The Department of the Interior’s Proposal Provides Only 14 Days to Weigh In
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Santa Fe, NM — Yesterday, the Trump administration began a 14-day public comment period on the Department of Interior’s (DOI) Draft Environmental Assessment as part of its proposal to open public lands in the Greater Chaco Region to oil and gas drilling. On October 30, 2025, the administration began the process by initiating Tribal consultation on its proposal to reverse Public Land Order 7923. The Public Land Order withdrew and put approximately 336,400 acres of federal lands and minerals surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park off limits to unchecked extractive development for 20 years. If the DOI moves forward with its proposal, new oil and gas leasing and development on federal lands will be allowed within 10 miles of the park’s boundaries – even on lands directly bordering the park – threatening the irreplaceable cultural resources throughout the landscape. This comment period follows a seven-day “scoping” period held in early April where over 100,000 people submitted comments opposing the administration’s action.
The Greater Chaco Landscape includes Chaco Culture National Historical Park and thousands of archaeological and cultural sites, including great houses, roads, and shrines constructed by the ancestral peoples of today’s Pueblos and the Hopi Tribe, as well as sites of continuing significance to the Navajo Nation and other Indigenous Nations. Chaco Canyon flourished as a major cultural and ceremonial center between 850 and 1250 A.D., and its legacy remains central to the cultural identity, traditions, and ongoing practices of Indigenous peoples in the region. Chaco Canyon has also been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because the culture and heritage of the Indigenous peoples of the American Southwest are inextricably linked to the ongoing protection of the Greater Chaco Landscape.
The DOI is rushing to overturn protections, giving the public a total of only 21 non-contiguous days to weigh in, and does not plan to hold any public meetings. This hasty and deficient process stands in stark contrast to the robust public process used to create the withdrawal, which included 150 days for public comment, 8 public meetings, and 1.5 years of careful consideration. In addition to DOI’s “preferred alternative,” which would remove protections all together, the DOI has also proposed a second alternative that would reduce the size of the buffer around the park to only 5 miles. Although only 15-20 percent of the area has been surveyed, archaeologists estimate that as many as 12,000 cultural sites and traditional cultural places lie within the 5-10-mile zone, all of which would be exposed to harmful drilling under this second option.
With nearly 90% of the region already leased before protections were put in place, intensive drilling has caused significant harm to the health of local and Indigenous communities, air quality, and cultural integrity in the landscape surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Oil and gas wells, roads, pipelines, and other infrastructure have destroyed significant cultural sites and transformed others into industrial wastelands. To allow new leasing on public lands in this area would completely disregard the calls from Tribes, including the 20 sovereign Pueblos that collectively participate in the All Pueblo Council of Governors, the National Congress of American Indians, the Mescalero Apache Tribe, elected officials, and other communities who share a deep connection to Chaco Canyon.
Without this critical safeguard in place, the landscape is at great risk of being further degraded. The Greater Chaco region has already suffered from significant damage to air, water, and public health due to oil and gas extraction, and unrestrained oil and gas development will jeopardize the longevity of invaluable traditions and cultures.
This proposal is part of a much larger effort by the administration and DOI leadership to turn over public lands, including places with exceptional conservation and cultural values like the Greater Chaco Landscape, to the oil and gas industry. Already, the July 2025 federal budget reconciliation bill required the Bureau of Land Management to offer a staggering 87% of New Mexico’s public and private lands with federally managed subsurface minerals for oil and gas leasing several times each year. This administration is seeking to elevate oil and gas above all other uses of public lands, even in areas with irreplaceable values like Chaco Canyon and where there is widespread opposition from local communities. A Colorado College poll released this year found that 71% of voters in New Mexico oppose allowing energy development on public lands near Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Further, the administration’s recent FY2027 budget proposal zeros-out funding for managing cultural resources across the country, including in the highly-significant landscape surrounding Chaco Canyon.
Below, multiple organizations have released statements detailing what this reversal could mean for the Greater Chaco Area:
“This proposal is a step backwards into a history we have fought hard to move beyond,” said Keegan King, Executive Director, Native Land Institute. “The Greater Chaco Landscape holds the origins of our Pueblo world, and it has already endured serious damage from decades of unchecked development. To strip away protections now, against the clear opposition of Tribal Nations, shows a disregard for our sovereignty, our health, and our future. The Native Land Institute stands with the Pueblos and all Tribal Nations in demanding that the federal government honor its trust responsibility and keep this landscape protected.”
