Successes

earth, world, planet-1303628.jpg

Preserving Chaco Canyon

New Mexico is known as the “land of enchantment.” Among its many wonders, Chaco Canyon stands out as one of the most spectacular. Part of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Chaco Canyon is among the most impressive archaeological sites in the world, receiving tens of thousands of visitors each year. Yet, Chaco is more than just a tourist destination, it is also sacred land.Centuries ago, Chaco Canyon served as a ceremonial, agricultural and thriving economic center where Native people built magnificent great houses, astronomical observation sites, and ceremonial kivas. These areas continue to be places of prayer, healing and pilgrimage for various Pueblo and Tribal communities today. The canyon is vast and contains an impressive number of structures—both big and small—testifying to the incredible creativity of the people who lived in the Four Corners region between the 9th and 12th centuries. Chaco was the urban center of a broader world, and the ancestral Puebloans who lived here engineered striking buildings, waterways, and more. The Chaco Culture National Historical Park and the surrounding area also provide critical wildlife habitat to a diverse array of species ranging from elk and mule deer to large predators like cougar, bobcats and badgers as well as a wide variety of birds and reptiles. Over the years, excessive oil and gas drilling around Chaco Canyon has damaged air and water quality and caused immense harm to the health of children, families and local communities.

proposed buffer zone around Chaco Culture National Historical Park will ban oil and gas development that threatens wildlife, sacred Indigenous sites, clean air, and drinking water. Earthkeeper’s applauds the Biden Administration for listening to local communities about the withdrawal of oil and gas leasing on federal lands around Chaco Canyon, as well as pledging to engage in further meaningful Tribal consultation before taking action. Seeking to put faith into action, EarthKeepers spearheaded a national effort to protect Chaco Canyon and we were able to get over 250 spiritual leaders from across the country and from more than 30 faith traditions and denominations to sign on to this letter to Secretary Haaland calling for support of this buffer.

14180606655_95938721a4_k-edited-732x1024
earth, world, planet-1303628.jpg

Defending and Expanding National Monuments

In 2017, the Trump Administration launched an unprecedented attack on America’s national monuments when 27 National Monuments throughout the U.S. came under review by the Department of the Interior. The administration targeted monuments formed after 1996 that were 100,000 acres or larger. The action intended to shrink the monument boundaries as well as open up protected areas to extractive industries including drilling, mining, commercial fishing, etc. Recognizing the historical, natural and sacred importance of these 27 national monuments, EarthKeepers spiritual leaders were active and successful in defending our national monuments including authoring a clergy sign on letter to Congress and the Secretary of the Interior, submitting official comments during the monument review process, and organizing clergy and other faith leaders to speak at various public events to support protecting America’s national monuments.

 

By working with private landowners and local communities, EarthKeepers has also helped support the work to expand various National Monuments including the Rio Grande del Norte in Northern New Mexico.

earth, world, planet-1303628.jpg

Conserving Bears Ears

EarthKeepers has worked tirelessly to help protect and ultimately restore the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument to what it was under President Obama’s proclamation. In November 2017, EarthKeepers organized nearly 40 spiritual leaders from various faiths and tribes from Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico to travel to Bears Ears National Monument to meet with tribal leaders. With major threats of development and from extractive industry, EarthKeepers helped bring together spiritual leaders from the: Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, United Church of Christ, Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Church of the Brethren, and Jewish traditions to meet with tribal leaders and listen and learn from them why Bears Ears is important to their culture, history and spirituality. Seeking to stand in solidarity with dozens of tribes that recognize Bears Ears as an important sacred, cultural and historic area, spiritual leaders on this trip wrote various op-eds, conducted interviews for national and denominational news outlets, and produced a video about the trip.  Despite these efforts and 2.7 million public comments in support of America’s national monuments, the then Interior Secretary recommended the downsizing of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah as well as urged significant changes to seven other national monuments. In December 2017, President Trump acted on the Utah recommendations by signing proclamations to shrink the 1.35 million acre Bears Ears National Monument by a devastating 85 percent and the 1.9 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by 46 percent. Shrinking these national monuments puts their many cultural, natural, historical and spiritual values in danger of irreversible damage and destruction as the areas are opened up to extractive industry.

earth, world, planet-1303628.jpg

Fully Funding The Land And Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)

If you have ever been awed by the bison herds of Yellowstone, humbled by the majesty of the Grand Canyon, reveled in the beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park, been enchanted by New Mexico’s Rio Grande del Norte and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monuments or wondered at the stunning beauty and biodiversity of the Florida everglades then you are a beneficiary of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.Congress created the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) in 1964 to help improve the health and vitality of ALL Americans by preserving, developing and ensuring access to outdoor recreation. Over the past half century, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has provided $18 billion dollars to support America’s national parks and monuments, create access to public lands, restore wildlife habitat and fund local parks and playgrounds, ball fields and walking trails in nearly every community in the United States. Thanks to programs like LWCF and conservation leaders who believed in the value of protecting wild lands and wildlife, Americans now have the world’s most extensive network of open spaces to hike, camp, fish, swim, recreate or as Rachel Carson said, simply “contemplate the beauty of earth.” 

