Heinrich readies bills to convert sites to national parks

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) is planning to introduce legislation soon to convert two national monuments in his state to national parks.

Heinrich, along with several local officials and tribal leaders, announced Wednesday that he will file a bill that would create Bandelier National Park and Preserve in northern New Mexico. The legislation would prohibit oil and gas drilling as well as other extractive activities within the park's boundaries.

Part of the national park would be managed as a preserve aimed at protecting wildlife and increasing recreation opportunities for sportsmen and women.

"I look forward to working with all New Mexicans to ensure Bandelier's cultural treasures in particular, and northern New Mexico's history and natural beauty as a whole, finally receive the recognition and protection they have long deserved," Heinrich said during the announcement in New Mexico.

President Wilson established Bandelier National Monument in 1916 under the Antiquities Act; the area is known for its ancient pueblo dwellings along cliff faces of Frijoles Canyon.

"It is a place essential to the physical, spiritual and cultural identity of a number of Native American Pueblos in New Mexico and deserves the highest level of protection the U.S. government affords," said a fact sheet from Heinrich.

The bill also would establish a tribal advisory commission and would require that traditional and historical knowledge of the area be integrated into land management planning.

Separately, Heinrich plans to reintroduce a bill to redesignate White Sands National Monument as a national park.

Designated as a national monument in 1933, White Sands is in New Mexico's Doña Ana and Otero counties and is adjacent to the Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range. It's known for its glistening white dunes made up of the world's largest gypsum dune field.

The change of White Sands from monument to park status could generate between $6.2 million and $7.5 million in new spending, roughly 100 new jobs, and between $2.7 million and $3.3 million in labor income, according to 2018 estimates from Headwaters Economics, a nonpartisan independent research firm.

The same firm has estimated that national park status for Bandelier could result in $1.9 million to $2.3 million in new spending, up to 33 new jobs and up to $1 million in new labor income.

The National Park Service currently manages 10 national monuments in New Mexico and one national park, Carlsbad Caverns.

Tourism and outdoor recreation are important to New Mexico's economy. Earlier this month, the state Senate unanimously approved a bill to create an Outdoor Recreation Division within the state's Economic Development Department.

The last major burst of congressional action to convert national monuments to parks came in 1994, when the 103rd Congress converted California's Joshua Tree, Arizona's Saguaro and Death Valley on the state line of California and Nevada.