Dear NRDC Activist,

Sacred ancestral landscapes... National Historical Park… UNESCO World Heritage Site… International Dark Sky Park… Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico is iconic, but the Trump administration just wants to open it up to dirty oil and gas drilling.

WHAT’S HAPPENING
The Trump administration just announced its latest scheme to sell out cherished public lands to fossil fuel corporations, proposing to remove protections for lands within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

But before the administration can fully revoke protections, they are required to solicit public comments on this devastating plan. They will be giving us just days to get all our comments in.

Tell the Trump administration to keep protections for priceless lands around New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon.

The Trump administration has been shortening public comment periods, among other tactics, in an apparent attempt to stifle public input in important federal agency decisions — because they know that we, the people, have power to mobilize the public and influence policy decisions.

Public comment periods are a critical tool for helping organizations like NRDC ensure government decisions follow the law. Now more than ever, we need as many people as possible to speak out.

WHY IT MATTERS
The Trump administration’s proposal is the latest in a slew of attacks on our public lands to keep climate-busting oil and gas flowing and to make corporate polluters richer. The attacks will keep coming. We must take a stand — an attack on Chaco Canyon is an attack on all our public lands.

Giving the public just days to provide input also sets a dangerous precedent after the years of comprehensive environmental review, consultation with Tribes on potential impacts, and public input from supporters like you to achieve the compromise of a 10-mile protection buffer around Chaco — this could all be quickly undone.

WHAT’S AT STAKE
Chaco Canyon is one of the world’s most important living cultural landscapes. The Greater Chaco region contains sacred sites that hold historical significance and is home to many Pueblo, Navajo, and other Tribal families. The proposal is a dangerous step toward losing everything that makes this area sacred, forever. And it could set an alarming precedent for opening other cherished American lands like national parks and monuments to drilling and mining.

More than 90 percent of the Greater Chaco region has already been leased for oil and gas drilling. This has caused damaging health impacts on local Indigenous communities, including chronic symptoms like sinus irritation, burning eyes, and joint pain, as well as exposure to probable cancer-causing chemicals.

New Mexico families struggle with these health hazards while the Trump administration continues to lease stolen ancestral lands for drilling in areas outside the protected zone.

WHAT NRDC IS DOING
In 2022, NRDC stood alongside local and Tribal organizations in court challenging permits for fracking in the Greater Chaco region. And NRDC’s public lands advocacy team is preparing to submit our own response to the Trump administration’s proposal.

But we also need NRDC’s over 3 million members and supporters like you to weigh in to ensure Chaco ancestral lands are protected for generations to come.

Help mobilize a national public outcry in defense of sacred lands that the Trump administration can’t ignore: Submit your public comment now.

Sincerely,

James Povijua
Senior Advocate, Equity and Community Partnerships, Nature, NRDC