16. Department of the Interior · Notable
Abandon the 10-mile leasing buffer around Chaco Culture park
Printed page 523 16. Department of the Interior
“Abandon withdrawals of lands from leasing in the Thompson Divide of the White River National Forest, Colorado; the 10-mile buffer around Chaco Cultural Historic National Park in New Mexico (restoring the compromise forged in the Arizona Wilderness Act); and the Boundary Waters area in northern Minnesota if those withdrawals have not been completed.”
What has happened
- Attempted
The review the earlier pass said had not reached New Mexico had in fact reached it, and the correction is the finding: on 2026-07-15 the BLM opened public comment on a **draft environmental assessment for revoking Public Land Order No. 7923 in full**, the order that closed approximately 336,404 acres around Chaco Culture National Historical Park to mining and mineral leasing for twenty years. The BLM says in terms that it is acting "[f]ollowing Executive Order 14154 and Secretary's Order 3418" — the SO 3418 § 4(c) withdrawal review, applied here after all. Three alternatives are analyzed: no action (the 10-mile buffer stands); the Proposed Action, full revocation reopening all 336,404 acres under the 2003 Farmington Resource Management Plan; and partial revocation reopening everything beyond a 5-mile buffer. Comments closed 2026-07-29. `attempted` and not more: nothing has been revoked. A revocation under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act takes a Public Land Order published in the Federal Register, and the only two Public Land Orders published since 2026-06-01 are a Utah extension (No. 7970) and a Louisiana radio-beacon revocation (No. 7969). Neither touches PLO 7923. Nothing else changed: the Federal Register full-text search for "Chaco" since 2025-01-20 still returns only two repatriation notices, and Interior's 2025-2026 press releases record New Mexico oil and gas lease sales without reference to the buffer.
- BLM press release: BLM Seeks Input on Proposed Withdrawal Revocation Near Chaco Culture National Historical Park — draft environmental assessment on revoking Public Land Order No. 7923, whose Proposed Action is full revocation of the 336,404-acre withdrawal; comments closed 2026-07-29
- Secretary's Order 3418, signed text — §4 directs action plans to suspend, revise or rescind SO 3398, SO 3399 and SO 3401 and the Biden-era rules listed with them
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Public Land Order 7923 withdrew federal minerals within ten miles of Chaco Culture National Historical Park for twenty years in June 2023. Like the Thompson Divide, it was complete before the window opened.
- How this was found, after two earlier searches missed it (2026-09-06). BLM’s National NEPA Register could not be searched: its search returns the identical page for “Chaco”, for “Thompson Divide” and for a nonsense control query, and its results load only for signed-in users. BLM’s own site search, which runs on search.usa.gov (https://search.usa.gov/search?affiliate=blm.govdrupal&query=…), could be read, and a nonsense query there returns no results, so its answers are real. That search is how this was found.
- Neither the Federal Register full-text search nor the federal records we keep and search would ever have found this: a draft environmental assessment on a proposed withdrawal revocation is not a Federal Register document. Only the Public Land Order that ends it will be.
- Related: #1471 (Thompson Divide) and #1473 (Boundary Waters) share this Quote. The same BLM site search returns nothing in the window for Thompson Divide.
- Action
- withdraw
- Object
- 10-mile leasing buffer around Chaco Cultural Historic National Park
- ID
- 1472