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Last week, President Trump illegally dismantled protections for nearly 3 million acres of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. In response, NRDC is preparing to take the administration to court to protect our national monuments. And now, in an escalation of the Trump administration’s attacks on our public lands, we’ve learned that the administration is moving forward with its scheme to remove protections for sacred lands around New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park — and we only have until the July 29 deadline to submit public comments. This shortened comment period is a deliberate attempt by the Trump administration to stifle public input while they give away public lands to the oil and gas industry. We won’t let them. Revoking protections around one of the world’s most important living cultural landscapes sets a dangerous precedent for all of our national parks and monuments. It will jeopardize even more of our nation’s last remaining natural landscapes, leaving an indelible mark, and exacerbate health impacts that Indigenous communities are already experiencing from oil and gas drilling in the Greater Chaco region. Sincerely, P.S. Find out more on our Instagram and by reading our original action below.
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Dear NRDC Activist, Sacred ancestral landscapes... National Historical Park… UNESCO World Heritage Site… International Dark Sky Park… Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico is iconic, but the Trump administration just wants to open it up to dirty oil and gas drilling. WHAT’S HAPPENING But before the administration can fully revoke protections, they are required to solicit public comments on this devastating plan. They will be giving us just days to get all our comments in. The Trump administration has been shortening public comment periods, among other tactics, in an apparent attempt to stifle public input in important federal agency decisions — because they know that we, the people, have power to mobilize the public and influence policy decisions. Public comment periods are a critical tool for helping organizations like NRDC ensure government decisions follow the law. Now more than ever, we need as many people as possible to speak out. WHY IT MATTERS Giving the public just days to provide input also sets a dangerous precedent after the years of comprehensive environmental review, consultation with Tribes on potential impacts, and public input from supporters like you to achieve the compromise of a 10-mile protection buffer around Chaco — this could all be quickly undone. WHAT’S AT STAKE More than 90 percent of the Greater Chaco region has already been leased for oil and gas drilling. This has caused damaging health impacts on local Indigenous communities, including chronic symptoms like sinus irritation, burning eyes, and joint pain, as well as exposure to probable cancer-causing chemicals. New Mexico families struggle with these health hazards while the Trump administration continues to lease stolen ancestral lands for drilling in areas outside the protected zone. WHAT NRDC IS DOING But we also need NRDC’s over 3 million members and supporters like you to weigh in to ensure Chaco ancestral lands are protected for generations to come. Sincerely,
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The mission of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.
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