Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today won support from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for his bill to protect and enhance cultural, ecological, recreational, and scenic resources on public lands in Northern New Mexico.  The committee passed the bill with bipartisan support; it can now be considered by the full Senate.

The bill is cosponsored by Senator Tom Udall.  Representatives Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich have introduced a similar bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Bingaman's Río Grande del Norte National Conservation Area Establishment Act would protect approximately 236,000 acres of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Taos and Río Arriba counties by designating a combination of "conservation" and "wilderness" areas.

The vast majority of the land – 214,600 acres – would be managed as a conservation area.  Two other areas – the 13,400-acre Cerro del Yuta on the east-side and the 8,000-acre Río San Antonio in the west – will be managed as wilderness.

"Setting aside this beautiful landscape will protect its traditional uses while attracting new visitors to New Mexico and boosting the region's economy," said Bingaman, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

"I'd like to thank Senator Bingaman for his leadership in guiding this bill out of the Energy Committee.  This legislation will ensure that the historic landscapes in Taos and Rio Arriba counties are preserved and accessible for future generations," Udall said.

The bill would designate as a conservation area the upper reaches of the Rio Grande Gorge previously designated as a Wild and Scenic River, protecting elk wintering grounds and migratory corridors along the plateau between Ute Mountain and San Antonio Mountain and habitat for other game species and birds of prey, including peregrine falcons and bald eagles.  The majority of the conservation area is composed of high mesa sagebrush-grasslands interspersed with piñon juniper woodlands.

The Cerro del Yuta Wilderness will protect Ute Mountain, a forested extinct volcano which rises to more than 10,000 feet from an elevation of about 7,600 feet at its base.  The Río San Antonio Wilderness Area lies northwest of San Antonio Mountain and is currently managed as a Wilderness Study Area by the Bureau of Land Management.  Its unique character is shaped by the 200-foot-deep canyon formed by the waters of the Río San Antonio that bisects the wilderness area.