SOURCE: enewspf.com
Litigation Prepared to Challenge Illegal 20,000 Acre Public Lands Lease
Santa Fe, NM—(ENEWSPF)—October 20, 2014. A broad coalition of local and national conservation groups announced plans to sue the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”), if the agency proceeds with the sale of 13 parcels (almost 20,000 acres of public lands) in the Santa Fe National Forest for oil and gas fracking. BLM received more than a hundred letters protesting the sale and challenging the agency’s failure to consider potentially serious impacts to the area’s air, water, wildlife, and surrounding communities.
“In a rush to satisfy the demands of the oil and gas industry, BLM is ignoring its fundamental legal obligations and circumventing the underlying oil and gas drilling planning process,” said Kyle Tisdel, attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center. “There is broad commitment from groups to go to court if necessary to ensure our treasured landscapes are not destroyed.”
“BLM has already leased 94% of our public lands around the Farmington area for oil and gas drilling,” said Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico Energy Coordinator for San Juan Citizens Alliance. “This new lease sale on the Santa Fe National Forest would continue this reckless, lease-everywhere mentality that destroys recreation, wildlife, and cultural resources and ignores BLM’s responsibilities to honestly analyze impacts.”
“Oil and gas drilling these days is significantly different than that of only 11 years ago,” said Pete Dronkers, Southwest Circuit Rider for Earthworks. “The wells are bigger, go deeper and for miles in every direction. They release far more hazardous waste into the air and water. BLM has to study these newer impacts before it permits further drilling in the San Juan Basin.”
The lease sale is scheduled for 9:00 a.m., on Wednesday, October 22, 2014 at the BLM New Mexico State Office in Santa Fe.
The coalition of conservation groups is represented by Western Environmental Law Center, and includes: Amigos Bravos, Chaco Alliance, Earthworks, Rio Arriba Concerned Citizens, San Juan Citizens Alliance, and WildEarth Guardians.
Categories: Horse News







What a horrific thought, that a place of natural beauty would be destroyed.
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THE MOUSE THAT ROARED: The battle over protecting the meadow jumping mouse, recently listed as endangered, has pitted environmentalists and ranchers against the U.S. Forest Service
http://watchdog.org/159473/mouse-war-nm/
By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE, N.M.– New Mexico’s war over the meadow jumping mouse is escalating and moving ahead on multiple fronts.
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The Mouse That Closed a Mountain
http://www.jemezdailypost.com/content/mouse-closes-mountains
Areas of the Jemez Mountains within the Santa Fe National Forest have been closed to the public to protect the “occupied habitat” of the New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse. Four areas have been selected for closure, one nearby an as yet unnamed campground. No activities will be permitted within those areas and violators will face fines of up to $5,000.
The mouse has recently won protection as an endangered species, and the U.S. Forest Service has already closed several areas in other parts of the state that make up its habitat. Another 200 miles of stream-side and wetlands are also being considered for closure.
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This also Louie – it was on my computer this morning, says the same thing http://m.watchdog.org/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwatchdog.org%2F175832%2Fgrazing-fees-welfare%2F#2991
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Our Gov, Martinez has had a hand in this. It stinks of Koch Bros. Why can’t they be exported? Udall against the Placitas horses, Richardson & Redford made one stand, then disappeared? Where is the help for any animal anymore. Susana Martinez has GOT to go. Gary King was instrumental in stopping the slaughter plant in my town, Roswell from opening. How we all wish we were rich to help, yet we ARE all rich in our souls.
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there the blm go again,giving in to private business to the detriment of the land,the flora and fauna and the local population.they just toss aside their fundamental legal obligations regardless of the damage and suffering it causes.the reasoning behind their actions are totally beyond my unberstanding.
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Oil and fracking destruction from the sky http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2014/10/20/monitoring-environmental-destruction-from-the-sky
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Our wild horses and burros are found in the same geographic region where their ancestors spent millions of years grazing and browsing. Add a glaciations with mile + glaciers covering the continent, shifting the land, then melting and reforming the land overtime you get a lot of gas, coal, and oil. Everything comes from plants in the beginning. The fact that there are so many valuable commodities under the feet where our horses roam should not be a surprise. What is a surprise is that the federal government would go to the links they have gone to remove native horses.
Look where horses continue to thrive. They live near water sources when they can in windy areas with a variety of forages, but left on their own they did not settle in the East where grass is richer and more suitable for grazing, they went back to their ancestral homes. Horses along the barrier islands in the East and Nova Scotia have the same environment. Horses on the Iberian peninsula did the same.
The false narrative about the horse began in 1973, but didn’t really get the funding and slick propaganda until the 1990’s. Then millions were spent, and nothing that is said is true. The Wildlife Society made be the biggest bunch of pretender prevaricators in the country. Wait tip they turn on the currently clueless ranchers.
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Miscellaneous information
Water pulses across U.S.-Mexico border through historic cooperation
http://www.edf.org/media/water-pulses-across-us-mexico-border-through-historic-cooperation
March 27, 2014
Contact:
Chandler Clay, 202-572-3312, cclay@edf.org
(March 27, 2014) Today, policymakers, water agencies and conservation organizations from the United States and Mexico are gathered at Morelos Dam, which straddles the U.S.–Mexico border, to witness the Colorado River “pulse flow,” and to celebrate the culmination of years of negotiations to restore the Colorado River Delta.
The pulse flow – a temporary release of water designed to mimic the river’s natural spring floods – began on Sunday, March 23, when the gates at Morelos Dam were opened to begin releasing 105,392 acre-feet of water – approximately 0.7% of annual Colorado River flows – downstream into the long depleted Colorado River Delta. The pulse flow is expected to peak at its highest flow rate today through March 30, and is expected to last nearly eight weeks total, bringing much needed relief to the habitats and communities in the delta region.
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LIKE TO WORK WITH WILD HORSES TO TRAINING
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