Sponsors (3)
The bill secures large blocks of public land for conservation, tribal participation, and water/infrastructure protection—improving habitat, scenery, and management clarity—while trading off restricted motorized access, limits on extractive development and local revenues, and added federal administrative burden and potential legal/enforcement frictions.
Residents, visitors, and wildlife on roughly 85,000+ acres (across multiple designated areas) will see long-term protection from development and extractive uses, preserving scenic, ecological, cultural, and wildlife habitat values.
Indigenous and tribal communities gain formal roles in management, can be named cooperating agencies, and can have Indigenous knowledge and cultural access incorporated into stewardship decisions.
Residents and visitors will experience reduced unauthorized motorized use and improved safety and recreation quality due to limits on motorized access, road decommissioning, and designated travel routes.
Local landowners, motorized recreation users, and some visitors will lose vehicle access or face restricted routes as undesignated roads are decommissioned and motorized use is limited, reducing access and some recreational uses.
Prospective miners, energy developers, and holders of some commercial permits face lost opportunities and local governments and taxpayers may see reduced lease/royalty revenue because lands are withdrawn from mining, leasing, and disposal.
Federal agencies and partner organizations will incur additional administrative workload and implementation costs (planning, surveys, appraisals, monitoring, stewardship agreements) that may require appropriations or reallocate agency resources.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Designates the Caja del Rio NCA and SMA in New Mexico, limits new roads and motorized use, requires management/travel plans with tribal participation, and withdraws mapped lands from new mining/leasing/disposal.
Official title: To establish the Caja del Rio Special Management Area and Caja del Rio National Conservation Area in the State of New Mexico, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 30, 2026 by Teresa Leger Fernandez · Last progress April 30, 2026
Creates the Caja del Rio National Conservation Area (about 17,837 acres of BLM land) and the Caja del Rio Special Management Area (about 67,163 acres of Forest Service land) in New Mexico, directs federal management to conserve cultural, spiritual, scenic, ecological, wildlife habitat, and traditional values, and limits uses to those consistent with those purposes and tribal practices. It requires management and travel plans, restricts new road construction and motorized use (with limited exceptions), directs decommissioning of undesignated roads, authorizes ecological restoration and limited land acquisition, and withdraws mapped federal lands from new mining, leasing, and disposal. The law emphasizes tribal participation: consulting and including interested Indian Tribes as cooperating agencies, incorporating Indigenous knowledge on request, and protecting tribal access for traditional cultural, religious, and subsistence uses. It preserves valid existing rights and existing grazing where consistent with law and allows specific administrative, emergency, and tribal-use exceptions to access restrictions.