By BEN NEARY
NMWF Conservation Director
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation held a ceremony Saturday to mark the federal government’s acceptance of a donation of nearly 10,000 acres to expand the Sabinoso Wilderness east of Las Vegas.
The donation from the Trust for Public Land brings the Sabinoso Wilderness to nearly 30,000 acres and stands as the largest private donation of land to the government under the Wilderness Act.
The additional land will offer the public a new entry point into the Sabinoso Wilderness. The original area was designated wilderness in 2009, but remained landlocked until 2017 when the Wilderness Land
Trust donated about 3,600 acres that allowed public access.
The Sabinoso Wilderness and the newly donated lands, known as Cañon Ciruela (Plum Canyon) both feature dramatic, steep canyons that fall away from the surrounding plains. The area hasn’t seen livestock grazing in many years and supports thick populations of elk and other wildlife. Springs and seeps in the canyon bottoms sustain marshy areas. No future cattle grazing will be allowed.
Haaland along with New Mexico Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, spoke at a ceremony that the Trust for Public Land organized on the newly donated lands.
“Today we recognize the value and beauty of our public lands and open spaces and commit to preserving them. Areas like the Sabinoso Wilderness are an important piece of the puzzle as we work to preserve, connect and restore 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030 through the President’s America the Beautiful Initiative.”
Haaland said the Department of Interior and specifically the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is thankful to the Trust for Public Land for the generous donation.
Greg Hiner, with the Trust for Public Land in Santa Fe, has worked for years on the acquisition and donation of the land. C. Starr Woods, a conservation fellow at TPL, has worked closely with him on the project.
Diane Regas, executive director of the Trust for Public Land, thanked the generosity of philanthropists and National Fish and Wildlife Federation for their support of the property acquisition.
“We are very, very happy to be able to give this property to the American people,” Regas said, adding that she looks forward to visiting it with her grandchildren.
Melanie Barnes, acting New Mexico state director of the BLM, said the federal government already has taken title to the Cañon Ciruela property. She said the public may enter the land from the existing trailhead on the original Sabinoso Wilderness, but said the new trailhead into the Cañon Ciruela won’t be open until some additional work is completed. She said the agency will announce when the new trailhead opens.
Sen. Heinrich said he’s been intrigued by the Sabinoso Wilderness ever since he first learned about it as a wilderness area that originally was landlocked with no public access.
Heinrich credited Hiner as well as conservation groups, elected officials, agency staffers and others for coming together to make the donation a reality.
“New Mexico makes public land history, and we have for many many decades,” Heinrich said. “One of our senators was critical to the passage of the wilderness act, and today we set another record with the largest wilderness donation in our nation’s history, presided over by a secretary of interior from New Mexico.”
Sen. Lujan credited work that had been done on the expansion by former Sen. Tom Udall, as well as others in the state’s congressional delegation. “It’s an honor to be part of a family that understands our responsibility and this is just the beginning of more work that’s yet to come,” he said.
Leger Fernandez emphasized that the new donation of lands will allow new access to the Sabinoso Wilderness. She credited collaboration among the different peoples and entities in the state. “Collaboration is in our heart, we don’t know another way of doing it in New Mexico,” she said.
Sarah Cottrell Propst, secretary of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, said she conveyed a message of thanks and congratulations from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to everyone who made the donation possible.
The New Mexico Wildlife Federation worked with the Trust for Public Lands on the property. The NMWF contacted local officials to garner support for the project and recently led a volunteer effort to remove old barbed wire fences from the new lands to make them acceptable for wilderness designation.
“Expanding the Sabinoso Wilderness was one of the first projects I started working on when I started at the federation nearly three years ago,” said Jesse Deubel, NMWF executive director.
“I’m thrilled to see this become a reality,” Deubel said. “The expansion of the Sabinoso Wilderness will benefit future generations of New Mexicans and all Americans by preserving this beautiful landscape and the wild things that live here.”
Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, attended Saturday’s dedication ceremony.
“No one does collaborative conservation better than New Mexico, which is why it’s fitting that the largest donation ever to a wilderness area is right here in the Sabinoso,” O’Mara said after the ceremony.