Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

U.S. SENATOR Jeff Bingaman

Monday, March 30, 2009

Contact Senator Bingaman's Office:

Jude McCartin
Maria Najera
703 Hart Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-5521

Bingaman's Public Lands Bill Becomes Law

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today attended the White House signing ceremony of legislation he helped write and shepherded through the Senate.  The bill contains several provisions Bingaman wrote that are important to New Mexico.

Among the measures included in the package is Bingaman’s “Prehistoric Trackways National Monument Establishment Act”, which seeks to protect 290 million-year old fossilized animal tracks in the Robledo Mountains in Doña Ana County.  Specifically, the bill would create a new national monument out of approximately 5,367 acres of Bureau of Land Management land and preserve it for further scientific investigation.  
 
“Doña Ana County has gained an important national monument that will be protected for generations to come,” Bingaman said.

The package also includes Bingaman’s Forest Landscape Restoration Act, which authorizes $40 million annually for landscape-scale forest restoration projects that cover 50,000 acres or more.  Competitive grants would be awarded for restoration projects that are developed in collaboration with local communities.  Eligible projects must be in need of ecosystem restoration, utilize the best-available science, encourage the use of restoration byproducts such as woody biomass, and be located primarily on National Forest System land. 

“Forest restoration is key to maintain a healthy ecosystem and is important in helping prevent wild fires,” Bingaman said.

Additionally, the package includes legislation Bingaman introduced that clears title to several tracks of land and paves the way for the city of Albuquerque to complete its development of a Biological Park along the middle Rio Grande.  The Biological Park incorporates the Rio Grande Botanical Garden, Tingley Beach, the Zoo and the Aquarium. 

“This title clarification makes it possible for the city to continue with plans to expand the popular bio-park,” Bingaman said. 

Also in the package is a bill Bingaman co-authored to provide federal protection to the Snowy River formation within the Fort Stanton Cave in Lincoln County.

The Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area Act, which was first introduced in the last Congress by then-Senator Pete Domenici, will provide permanent protection to the Snowy River formation and protect it for future research and educational purposes.  The formation contains a more than 4-mile-long continuous calcite-crystal river bed that is believed to be the longest one of its kind in the world.

"The enactment of the Fort Stanton-Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area Act today will ensure this unique geological formation is protected and preserved for future research and educational purposes,” Bingaman said. 

Additionally, the package contains the National Landscape Conservation System Act, a measure sponsored by Bingaman, which codifies the National Landscape Conservation System, the collection of national monuments, national conservation areas, wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers and other landscapes on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). 

Finally, the bill contains two measures that allow for the exchange of land in the Santa Fe National Forest; Pecos National Historical Park Land Exchange; Santa Fe National Forest Land Conveyance.