El Rio Grande Del Norte National Conservation Area

(Ute Mountain & Rio Grande Gorge)

Overview

The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and the Bureau of Land Management have been working with Senator Bingaman’s office to craft a National Conservation Bill for north-central New Mexico.  The proposal, encompassing more that 303,000 acres of Taos and Rio Arriba Counties, also includes two new Wilderness areas totally about 24,000 acres: Ute Mountain and Rio San Antonio Gorge.

These are some of the most spectacular lands in all of New Mexico.  The Rio Grande cuts into the Servilleta lava flows that make up the Taos Plateau just above the Colorado border. Eight miles later, at the New Mexico state line, the river is 200 feet down, the gorge 150 feet across. West of Questa, where Big Arsenic Spring bubbles from the rock and pinyon jays heap in the winter, the river is a glinting green ribbon eight hundred feet down.  The opposite rim is over half a mile away where, on summer mornings, bald eagles soar southward in pairs.  At John Dunn Bridge the river enters The Box, an 18-mile stretch of 900 foot cliffs, famous among boaters.

This is also the Rio Grande Migratory Flyway – one of the great migratory routes in the world.  Eagles, falcons and hawks make the basalt walls of the Gorge their nesting homes.  Ospreys, scaups, hummingbirds, herons, avocets, merlins and willits all traverse the Gorge. The sound of Sandhill Cranes migrating from the San Luis Valley to places like Bosque Del Apache can be deafening while on an October hike in the tablelands west of the river.  It’s that western plateau that is perhaps the most wild.  From the edge of the Gorge, vast grass and sagebrush mesas intersperse with the forested slopes of volcanic intrusions such as Cerro Chiflo, Cerro del Aire, Montosos and Cerro de la Olla.  It is on these mesas where vast herds of pronghorn and elk find winter forage and calve and fawn along the rim late in the spring. 

This substantial chunk of wild is bounded by the Gorge Rim on the east and Highway 285 on the west.  The northern portion spills over 285, encompassing the broad, gently rolling grass and sage brush plains of the Rio San Antonio Gorge WSA, bisected by yet another gorge where raptors next in 200-foot high lava walls and conifers clamber down to the Rio los Pinos.  Perhaps the crown jewel of this whole area is Ute Mountain, a 10,093 foot high volcanic cone rising nearly 3,000 feet above the surrounding plain.  Ute is something you can’t miss. Located about ten miles west of Costilla, it is the dominate feature for those driving north from Taos along highway 522.  The steep slopes of Ute are covered in pinyon at the base, as well as pockets of ponderosa, aspen, white pine and Douglas Fir in the higher elevations. From grassy meadows of blue grama, western wheatgrass and Indian ricegrass where the trees thin, the Gorge is a jagged, inky slash dividing Ute from its sister cones to the west. Snow-capped Blanca rises to the north, just across the state line. The whole Sangre de Cristo range falls to the east, terminating, view-wise, at Wheeler Peak.

Descendants of the land grantees run cattle all along the Gorge and out into the table-lands between the rim and Highway 285. Vehicle routes tend towards sparse and are more likely than not unmaintained two-tracks. Hunting and fishing are common. Hikers climb to the bottom of the gorge for a swim and a picnic. The Box is a popular rafting area and bird watching draws – well, not as many as it ought to. Its fabulous birding! On the slopes of Cerro de la Olla, locals collect firewood to heat their homes in the winter.

This is wild land, important to the culture and character of our county and vital, in its wildness, to our economy.  We learned two main lessons during the battles over the Valle Vidal: one, no chunk of public land is secure from mineral development or other forms of exploitation – no matter how safe you may think that land is, no matter how ‘lacking’ in exploitative possibilities it may be, someone, sometime is going to come after that land.  Our other lesson was this: our economy in north-central New Mexico is dependant on Wilderness. Wilderness feeds the rivers that feed the acequias. It nurtures our rural lifestyle.  Wilderness is the ‘bank’ from which we hunt and fish.  It is also a tremendous economic development opportunity. Perhaps most importantly, these wildlands create and nurture the character of the people of Taos County. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the whole thing.  This is public land.  Our land.

What YOU Can Do

Call AND write to Senator Bingaman’s office. 
 
