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Heinrich, Luján and Leger Fernández ask for national monument in waning days of Biden administration
The Caja del Rio area west of Santa Fe is shown in August 2021. Three members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation are continuing a push to designate the Caja del Rio a national monument before President Joe Biden’s term comes to a close.
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Three members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation want the Caja del Rio to be designated a national monument in the last 10 days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
The 106,000-acre Caja del Rio plateau west of Santa Fe is a patchwork of federally and state-managed public lands.
Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, as well as Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, are asking Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack to recommend the Caja del Rio plateau be designated a national monument before Biden’s presidency comes to an end Jan. 20.
“The Caja del Rio is a living testament to centuries of New Mexico’s complicated and under-told history,” the letter reads.
Sent Jan. 7, the letter is the most recent push in an ongoing campaign led by Pueblo leaders and Santa Fe city and county officials to get more protections for the plateau. In December, the congressional delegation as a whole urged Biden to take action on the designation.