In addition to supporting America’s most iconic public lands, the Fund has been essential in preserving America’s most important historical and cultural sites, including, among others, the Martin Luther King. Jr. National Historical Park, the Nez Pearce Historical Site, and El Camino Real Tierra de Adentro. The fund has helped support healing in our nation’s veterans as well as supported the preservation and creation of various memorials including the Flight 93 memorial. In 2014, the Fund launched the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Program connecting economically disadvantaged communities with the outdoors so as to promote active outdoor lifestyles for children and families. The Founder of EarthKeepers helped draft this critical report showing that LWCF has been vital in helping get kids outdoors has been proven to make them smarter, happier and healthier.

Recognizing the important impact LWCF has on everything from National parks to local playgrounds, EarthKeepers worked with faith communities across the country and with local elected officials to pass resolutions supporting LWCF. Spiritual leaders from Earth Keepers were also successful and active in the press on calling on congress to permanently reauthorize and fully fund LWCF. Thanks to our work and countless other advocates across the country, Congress permanently reauthorized and fully funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund in perpetuity.

earth, world, planet-1303628.jpg

Saving Forests and Protecting Wildlife

EarthKeepers successfully worked in various forests of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado to protect critical wildlife habitat and create various special management areas aimed at protecting important cultural areas, maintaining pristine wildlife habitat and preserving native species. Creating these new special management areas will protect essential wildlife corridors and benefit a wide a variety of iconic wildlife species including: elk, mule deer, antelope, black bear, cougar, lynx, golden and bald eagles, burrowing owls, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, and Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout.

 

  • Caja del Rio Wildlife and Cultural Interpretive Management Area: Bordering Bandelier National Monument and connecting various western mountain ranges, the Caja del Rio Wildlife and Cultural Interpretive Management Area of the Santa Fe National Forest is an area of profound cultural and historical significance as well as is critical to wildlife habitat and connectivity. As one of the most ecologically rich habitats in North America, the Caja del Rio Wildlife and Cultural Interpretive Management Area connects a vital wildlife corridor from the state of Colorado to Mexico. Thanks to the advocacy of EarthKeepers this new Management Area will remain a protected home to herds of mule deer and elk and a variety of unique and sensitive plant and animal species, including black bear, cougar, Western Burrowing Owl and Golden Eagle. The area has also been designated as an Important Bird Area (IBA) with a river corridor critical for waterfowl and non-game species migration. EarthKeepers is currently working to permanently protect 106,000 acres of the entire Caja del Rio plateau.
  • San Antonio Management Area: The San Antonio Management Area in the Carson National Forest is approximately 148,000 acres of rolling grassland surrounded by conifers, ponderosa pines, and aspen stands in the northern western area of the Carson National Forest. This area is adjacent to the BLM’s Rio Grande del Norte National Monument as well as the Rio Grande National Forest in Colorado and is critical to wildlife movement and connectivity. The area is also an important migration corridor for elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope as well as essential habitat to native Rio Grande Cutthroat trout. The area is also critical to wintering/calving elk herds.
  • Valle Vidal Management Area: The Valle Vidal (“Valley of Life”) Management Area in the Carson National Forest is approximately 100,000 acres of beautiful rolling grassland meadows surrounded by conifers, bristlecone pines, and aspen stands in the northern Carson. It is home to one of New Mexico’s largest elk herds as well Rio Grande Cutthroat trout. This management area focuses on promoting habitat and wildlife connectivity to protect migrating species like elk with seasonal closures during wintering and calving months.
earth, world, planet-1303628.jpg

Protecting Wildlife Corridors

EarthKeepers 360 spearheaded efforts to get 112 spiritual leaders from various faith communities to sign onto a letter to the U.S. Forest Service to protect wildlife corridors in the Upper Rio Grande. EarthKeepers 360 hosted regular wildlife connectivity and corridor field trips focused on helping leaders experience firsthand the area’s biodiversity and wildlife while getting a deeper understanding of challenges to wildlife connectivity. Along these lines EarthKeepers 360 worked with leaders from Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting and the Outdoors (HECHO) to pass local resolutions in support of wildlife corridors. EarthKeepers 360 also led trips for military veterans on this landscape to promote healing and reconnect them with the area’s land, water, and wildlife. All our work led to the Santa Fe National Forest and Carson National Forest designating various special management areas focused on protecting critical wildlife habitat and corridors.

es_MX
Scroll al inicio