First of all, we would like to express to you our sincere gratitude for your support at our informational meetings last year. These meetings contributed to letter writing campaign, “Stop the Quarry,” unlike many of our politicians have ever seen. We received a letter from Governor Richardson remarking “how we have made our case” due to the many letters generated from our groups. There were additional favorable comments from other politicians as well.

Let’s get to the Quarry business first. To date, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Taos Field Office is about four months behind in the Resource Management Plan (RMP). As a reminder this is the process by which the Taos Field office evaluates public land use under their jurisdiction every 20 years. The proposed quarry decision is wrapped up in that process. In May 2008, you no doubt will hear from us again for we will have a final comment period for the 3 or 4 alternative uses that BLM will put forth for which they will base their decisions. The final decision will be paid in September 2009. You must put pen to paper one more time!

In July of last year, after the comment period ended, we filed for an extension. We asked for an additional 30 days which was granted. Senator Bingaman assisted us in that effort.
After the comment period, the BLM issued a report summarizing the letters received from the public (www.nm.blm.gov). As the report fell short, in our opinion, of addressing some issues, we subsequently met with State Director Rundell at the BLM state office. Since then we have followed BLM’s efforts. We will be introducing a Corridor Management Plan (CMP) from 2006 authored by the Turquoise Trail Association to the BLM office in early December, and will follow with an Executive Summary of that document. Meanwhile, we anxiously await the forthcoming information on the preferred alternative for land use in the San Pedro Mountains.