Restore New Mexico
Restore New Mexico was launched by the Bureau of Land Management in 2005 to "restore" over 3 million acres of land with a focus on "controlling invasive brush species" and "reducing woodland encroachment." Carried out in partnership with ranchers, the program was based on the premise that so-called "virtual wastelands of creosote and mesquite" need to be reconverted into "fragile desert grasslands."[1]
The program denigrates Native forest + bushland as "desert" or "wastelands" to justify its conversion into "grassland":
"Creosote and mesquite deserts are being replaced with healthy grasslands"
"Overgrown woodlands are being restored to open savannas with abundant grasses"
The BLM celebrates this as a model for "rangeland conservation."[2]
This is based on the BLM's false history which erases historical deforestation across the region and falsely characterizes Native ecosystems of Mesquite and Creosote as "invasive," and "noxious" despite their biocultural and ecological value and provision of food, medicine, habitat and more:
"In the early 19th Century, grasslands dominated much of New Mexico. Over the past century, however, grasses have given way to invasive and noxious species like creosote, mesquite."[3]
The centrality of deforestation to the program's 'restoration' efforts is abundantly clear from official pages listing Accomplishments':
"thinning of overgrown forests, reductions in mesquite, creosote and salt cedar, plus the reclamation of abandoned oil fields"[4]
Fact Sheets
All three of Restore New Mexico's 'fact sheets' frankly describe the methods and goals of deforestation as central to its efforts.[5]
The first flier on "restoring desert grasslands" claims that "the first step in restoring native desert grasslands is the use of herbicides that kill the creosote."[6]
The second flier on "restoring desert grasslands" laments that "of the 15 million acres of desert grasslands in southern New Mexico, about two-thirds (10 million acres) have been invaded" and "are dominated by mesquite and other invasive plants."[7]
A third flier on prescribed burning praises the program's use of fire in "removing thick vegetation and reversing the intrusion of pinon and juniper into grasslands" as "restoring open woodlands."[8]
Millionth Acre Celebration
More than 100 partners gathered in Roswell, New Mexico, on October 16, 2009 to celebrate the initiative's "restoration" of over a million acres.
While there, they listened to Russel Fox explain mesquite removal efforts. Live demonstrations were provided of extractors killing trees and plans spraying herbicides.
Larry Nichols, President of Devon Energy, and Ray Miller, Secretary/Treasurer of Marbob Energy, received One Million Acre Awards from BLM New Mexico State Director Linda Rundell. Richard Ranger, Senior Policy Advisor at the American Petroleum Institute, received the Pecos District Restore Award.
Partnerships
Fossil Fuel Companies
Cattle Ranchers
At the New Mexico Joint Stockmen’s Convention in December 2014, the BLM presented Bill Wrye with the BLM 2014 Restore New Mexico Land Stewardship Award.
The Wyres worked with BLM on vegetative "treatments" including aerial herbicide "treatments" on over 8,900 acres to reduce sagebrush and thinning juniper on the Oscura Allotment, which includes over 33,400 acres of Federal land, 29,000 acres of state, and 11,500 acres of lands controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps).[10]
- ↑ https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/573cda13e4b0dae0d5e4b15a
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160929014600/http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/restore_new_mexico.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160930164750/http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/restore_new_mexico/what_is_restore.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160930164751/http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/restore_new_mexico/restore_new_mexico.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160930165304/http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/restore_new_mexico/Restore_New_Mexico_Fact_Sheets.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160930165304/http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/restore_new_mexico/Restore_New_Mexico_Fact_Sheets.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170323074323/https://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/nm/programs/restore_new_mexico/restore_documents.Par.64616.File.dat/Restoring%20Desert%20Grasslands%20-%20Mesquite%20Treatments%20in%20Pecos_V2.pdf
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170217014900/https://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/nm/programs/restore_new_mexico/restore_documents.Par.28666.File.dat/Restoring_woodland_savannahs_central_nm_DH.pdf
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160930165155/http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/restore_new_mexico/photo_gallery.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160930164819/http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/info/news_releases0/2014/december/rancher_honored_for.html