“The proposed rollback of protections for the Greater Chaco Landscape is coming amid a broader wave of federal actions that are narrowing Tribal input, accelerating extraction and infrastructure approvals, and treating sacred places and public lands as obstacles rather than living homelands,” said Marissa Naranjo, Deputy Director of Sovereign Energy. “For Pueblo peoples, Chaco is an active cultural landscape tied to migration histories, ceremony, sacred sites, and ongoing responsibilities to the land and each other. Undoing these protections through a rushed process sends a dangerous signal across Indian Country that even places recognized globally for their cultural significance can still be sacrificed for short-term industrial interests. Tribal Nations and frontline communities deserve meaningful consultation, adequate time to respond, and protection of federal trust responsibilities.”
“We are appalled that Secretary Burgum is moving to revoke the mineral withdrawal and put Chaco’s 10-mile zone of protection and the Greater Chaco Landscape at risk. The amazing cultural heritage of Chaco Culture National Historical Park must not be compromised. As the process moves forward, a 14-day comment period is ridiculously short and not compliant with established practice. This process should unfold with a 90-day NEPA process and public meetings, allowing the public to fully participate,” said Paul F. Reed, New Mexico State Director, Archaeology Southwest.
“This decision sends a dangerous message that no place, not even one that holds a thousand years of history, is too important to sacrifice for oil and gas drilling,” said Maude Dinan, New Mexico Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “Chaco Canyon is one of the most extraordinary cultural landscapes in our National Park System and has endured as a place of community and connection that continues to hold profound meaning for Tribes today. Now, the Trump administration is auctioning it off to the oil and gas industry, trading sacred and scenic vistas for pumpjacks and the drum of drilling. This is not about energy strategy. It’s an attack on cultural heritage, community health, and all that our national parks were created to protect.”
“What we stand to lose with the Greater Chaco Region is a living, cultural landscape, sacred to the Pueblos and the Diné People whose connections to this place remain active today,” said Michael Casaus, New Mexico State Director at The Wilderness Society. “An attack on Chaco disregards millennia of Indigenous stewardship and ignores the hundreds of thousands of people who have called for its protection from reckless drilling. The decisions made now will define what future generations inherit, with lasting consequences for cultural preservation, community health, and this irreplaceable landscape.”
“The breathtaking speed with which DOI is unraveling protections for the Greater Chaco landscape indicates a predetermined result and complete apathy toward public opinion,” said Sally Paez, Staff Attorney for New Mexico Wild. “Over 100,000 people expressed their outrage during the seven-day scoping period; the public strongly supports protecting Chaco for current and future generations. Despite this, DOI continues to fast track a decision that will harm our shared cultural heritage, public health, climate, wildlands, wildlife habitat, and Chaco’s famous dark skies.”
“The Chaco Culture National Historical Park represents a significant part of the cultural history of this continent and must continue to be preserved and protected,” declared Charlotte Overby, New Mexico-based Vice President of Conservation Field Programs at the Conservation Lands Foundation. “The administration’s attempt to short-circuit federal law with a reduced public comment period represents a significant betrayal of the promise of America: we must honor and defend significant historical sites like Chaco Canyon, defend Tribal sovereignty, and not sell public lands off to the highest bidder for oil and gas drilling that will endanger the remarkable evidence of an important native culture that thrived there. Defiling Chaco Canyon in this way will send a signal that nothing in this country is precious and everything is worth only what it can be sold for, and it will deprive all people from learning the stories of the Native people who have lived here since time immemorial.”
“Opening up the Greater Chaco Region to reckless oil and gas drilling means an irreplaceable crown jewel of New Mexico public lands – home to thousands of archaeological and cultural sites of deep importance – will be at needless risk of destruction. This misguided decision means that all sorts of oil and gas wells, pipelines and infrastructure will degrade these sacred lands, pollute the air we breathe and the water we drink – jeopardizing public health, wildlife, and the longevity of traditions and cultures that are inextricably linked to this region,” said Jesse Deubel, Executive Director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation.
“Removing the buffer zone protecting public lands in and around Chaco Canyon invites dangerous pollution to a place sacred to Indigenous peoples and local communities, and valued worldwide. With over 90 percent of nearby public lands already leased for drilling, it’s unacceptable for this Interior Department to turn a UNESCO World Heritage Site into a sacrifice zone,” said Gabrielle Uballez, Executive Director at New Mexico Voices for Children.
“Chaco Cultural National Historical Park has incalculable ecological and historical value. It is too special to be exposed to oil and gas drilling. The park is one of the last sanctuaries for desert animals seeking respite from surrounding drilling and human interference,” said Ellen Montgomery, Great Outdoors Campaign Director for Environment New Mexico. “Protecting this special place has overwhelming public support in New Mexico and across the country. The protections enacted in 2023 should be left in place.”
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