Sierra Club: Rio Grande Chapter

06/18/2026

"The Rio Fire in the Jemez is burning on the Mesa de La Gallina about 3 miles north of Chicoma Mountain, according to a news release from the U.S. Forest Service. The agency said the fire had grown to 128 acres Wednesday night, burning on rocky terrain in “an old, burned area with heavy fuels, Ponderosa pine and brush."

The U.S. Forest Service has sent crews and helicopters to fight the Rio Fire.

06/15/2026

"2025 saw a rapid expansion of bark beetle-caused deaths with 209,000 acres of conifers now dead — up from 67,000 acres in 2024 — mostly on national forest land managed by the USFS. 'Fall and winter temperatures remained warmer and drier, allowing bark beetles to remain active late in the season,' the report concluded. 'Large areas of ponderosa and piñon forests saw significant mortality from bark beetles, especially in the southern part of the state. Areas near burn scars from large wildfires continue to experience bark beetle attack on residual trees.'”

Tree deaths tripled in New Mexico during the second warmest year on record, according to new analysis of the state’s forest health from the U.S. Forest Service and New Mexico Forestry Division. 2025 saw a rapid expansion of bark beetle-caused deaths with 209,000 acres of conifers now dead — up f...

06/11/2026

The data center boom is pulling the curtain back on what our digital lives are costing communities when it comes to protecting their land, scarce water resources, and pollution from electric power generation. See what's happening in Raton.

Officials in Raton, New Mexico, delayed a decision on a data center moratorium after signing an agreement with a developer earlier this year.

06/11/2026

This June, the state Water Quality Control Commission will write the rules to take SB 21 from a guiding framework to an actionable set of guardrails to safeguard our precious waterways. But people and communities are not the only ones who need clean water and will benefit from strong, comprehensive rules.

The question before the Water Quality Control Commission this June is more than procedural, it’s existential. The final rules the commission writes will define the future of New Mexico’s water, and whether future generations of people and wildlife will have this resource, or not.

The commission needs to hear New Mexicans speak out in support of strong rules. Public comments can be given every day until 1 p.m. June 18, in person or virtually.

It’s another dry year in New Mexico — an extraordinarily dry one. One hundred percent of the state is in drought, iconic waterways like the Rio Grande are at risk

06/11/2026

Private equity companies are harming our health care and elder care, and now they're coming for our essential services. The PRC should be open and transparent in their proceedings and the state should use it's windfall funds to invest in our utility and it's renewable future.

One of the more consequential discussions about which company will run New Mexico’s largest public utility is taking place today at the Public Regulation Commission.

06/11/2026

Heartbreaking and innovative. "Lincoln County is among the first places in the country to use buyouts specifically to address post-fire flooding. As climate change exacerbates these compounding disasters across the Western U.S., the community’s new effort offers one path forward for mountain towns fighting to survive."

Lincoln County, New Mexico, wants to turn flood-prone properties into public land with help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

06/11/2026

Local action leading the way on protecting communities from data centers: In addition to prohibiting data center developments on unincorporated county land for a year, the moratorium began the process of forming an advisory committee of experts and residents to study and recommend regulations around such developments. Currently, Socorro County lacks zoning regulations as its population of farmers and ranchers have historically rejected the notion of the government telling them what to do on their land.

After months of opposition from residents, Socorro County, NM commissioners approved a yearlong moratorium on data centers.

06/11/2026

Senator "Sell Off" Mike Lee continues to put our public lands at risk, this time trying to undermine our “Roadless Rule,” which protects roughly millions of acres of federal forestland from road construction and timber harvesting.

A legislative repeal allows the USDA to bypass its administrative process, including public comment, in removing federal forestland protections.

06/11/2026

So far this year, 534 wildfires have ignited on state or private lands or grown large enough to impact state or private lands. That’s the highest number of wildfire ignitions between January and May since at least 2021, where between 249 and 389 wildfires ignited.

Several culprits are behind the unusually high number of ignitions, said state Forestry Communications Director George Ducker. The biggest is the woefully low snowpack that afflicted New Mexico and the rest of the year, he said. But he also noted that dry lightning caused a spree of wildfires in the eastern plains earlier this spring, and ongoing drought has exacerbated dry conditions even in areas that don’t receive snowpack.

State Forestry statistics show relatively few acres burned so far in 2026

06/10/2026