(Ute Mountain & Rio Grande Gorge)
Overview
The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and the Bureau of Land Management have been working with Senator Bingaman’s office to craft a National Conservation Bill for north-central New Mexico. The proposal, encompassing more that 303,000 acres of Taos and Rio Arriba Counties, also includes two new Wilderness areas totally about 24,000 [...]

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Handy Fact Sheets:

Debunking Doña Ana County Rancher Myths
Citizens Wilderness Proposal vs. Rancher-Off Road Vehicle Proposal

When working to protect wild places in New Mexico, one need only look south to see large tracts of wild public lands that have the potential to be put [...]

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Grasslands, Gas and Government
By Nathan Newcomer
www.oteromesa.org
Vast desert grasslands, wilderness characteristics, abundant wildlife and a fresh water aquifer are colliding with the Bush-Cheney energy policy in New Mexico’s Otero Mesa. A debate that has been on going since 1997, when Harvey E. Yates Company (HEYCO) first [...]

Chaco Culture is one of the most spectacular areas in New Mexico. Its combination of natural beauty and outstanding cultural significance justify its World Heritage Site status and has made it beloved by visitors the world over. However, several developments are threatening this jewel of New Mexican heritage.
For several years there has existed the potential [...]

Victory! Sabinoso became Wilderness on March 24, 2009 when President Obama signed into law the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009.
Area DescriptionRising 1,110 feet from the surrounding plains, the Sabinoso unit sits upon the Canadian Escarpment, which is composed mostly of the Jurassic Morrison Formation and Triassic Chinle Shale. Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone caps these [...]

What is Wilderness?
Wilderness FAQ’s

A Wilderness Legacy
When Spanish settlers first arrived in New Mexico four hundred years ago, they described rolling hills of auburn grass and cacti that came up to the stirrups of mounted horsemen. Later, Aldo Leopold, “the father of Wilderness”, wrote of this land of unparalleled biological diversity that the “…oak-dotted hills, …pine [...]

The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance launches its 1,075,191-acreEl Malpais National Monument proposal for wilderness in our New Mexico and Trans-Pecos National Parks. Through on-the-ground surveys and GIS analysis, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance found over one million road-free acres in the seven National Parks that lie in our two-state regions.White Sands National Monument
These include: Chaco Canyon [...]

Since the spring of 1999, NMWA has conducted an ongoing field inventory of public wildlands throughout the state of New Mexico. The purpose of this inventory is to assess the suitability of public lands for Wilderness designation, and to identify any illegal activities or impacts within designated Wilderness or Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs). A staff [...]

In the far northeast corner of Alaska lies one of America’s great natural treasures, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Its 19 million acres comprise one of the last places on earth where an intact expanse of arctic and subarctic lands remain protected. It is considered the crown jewel of America’s National Wildlife Refuge System. [...]