Pause on Chaco leases remains the right call

Aproposal from the administration of President Joe Biden to withdraw federal lands and minerals around Chaco Canyon from future oil and gas leasing for 20 years remains the right call.

The withdrawal would safeguard cultural resources, protect local communities and allow Congress necessary time to enact laws that would shield Chaco going forward.

That’s important because administrations come and go and not every president will understand that other priorities — including preserving cultural and sacred heritage — can matter as much as drilling for oil and gas. The Department of the Interior is taking comments on the proposed withdrawal — it includes some 351,000 acres of federal lands and minerals around Chaco Canyon from future oil and gas leasing for a period of 20 years. The comment period ends May 6.

What matters in the Greater Chaco Landscape is caring for what is unique, not just to New Mexico, but to the world. The area has been honored by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site; Chaco Culture National Historical Park is recognized as a major center of ancestral Pueblo culture between 850 and 1250.

The descendants of those ancestors live with us still, and tribal advocates are one of the reasons U.S. Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland and President Biden agreed to withdraw federal lands and minerals from around Chaco Canyon from future exploitation. Tribes and pueblos have been working for this protection for decades.

It’s also important to note a halt on leases on federal lands does not affect current Navajo allotments. Navajo tribal members who hold allotments can develop those resources.

Congress has helped by appropriating funding for ethnographic studies in the surrounding region, while also instituting a pause on new federal and gas leasing within a 10-mile radius of the park. These efforts are complemented by the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs efforts to update the area’s land management plans.

For perhaps the first time, there is recognition by the federal government that impact of oil and gas leasing on the land, water, air and the people of the Chaco region must be studied before further drilling occurs. The Biden administration is planning to do just that, conducting a landscape-level assessment of oil and gas development.

The well-being of residents of Northwest New Mexico has not always been a priority. That’s true whether discussing oil and gas companies or a federal government intent on peddling oil and gas leases. By instituting a pause, all parties involved in this history and mineral-rich region can take stock.

A pause also allows the people of the region to express their priorities, especially about the need to protect cultural properties and heritage. Most of all, it allows the necessary time to create a thoughtful and respectful plan to manage these lands — one that, for the first time, should put the needs and interests of people right up there with profit.