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BLM Restores Over 250,000 Acres of Public Lands in New Mexico
The Bureau of Land Management has restored more than 250,000 acres of rangelands in New Mexico in Fiscal Year 2007, far surpassing last year’s total of 145,000 acres. What started out as a concept to restore and enhance degraded landscapes three years ago has grown into Restore New Mexico, a full-blown effort involving agencies, organizations, ranchers and industry.
The BLM is working with state, private and federal partners to restore grasslands and riparian areas to a healthy and productive condition. On grasslands invaded by brush, efforts focus on landscapes dominated by mesquite, creosote, juniper and other species to restore native vegetation, which greatly benefits watersheds and wildlife habitat. The BLM and its partners are also replacing salt cedar in riparian (streamside) areas with native cottonwood and willow. Partners under the program are also identifying and reclaiming orphaned oil and gas wells, pads, and roads, and are working to control invasive weeds.
“Regardless of how people feel about land uses or management priorities, everyone agrees that we need to look at the land differently than we have in the past,” said Linda Rundell, State Director for the BLM in Santa Fe. “We are now beginning to restore entire landscapes. It’s amazing what can happen when folks have a shared vision.”
About a third of New Mexico (just over 26 million acres) is federally owned. The BLM manages 13.4 million acres of this total. “Public lands are an extremely valuable resource for all New Mexicans,” Rundell added. “Where areas have been disturbed by development, erosion, recreational uses and other activities, we must work together to restore them.”
Much of the Restore New Mexico work to date has focused on southern New Mexico. The BLM is building on past partnerships to focus on projects throughout the State. Restoring landscapes not only enhances New Mexico’s wildlife, but also watersheds and groundwater supplies; it will also allow the BLM and other partners, including the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, to reintroduce native wildlife to places where they have disappeared.
“I look forward to the day we will see Aplomado falcons, antelope, turkey, bighorn sheep and river otters restored to native habitats throughout the State,” Rundell said. “I’m proud of everyone involved in this effort: we’re thinking outside the box and getting things done. Restore New Mexico will protect the outdoor values and way of life that make our state so unique.”
Over the past century a variety of land uses, periodic droughts, and New Mexico’s rapidly expanding population has fragmented habitat for wildlife. The state has also seen an expansion of invasive plant species, degraded water quality due to erosion, and an increased threat from catastrophic wildfires to wildlife habitat and communities bordering our public lands.
The goals of Restore New Mexico are therefore to restore habitat for fish, wildlife and species of concern; restore native grasslands and reverse the expansion of invasive plant species; reverse habitat fragmentation from historic oil and gas development; improve water quality; and reduce the impacts from catastrophic wildfires.
In 2006, BLM and its partners restored and reclaimed 145,000 acres of public land, mainly in southeastern New Mexico. This year, efforts expanded to include all of southern New Mexico. Within the next 2 years the BLM intends to restore and reclaim 250,000 acres of public land statewide each year, and with its partners, achieve a goal of 500,000 acres per year of public, state and private lands.
An area of emphasis in 2008 and future years will be to eradicate cheatgrass, an invasive grass that’s become a critical problem in Nevada, Utah, Idaho and other Western states – and is becoming a threat here. Cheatgrass seriously out-competes native grassland species; cheatgrass-dominated landscapes host hotter and more frequent wildfires, further degrading rangelands and reducing wildlife populations.
Restore New Mexico Accomplishments – Fiscal Year 2007 (Oct. 1, 2006 - Sept. 30, 2007)
- 229,000 acres brush treatments (mesquite, creosote, catclaw, juniper, and sagebrush)
- 10,900 acres prescribed fire
- 10,100 acres invasive weed control (not brush; cheatgrass to be added in FY 2008)
- 45 miles of riparian areas restored/enhanced, including 10 miles for endangered species
The goal of brush treatments is to reduce the incidence of brush in rangelands to historic levels; in many areas, the percentage of brush in a landscape has increased from 10 to over 90 percent over the past 120 years, radically reducing the areas’ biological productivity.
In areas with oil and gas production, 172 miles of roads and 375 well pads have been reclaimed, ‘defragmenting’ tens of thousands of acres of wildlife habitat.
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