VALLE VIDAL – VALLEY OF ABUNDANT LIFE
On June 14, 1985 during the dedication of the Valle Vidal as a unit of the Carson National Forest, US Forest Service Chief Max Peterson told the assembled dignitaries, government employees, and ranching neighbors that the Forest Services would manage the unit to protect its prime resource – its wildlife.

Located in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico, the Valle Vidal is home to a magnificent array of wildlife, including 60 species of mammals, 33 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 15 varieties of fish. In addition to being a home and calving ground to the State’s largest elk herd, the Valle Vidal contains mountain lion, turkey, buffalo, and the native Río Grande cutthroat trout.

The Valle Vidal also comprises the headwaters of the Río Costilla in the Río Grande watershed, and numerous streams in the Arkansas River drainage. As a source of fresh water, wildlife, firewood, and grazing, the Valle Vidal is an important resource base for the agrarian communities of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. With its hiking trails, ponds, lakes and grazing lands, the Valle Vidal is a special place for hunters, anglers, ranchers, boy scouts, hikers, skiers, wildlife viewers, photographers, and tourists from across the nation.

In December 2006, thanks to the efforts of the Coalition for the Valle Vidal, President Bush signed legislation that prohibited oil drilling and mining in the Valle Vidal.

Destruction of the Valle Vidal would have not only irreparably harmed wildlife populations and obliterated one of New Mexico’s most spectacular vistas, but would have impacted the rural economy that depends upon the Valle Vidal – from ranchers to outfitters to the 3,000 Boy Scouts who camp each year within the Valle Vidal’s meadows.

With the realization that coalbed methane production would disrupt the healthy ecosystem of the Valle, as well as the activities of the many human users of the site, the Coalition for the Valle Vidal worked to protect the 40,000 acres at risk to energy development. With six million acres of the Raton Basin already under production, we sought to ‘set aside’ this special place, and protect the Valle Vidal from all energy development, now and in the future.

On a broader scale, our effort is part of a national movement to reform our national energy policy. Currently, this policy strives to shut the public out of the process, fails to hold public agencies and industries accountable for impacts on the environment and surrounding communities, and in most cases, makes the de facto assumption that energy production is the most important use of public lands.

Protecting Valle Vidal was a tremendous opportunity for New Mexicans to unequivocally state that public lands are held in trust for all Americans – not just the highest bidders.

COALITION FOR THE VALLE VIDAL

In 2004, Amigos Bravos and a small group of partners established the Coalition for the Valle Vidal in order to mount an aggressive campaign to defeat Bush administration plans to fast-track coalbed methane (CBM) drilling in the pristine Valle Vidal area of the Carson National Forest. Amigos Bravos serves as chair of the Coalition Steering Committee and is the Coalition’s fiscal agent.

The Coalition includes over 400 New Mexico local governments, private businesses, and community organizations, as well as more than 70,000 individuals throughout the political spectrum across New Mexico and the USA.

We worked to halt El Paso Corporation’s plans to drill the Valle Vidal, force the Forest Service to adopt a Citizen Alternative for the Valle Vidal management plan, and ensure that the Valle Vidal was permanently protected by Congress from extractive industry. We have had considerable success, as evidenced by the over 70,000 letters sent to the Forest Service and the adoption of legislation introduced by Representative Udall and Senator Bingaman to permanently withdraw the Valle Vidal from extractive industry. To achieve these successes, we are pursued multiple options to blunt or prevent the Forest Service from opening up the Valle Vidal to coalbed methane leases and drilling. These included:

• Building a large and diverse constituency to apply public pressure on the New Mexico Congressional delegation and the Forest Service to provide permanent protection for the Valle Vidal
• Instituting regulatory roadblocks to drilling by nominating McCrystal and North Ponil creeks for protection under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the Valle Vidal as a Traditional Cultural Property under the Historic Preservation Act, as well as working with Representative Udall and Senator Bingaman to win passage of their bills to permanently withdraw the Valle Vidal from extractive industry
• Producing legal and technical reports, fact sheets, and power point presentations to bolster the economic, cultural, and social arguments for permanent protection, to educate the public and decision-makers regarding environmental and economic impacts from coalbed methane development, and to develop a Citizen’s Alternative to drilling.

COAL-BED METHANE

Coalbed methane development involves pumping off large amounts of water trapped in coal seams with methane gas. The process of extracting the gas includes building well pads, roads, pipeline corridors, and associated facilities like compressor stations and dehydration units. Other problems associated with coalbed methane development include the injection of hazardous chemicals into our aquifers during drilling processes; soil and groundwater contamination from toxic waste pits; the massive depletion of water from coal seams; subsidence; the leaking of methane at the surface, which impacts wildlife; and pipeline and well explosions, such as occurred in Carlsbad, NM, in March 2004. Under current guidelines, gas producers are not held liable for many damages effecting public health and safety, or the environment.

Coalbed methane development is already having devastating effects in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin and all across the western United States, where companies are scraping bare large swaths of land and contaminating air, soil and water resources with toxic, hazardous, and carcinogenic materials.

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