SANTA FE, N.M.— Public lands supporters will protest Monday outside the Western Governors’ Association’s annual meeting, where Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is scheduled to give the keynote address. Burgum and congressional Republicans want to sell nearly 3 million acres of public lands to developers to build more urban sprawl.

Among areas at risk are rivers, mountains and deserts across New Mexico, including parts of the Sandia, Gila and Santa Fe national forests.

What: Protest at Western Governors’ Association annual meeting, where Burgum will be speaking.

When: Monday, June 23, 3:30 p.m.

Where: Meet at De Vargas Park, 302 W. De Vargas St., Santa Fe, N.M., 87501, and march to El Dorado Hotel, 309 W. San Francisco St., where Burgum will be speaking.

Who: Local and national conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity and New Mexico Wild, and public lands supporters.

Background
The Senate’s budget reconciliation bill would require public lands sales from among roughly 250 million acres in 11 Western states. In New Mexico a pool of more than 14 million acres of National Forests and Bureau of Land Management lands would be eligible for sale. Western governors can nominate which lands they want the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture to privatize for development. There will be no public input.

The provision does not guarantee that liquidated public lands would be used for housing of any kind, despite Republicans’ claims that the measure would help solve an affordable housing crisis.

The bill would make private what’s now open to everyone, though much of the land that’s been identified would be unsuitable for housing. It would allow mega-mansions and gated communities where people now enjoy camping, fishing and hiking, and in the forests, streams and meadows that wildlife depend on to survive.

Center experts in the West are available to discuss the scientific, legal, political and personal angles of our public lands:

• Arizona: Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate, (928) 525-4433, [email protected]
• California, Nevada, Utah: Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director, (702) 483-0449, [email protected]
• Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico: Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director, (801) 300-2414, [email protected]
• New Mexico: Brian Nowicki, deputy Southwest director, (505) 917-5611, [email protected]