San Juan Basin Badlands National Monument ?

May 2009 -The Sierra Club believes that the San Juan Badlands are strong candidates for inclusion in the National Landscape Conservation System, and that all nine as a group could well form the BLM-administered “San Juan Basin Badlands National Monument."

Walking through Ceja Pelon Mesa’s petrified logjams, near Cuba, is as close to time travel as you can get. The 55-million-yearold downed quartz trees flourished back when the San Juan Basin was a richly forested network of rivers, streams, lakes, bogs, and floodplains. Dinosaurs were gone, mammals would eventually inherit the earth, but the top predators of the time were giant flightless birds. Fifty-feet-long logs with 6-feet-diameter bases lay strewn about where they were buried in tangled piles by floods. Volcanic ash showers from the San Juan Mountains provided trace metals and extra silicates, which insured brilliant colors and detailed crystalline copies of bark, knotholes, and tree rings. In my experience Ceja Pelon hides the largest concentration of huge petrified logs in New Mexico and is second only to Petrified Forest National Park, in Arizona.

Whenever I hike the Ceja Pelon badlands, I’m troubled by a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) pamphlet entitled “Fossils on America’s Public Lands,” which states: “You can collect up to 25 pounds of petrified wood (plus one piece) per day and up to 250 pounds per year.” Since the pamphlet also says it is illegal to collect petrified wood on public lands for subsequent sale purposes, why would a hobbyist need so much? Just 10 people could carry off over a ton of wood in a year, and at that rate the 55-million-yearold logs would disappear.

All nine San Juan Basin (SJB) badlands are on public lands and have significant fossil resources of some sort. The Bisti, De Na Zin, and Ojito wildernesses and Ah Shi Sle Pah Wilderness Study Area (WSA) are off-limits to collecting and already part of the BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System as authorized by the recent federal Omnibus Public Land Management Act (thanks to Senator Bingaman and the rest of the NM delegation). But significant petrified wood caches at Ceja Pelon, Penistaja, west Mesa De Cuba, and to a lesser extent San Jose, are totally unprotected.

The Sierra Club feels that the remaining five SJB badlands – Ceja Pelon, Penistaja, Mesa De Cuba, San Jose, and Lybrook – are also strong candidates for inclusion in the National Landscape Conservation System, and that all nine as a group could well form the BLM-administered “San Juan Basin Badlands National Monument.” Meanwhile, we want to protect them while we pursue these long-range goals.

Log onto PhotoTrekNM.com, the leading source of San Juan Basin Badlands images and information, and take the petrified wood photo tour (www.phototreknm.com/PetrifiedWood/PetrifiedWood.htm). Better yet, join one of the upcoming outings I’ll be doing to Ceja Pelon. The first one is a combined trip with the Northern and Central groups, scheduled for September 26.

All nine badlands lie within the Rio Puerco and Farmington BLM Field Office districts, which are both currently reviewing their Resource Management Plans. Now is the time to submit comments regarding public lands use and status within these districts. The Rio Grande Chapter has already sent letters, and individual members are also invited to do so. With help from all of us, maybe the majestic logs will be around for at least a few thousand more years.

For more information, contact Michael Richie (505/255-1016, sjbbadlands@comcast.net). —Michael Richie