New Mexico public lands are still at risk of being sold to the highest bidder. Though the Senate parliamentarian blocked Utah Senator Mike Lee’s proposal to sell off 3.3 Million acres of public lands, a revised plan could still sell off as much as 1.2 million acres.
New Mexico’s Senator Heinrich says Senator Lee is “just getting started.”
“Some of my colleagues are very serious about taking these places away and giving them to someone else. They’ve been trying for decades, and their proposals just keep coming – from the White House to the Senate. But we will not let them sell our American birthright to build luxury condos or vacation homes, or to pay for tax cuts.
Hillary Tompkins, former Solicitor for the United States Department of the Interior says that this proposal is being rushed through without proper engagement with affected stakeholders and decision makers.
“Public lands are often located in Indian Country, but there has been no outreach to Tribal Nations. I’ll give you an example – the Southern Ute Indian tribe in Colorado have off-reservation hunting and fishing rights in the Bruno area, the Southwestern corner of the state. This area consists of Forest Service land and BLM lands. They have had no notification about this proposal and they have not been given the opportunity to talk about how this proposal could affect their off-reservation treaty rights.”
The updated proposal targets BLM land within 5 miles of a “population center”, it’s unclear as of now whether the revised plan will move forward.