Broken Beauty of the Badlands

Shaped by centuries of geologic change, New Mexico’s badlands have survived despite their surprising fragility. But new forms of oil and gas development are impacting highly erodable lands at a rate that threaten their existence and that of the rare plants founds only in these ancient soils.

The San Juan Basin Badlands in the Greater Chaco Region include both protected and unprotected areas. Outside of the few protected area in the basin, oil and gas development has been expanding in the area since the 1920s. 91% of public lands in northwest New Mexico are already leased for drilling, and much of the last 9% is in Greater Chaco Landscape. With the advance of fracking technology now capable to reaching oil and gas deposits in previously inaccessible the Mancos shale formation, oil and gas development is again expanding rapidly in the area. An outburst of development is taking place within areas such as Lybrook Badlands, The Black Place, and Angel Peak Scenic Area. Other areas near Cuba, NM are less impacted: Ceja Pelon Mesa, Penistaja Mesa, Fossil Forest. Extreme development on BLM lands has led to oil and gas roads, industrial infrastructure and traffic fragmenting habitat often into parcels too small for the area's sensitive species to thrive here.

Published in: April 2020 Issue of New Mexico Magazine, June 2021 Issue of Enchantment Magazine