Tell the Senator that you just heard about the Taos County National Conservation Area (NCA) proposal and that you strongly support his initiative.  Be sure to follow up your call with a letter.

202-224-6621

Senator Jeff Bingaman

703 Hart Senate Office Bldg

Washington, DC 20510

Write to one or all of the three newspapers below.
 
Express your support for Senator Bingaman’s Taos County NCA proposal.  Be sure to include your name, location and day time phone number.

      Taos News: forum@taosnews.com

      Santa Fe New Mexican: letters@sfnewmexican.com

      Albuquerque Journal: opinion@abqjournal.com 

 
Talking Points

Feel free to include any of your own observations or experiences in the area.

The proposed NCA includes some of the most spectacular scenery in all of New Mexico;

Existing uses, such as ranching, hunting, fishing and rafting would not be impacted by the creation of the NCA.  In fact, those uses would be protected and encouraged;

The establishment of the proposed NCA and associated Wilderness will provide for future generations of New Mexicans continuing opportunities to enjoy the recreational opportunities to hunt, fish, observe wildlife, and experience solitude;

Creation of the NCA and Wilderness areas would give local communities a natural attraction and resource to use as part of a long-term sustainable economic development plan.

The rights of private land owners within the NCA boundaries will be respected if they choose to not trade their land.

Area Description
The Ute Mountain unit is located about 28 miles north-northwest of Taos, adjacent to the Colorado border in Taos County. It is adjacent to the Rio Grande Gorge inventory unit. The dominant feature in the unit is Ute Mountain itself which rises over 2,600 feet out its surrounding sage plain to top out at 10,093 feet. It makes for a rugged complement to Rio Grande Gorge carved along its western flank. All drainages within the unit lead directly to the Rio Grande or to the Rio Costilla shortly before it carves its canyon down to the Rio Grande. Elevations in the unit range from 7,500 feet to 10,093 feet. Ute Mountain was recently acquired by BLM from a willing seller. It is one of the best public lands acquisitions to occur in many years anywhere in the west.

Wilderness Characteristics

Unit Size:
NMWA’s inventory for the Ute Mountain unit identified 12,744 acres of land managed by the BLM as suitable for wilderness designation. There are no private or state trust lands within the unit.

Naturalness:
The Ute Mountain unit appears natural and has maintained its primeval character and influence. Vehicle routes in the unit are unmaintained two-tracks. The BLM has closed most of these, and many have been reclaimed by natural processes. The only developments in the area are fields and watering systems set up by the previous land owner to enhance elk habitat. The unit boundaries exclude these impacts.

Outstanding Opportunities for Solitude or a Primitive and Unconfined Type of Recreation:
The Ute Mountain unit provides outstanding opportunities to experience solitude. It is a rugged area that is large enough to allow even a large number of visitors to seek out lonely spots. There are no designated trails, so one will likely be alone even with the popular sport of ‘peak bagging’. Ute Mountain will be a draw for this activity because of its height, lonely stature in the plains, and the fact that it is now the highest point on BLM lands in New Mexico. Primitive recreational activities possible in this unit include hiking / ‘peak bagging’, wildlife viewing, horseback riding, and star gazing.

Supplemental Values:

Scenic – Rising over 2,600 feet from its surrounding plain, the free-standing Ute Mountain is a well known scenic icon of northern New Mexico, though, ironically, many don’t know its name. Camping within the unit gives one the stunning backdrop of Ute Mountain while looking down to the Rio Grande Gorge or out to the precipitous rise of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to their terminus in Colorado.

Ecological – Prior to its acquisition by BLM, Ute Mountain was managed as a refuge for elk. The owner installed water sources and planted fields to supply feed, while access by the general public was prohibited. This protective, pro-wildlife management no doubt benefit many creatures beyond the elk. The forested rise of Ute Mountain from the Rio Grande provides a large diversity of habitats. As BLM continues wildlife and botanical inventories, it is expected there area’s ecological value will grow.

Geological - The Rio Grande Gorge exists because the Rio Grande River has cut into the thick Servilleta basalt lava flows, which occurred 1.5 to 5 million years ago. These flows lie within the Taos Volcanic Field, the largest volcanic field in the Rio Grande Rift system. Ute Mountain of one several volcanoes that fed lava to this system, but one of the more well known due to its isolation and scenic rise..