Rev. Andrew Black, Founder of EarthKeepers 360, a member of the Caja del Rio Coalition and a Minister at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Fe, was one of 112 spiritual and tribal leaders who urged President Biden to designate the Caja del Rio Plateau as a national monument on Dec. 19, 2024. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source New Mexico)
The calls for President Joe Biden to designate wilderness land outside of Santa Fe as a national monument increased this week from faith, tribal leaders and New Mexico’s congressional delegation.
The appeal to Biden in the waning days of his presidency could complicate Los Alamos National Laboratory’s controversial plans to build a line across the Caja del Rio Plateau to power a new supercomputer that would simulate nuclear weapons, among other purposes.
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On Thursday, 112 spiritual, faith and tribal leaders sent a letter calling for the designation to Biden, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and the members of Congress. Most of the piñon-juniper forested area is federally managed, but it also includes some state-owned land. It has important cultural and religious significance to the Pueblos of Cochiti and San Ildefonso and Tesuque.
“In a society that desperately needs healing, the Caja del Rio has been an invaluable place for individuals and communities to come together in unity, prayer, healing, and wholeness,” they wrote.
Later Thursday, New Mexico’s three U.S. representatives and two U.S. senators, all Democrats, also sent Biden a letter urging him to start the designation process “as soon as possible.”
While neither letter explicitly mentions the new effort to bring additional power lines to the national laboratory, the members of Congress did write: “We also ask, like previous national monument designations, that existing and proposed uses, such as grazing and power transmission, be included in the designation process.”
Three high-powered transmission lines already exist in the area, but the monument designation could block the development of the proposed fourth line and additional roads and infrastructure.
The delegation noted the lack of adequate stewardship has led to environmental degradation, vandalism and excessive trash.
They wrote that even though Tesuque Pueblo last month inked a stewardship agreement for the Caja with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, “without a formal national monument designation, the area will remain vulnerable to further damage.”
A spokesperson for the White House on Monday declined to comment on the proposal.
A spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos Field Office previously said they had not seen any documents pertaining to the designation proposal for the Caja. On Friday, they said they would not comment any further.