. “We think the State Trust Lands are better served by protecting its habitat and we believe by removing salt cedar and allowing native plants to recover that we can make a difference for the White Sands Pupfish,” added Matison.

WildEarth Guardians, which was the first environmental group in the West to outbid a rancher to acquire a state grazing lease to “unranch” it, currently holds three state land grazing leases. That first lease acquired includes nearly three miles of the Rio Puerco where the group has been actively restoring the cottonwood/willow streamside ecosystem since 1997. If successful in obtaining these leases, WildEarth Guardians will have acquired more than 5,000 acres of New Mexico State trust land for protection and restoration.