One of only two dozen UNESCO World Heritage sites in the United States, Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico holds historical significance comparable to sites such as Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza. However, the region has been vulnerable to the impacts of widespread oil and gas drilling for decades. At the Biden administration’s first White House Tribal Nations Summit in 2021, the president announced a proposal for a 20-year mineral withdrawal—an administrative tool to remove a specific area from oil, gas, and mining development—to preserve the 10-mile radius around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. And on June 2, 2023, the administration formalized the withdrawal of 336,404 acres of Chaco Canyon, realizing the vision of community leaders who fought for decades to honor the sacred and historical site.
In addition to protecting the area’s cultural and archeological value, a new Center for American Progress analysis finds that the withdrawal safeguards more than 60,000 acres of New Mexico’s highest-value ecological resources, helping to connect and protect wildlife. This advances the administration’s commitment to equitably conserve 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030 and to protect these areas from new leasing for oil and gas development.
Read more on opportunities to meet the “30x30” goal
A note on the analysis
This analysis presents new data from Conservation Science Partners (CSP) and CAP. CSP mapped U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands in New Mexico overlayed with existing oil and gas leases and mineral development potential to examine areas that are most at risk of being leased for future oil development.
To assess ecological value, CSP used spatial indicator layers to determine areas of high ecological and wildlife value across these public lands. High-value lands are those found to be among the state’s top 25 percent of unprotected and unleased lands for a given ecological indicator.
Chaco Canyon’s ecological value
Part of the San Juan Basin, Chaco Canyon is a semi-arid desert that hosts numerous canyons, sandstone mesas, and buttes vegetated by Great Basin grassland and desert scrub. Eighty million years ago, Chaco Canyon bordered a great inland sea, leading to the erosion and geological diversity that is prominent across the modern landscape. The range of soil types, elevation, and precipitation have all contributed to the biodiversity of the canyon; the site serves as an ecological hot spot for numerous species of invertebrates, reptiles, mammals, amphibians, and birds. Public lands such as Chaco Canyon play a vital role in conserving key habitats, migration corridors, and biodiversity.
While the primary purpose of protecting Chaco Canyon is to preserve its cultural significance and archeological resources, CAP’s analysis finds that among all currently unprotected and unleased lands within the withdrawal boundary, the site also hosts more than 60,000 acres of New Mexico’s highest-value ecological resources. In fact, nearly 20 percent of Chaco Canyon’s federally managed acreage contains these vital wildlife resources. This includes more than 31,000 acres of the state’s most ecologically intact lands—those free of human modification and resembling their natural, untouched state, with minimal habitat and species loss—that will gain protection under the withdrawal, at a time when less than 3 percent of the world’s lands are still ecologically intact.
60K+
acres of New Mexico’s highest-value ecological resources are hosted within the Chaco Canyon withdrawal boundary.
The withdrawal area also includes 27,000 acres of the highest-value land for ecological connectivity, which supports natural species migrations and movements and protects the canyon’s migratory pathways for big game such as mule deer, elk, and pronghorn. When considering the entirety of the 10-mile Chaco Canyon withdrawal—regardless of land ownership or protected status—more than 100,000 acres have greater ecological value than most public lands in New Mexico.
The United States is losing more than a football field of natural area every 30 seconds, making the conservation of key biodiversity hot spots more important than ever. With thousands of acres of high-value ecosystems, the withdrawal at Chaco Canyon serves to support the region’s rich wildlife and further national biodiversity conservation.
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Unrestricted oil and gas development can threaten ecological and cultural resources
Oil and gas exploration and development are detrimental to ecosystems, as they increase habitat fragmentation, drive wildlife population decline, and disrupt wildlife behavior, health, and habitat connectivity. This threat is substantially more damning considering 41 percent of U.S. ecosystems are at risk of rangewide collapse.
Like many other meaningful landscapes across the country, Chaco Canyon has faced threats from oil and gas development due to the industry’s long-held grip on public land management. The Bureau of Land Management—the agency that manages more than 10 percent of all U.S. lands, including Chaco Canyon—has historically prioritized oil and gas over other uses such as conservation, recreation, and cultural uses.
Learn how the oil and gas industry can be held accountable
The Biden administration’s mineral withdrawal protects more than 330,000 acres of public land in the canyon area from the threat of future mineral development, including more than 12,000 acres of unprotected lands at the highest risk of oil and gas development. The withdrawal at Chaco Canyon does not apply to the 80 existing leases that span 72,000 acres of the proposed withdrawal area or to existing Tribal allotments. But by taking more public lands off the table from oil and gas companies, the administration is prioritizing conservation by and for the communities and ecosystems that rely on these lands.
Indigenous culture at Chaco Canyon
Chaco Canyon is known primarily for its cultural and historical significance, spanning thousands of years of human history and including more than 2,400 archeological sites dating back to 850 A.D. From then until 1250, Pueblo communities lived in the Chaco Canyon area—a center of trade, ceremony, and politics made up of five-story mud and sandstone buildings. Today, the canyon remains a sacred place for Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache communities and an important pilgrimage site in the Pueblo religion through which some travel to visit their ancestors. The All Pueblo Council of Governors has been a prominent supporter of the long-term withdrawal efforts around Chaco Canyon.
The administration’s proposed mineral withdrawal actualizes years of local advocacy and honors this swath of public lands that are deeply connected to Indigenous culture and history in the United States.
Chaco Canyon has seen a number of temporary protections from oil and gas development, such as deferred leasing parcels and one-year moratoriums, but durable measures, such as this 20-year withdrawal, allow for longer-term protection. The administration’s proposed mineral withdrawal actualizes years of local advocacy and honors this swath of public lands that are deeply connected to Indigenous culture and history in the United States.
Conclusion
Chaco Canyon—an ancient center of trade and spirituality—has long served a meaningful role for Native American communities. By formally withdrawing the area from new oil and gas leasing for 20 years, the Biden administration has furthered its historic commitment to Indigenous-led conservation and protected more than 60,000 acres of the country’s most vital ecosystems.
The author would like to thank Jenny Rowland-Shea, Nicole Gentile, Drew McConville, Shanée Simhoni, Steve Bonitatibus, Patrick Freeman, Justin Suraci, Conservation Science Partners, and the local and national conservation leaders who are building impactful and equitable conservation solutions every day.