Since taking office again in 2025, President Trump has escalated resource extraction on public lands. From expanding drilling in Alaska to shrinking national monuments in Utah, his Department of the Interior (DOI) has explored the potential economic output of federal lands, sparking fierce public debate.
The newest area in question is located next to the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, an important site of indigenous culture in New Mexico. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun official proceedings to open more than 330,000 acres of land to mining, oil and coal development.
What is Chaco Culture National Historical Park?
Located in northwestern New Mexico, Chaco Culture National Historic Park was one of the country’s first national monuments. President Theodore Roosevelt gave it this name in 1907. The 34,000-acre area is an important indigenous historical site, with its earliest inhabitants dating back to 900 BC.
From 850 to 1250, Chaco Canyon was home to the Pueblo people. “Remarkable for its monumental buildings, distinctive architecture, astronomy, artistic achievements, it served as the center of ceremony, trade, and administration for the Four Corners region – unlike anything before or since,” the NPS said. park literature. This area is important to many people Native American tribesWhich includes the Hopi, Jicarilla Apache, Navajo and Ute Mountain.
In 1980, Congress redesignated the land as a National Historic Park and added 13,000 acres. UNESCO recognized it as a World Heritage Site in 1987. According to this, the park attracted about 87,000 visitors in 2023 nps data.
The site offers 33 campsites, and its high altitude provides excellent wildlife viewing opportunities with over 130 species of birds. “Chaco Culture National Historical Park is located at an elevation between 6,040 feet and 6,860 feet and represents an ‘island’ of protected biodiversity within the San Juan Basin,” the NPS explained.
Proposal
Current debate focuses on public lands nearby Park, not just parkland. A in 2023 public land systemThen-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland withdrew public lands within a 10-mile radius of the park (or about 336,000 acres) from any new oil, gas or mining leases for 20 years. Valid, existing leases will be allowed to continue.
The department said this action was taken in adequate consultation with tribal nations. It was designed to “better protect sacred and historic sites and tribal communities currently living in northwestern New Mexico.” The press release said.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) under the Trump administration first expressed interest in changing this public lands order in 2025. Letter Several Pueblo nations were invited to participate in a 14-day comment period about possibly undoing the order to allow mining again.
On July 15, BLM raised the issue again. it announced It had opened a 14-day comment period about overturning the land order. In the documentation, the BLM directly cited a desire to reopen the lands to mineral and mining leasing. BLM estimate Over the next 20 years, this land will have 129 wells for mineral extraction and 14 wells for oil and gas, on a total of 2,723 acres. Other potential resources that could be extracted include helium, uranium and coal.
The Secretary of the Interior has the power to modify, rescind, or declare public lands orders. Since they are not laws, they can easily change from administration to administration.
feedback
Many conservation and environmental groups have expressed concern over the plan to revoke protections for this land in Chaco Canyon. The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) was concerned that drilling would tarnish this sacred landscape.
“This decision sends a dangerous message that no place, even one with a thousand years of history, is too important to be sacrificed for oil and gas drilling … The Trump administration is auctioning it off to the oil and gas industry, trading sacred and beautiful landscapes for pumpjacks and drums of drilling. This is not about energy strategy. This is an attack on cultural heritage, community health, and all that our national parks were created to protect,” said NPCA’s new said Mexico program manager Maude Dinan. A Press release.
