FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 13, 2024
Contact:
Kaden McArthur, Government Relations Manager [email protected]
Two-Year Protection Initiated For Pecos River Watershed
Washington, D.C. – Backcountry Hunters & Anglers celebrates yesterday's announcement by the Department of the Interior initiating a two-year mineral withdrawal that would protect 165,000 acres in New Mexico's Pecos River Watershed. This move will grant protections as the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service consider a proposed 20-year withdrawal. As the Pecos River and its tributaries flow through the Santa Fe National Forest they provide important coldwater habitat for trout and support wildlife habitat with opportunities for hunters to pursue elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep, black bear, dusky grouse, and wild turkey. In 1991 a toxic mine waste spill had disastrous for the watershed killing tens of thousands of fish and costing tens of millions of dollars to mitigate, with impacts lasting decades.
"We would like to thank Interior Secretary Deb Haaland for this decision which will protect this vital watershed from future contamination threats like the Terrero Mine spill that continues to negatively impact the area to this day," said Michael Farrington, chair of the New Mexico chapter of BHA. "We have long supported conservation of the area through public land clean-ups and packouts, and strongly support legislative efforts to provide permanent protections for the watershed. Coldwater tributaries for trout, including the native Rio Grande cutthroat, and high quality elk and mule deer hunting make this place too important for hunters and anglers to risk another catastrophic spill."
BHA further applauds members of New Mexico congressional delegation, Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, and Reps. Teresa Leger Fernandez and Melanie Stansbury for their leadership on the Pecos Watershed Protection Act which would permanently protect this valuable landscape from mineral development, something that can only be done by an Act of Congress.
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers seeks to ensure North America's outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands, waters, and wildlife. To learn more about issues important to BHA’s membership, visit www.backcountryhunters.org/our_issues.
About Kaden McArthur
A western hunter and angler, my passion for wild places and wildlife brought me to Washington, DC to work on conservation policy.