Dec. 9—Santa Fe County commissioners are calling on outgoing President Joe Biden to designate about 100,000 acres of the Caja del Rio as a national monument amid concerns the plateau is not sufficiently protected, citing threats from “Los Alamos National Laboratory, illegal dumping, desecration, and irresponsible offroading.”
The County Commission on Monday unanimously approved a letter that will be sent to several federal officials, urging Biden to use the federal Antiquities Act to create the new national monument in Northern New Mexico.
The Caja del Rio, a high-desert volcanic plateau near Santa Fe featuring grasslands and piñon-juniper and cactus forests, is currently managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
“We must protect the ancient paradigm of living with the land — protection and reverence for tradition and the livelihood of its people,” County Commissioner Camilla Bustamante said. “Now is the opportunity to preserve the Caja del Rio for future generations as part of our American landscape.”
The letter indicates commissioners feel the proposed Caja del Rio National Monument would help protect and preserve a plateau many call ecologically and culturally significant. Concerns about wear and tear on the plateau from recreation and illegal dumping have been mounting for some time.
“Planned development and mismanaged recreation have put the public lands within the Caja del Rio at risk. It is time to make sure this extraordinary high desert ecosystem has the resources necessary to provide present and future generations the opportunity to experience this spectacular landscape,” the commission’s letter states.
Commissioners and many members of the public have sounded the alarm about Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plans to build a power line that would cut through 14 miles of the plateau to shore up the lab’s power supply. Federal officials say the new line is needed because the two that now power the lab are becoming strained and will reach their capacity by 2027.
Not everyone is in favor of the letter urging national monument status for the Caja del Rio. Robert Romero, a member of the La Cienega Valley Association board who said his family has lived in the area for centuries, believes commissioners need to engage more with stakeholders before sending the letter to Biden and others.
“Instead of discussing our concerns and objections to this, they are taking it straight to the president as a last-ditch effort to try to get him to sign something that hasn’t had a chance to be vetted by the community,” Romero said.
He also expressed concerns that monument status could increase the plateau’s popularity and disturb “our rural way of life.”