August/September 1998 Issue Volume 27, No.5

Cental New Mexico Audubon Society Newsletter

Burrowing Owl

Alert: New Proposal Threatens Wetlands

The following is an alert posted on the Audubon website and can be reviewed at www.audubon.org/campaign/aa/aa980629.html. Please note that the period for public comment on this proposal ends locally August 7 and ends nationally Ausgust 25.

The Army Corps of Engineers released a controversial new proposal on Friday, July 26th, to establish "quick permits" allowing the dredge and fill of wetlands. The new permits will replace Nationwide Permit 26 (NWP 26), which the Corps had promised to phase out by the end of this year.

NWP 26 currently allows the destruction of up to three acres of isolated or headwater wetlands. The Corps had promised to rewrite NWP 26 so that it would reduce impacts on wetlands and streams. The Corps' new proposal would allow dredge and fill permits in more wetlands and streams than the current permit.

The new quick permits would allow up to 3 acres of any non-tidal wetland to be destroyed for development or farms, and up to 10 acres of any non-tidal wetland to be destroyed as part of a "Master Planned Development." For some impacts the Corps will not have to be notified, while for others only a brief notice to the Corps will be

needed to proceed with construction. The traditional requirement that wetlands be avoided where possible will not be applied. Additionally, resource agencies will not be given time to review the potential impacts of each permit and no public input will be allowed. Mitigation will be required for some but not all impacts caused by the permits.

The Corps is also seeking public comment on a "regional conditioning process," whereby the Corps district offices would place additional restrictions on the use of these new permits. The public has until August 7 to make suggestions to their local Corps office (in Albuquerque 342-3432).

The national comment period for the new "quick" permit ends August 25. For more details please contact Julie Sibbing 202-861-2242, or jsibbing@audubon.org.

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Alert: Baca Location Ranch Acquisition

The Future in Whose Hands? from Beth Hurst-Waitz, President

On Friday, July 17, I joined other Audubon representatives in a special tour of the Baca Location Ranch. This nearly 100,000-acre property, situated in the heart of the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico, features the caldera, or Valle Grande, of a collapsed volcano and numerous resurgent domes, the loftiest being Redondo Peak at 11,000+ feet. It is an area of current geothermal activity and the site of a Geothermal Resource *