Public land does not discriminate.  It has no agenda.  It doesn’t care if you are hiking, birdwatching, biking, or hunting.  It comes in many forms, much like public land users.  The threats to public lands continue as we watched a stroke of a pen reduce two National Monuments by 3 million acres.  An effective way to defend against public land loss is to unite all public land users together.

That is the mission of the Rally for the Rio Grande del Norte.  The goal is to organize an event that brings together multiple public land users under one tent, showing that we all stand for public lands.

  

  

Once again the event was held at New Mexico River Adventures office in Embudo, NM.  The location is adjacent to BLM land and the National Monument.  This year, over 100 attendees came from places like Clovis, Las Cruces, Alamogordo, Taos, NM; Flagstaff, AZ; Monte Vista, Gunnison, Rye, CO.

Some came for the live music, others came to hear Dan Flores.  We were grateful to have NY Times best selling author and podcast host of the American West, come and give a talk about the inception of the public land system in the west.  Dan captured the attention of the crowd as soon as he spoke.  A skilled storyteller and historian that can recall dates and names with no trouble.  Many attendees who where not familiar with Dan mentioned how inspiring the talk was.

  

    

Live music from local bands Glorieta Pines and Bard & The Blackbirds kept people entertained before and after Dan.  Original songs from the wilds of New Mexico got people out of their seat and dancing on the wood chip stage.

  

 

Raffle prizes were won, good food was had, and cold beer liberated from its aluminum prison.  The day finished with smiling faces and the hope of our continued fight for public lands.

  

On Sunday July 26th, the rally continued with a stewardship event led by Habitat Stewardship Coordinator Elden Aguilar. 28 Volunteers, 5 BHA Staff, and 2 Taos BLM employees joined efforts. They removed 1.5 miles of both net wire and barbed wire fencing from an old sheep grazing allotment above the John Dunn Bridge, located on the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument. This 305 acre allotment had been utilized for sheep grazing and vacant for years.  The netwire fencing is a deadly barrier for large ungulates such as the local bighorn sheep, pronghorn, mule deer and elk.  

\  

   

In the morning, volunteers met up at the worksite for safety briefing. The large group split and started working to the opposite ends of the fence line. Immediately, they removed the wire off the metal T-posts,  started rolling the wire by hand and hauled it to the road. Others stayed behind to pull the metal T posts and collected them to pile with the old wire. By noon the fence was down and removed. After everyone met up again for lunch to enjoy some of Fence Line’s famous BBQ Sandwiches, had fun, sharing their outdoor adventure stories, and went their separate ways.

The fence removal resulted in 1,300+ acres of improved habitat connectivity on public lands.

Keep an eye out on our NM BHA events page for future stewardship events in New Mexico.

Thanks to all of our sponsors that made a contribution to supporting wild public lands and waters.

New Mexico River Adventures        Red Willow Hospice      The Outdoorsman of Santa Fe

Edward Jones    Broken Spoke     Conservation Lands Foundation

Harwood Pierpont Attorneys at Law    LOR Foundation    Trout Unlimited

Seek Outside    Taos Fly Shop     Gerber Gear      Fishpond

Sitka     NRS     Grayl    Friends of the Rio Grande    Benchmade

Congratulations to Marcus L. on winning the Sitka Gift Card.