Protest Period Open for Upcoming New Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale
Protests due: May 14
Hi Friend,
The Sale Notice for the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management July 2025 Oil and Gas Lease Sale is now available. According to the website and documents, the Bureau of Land Management is analyzing 16 parcels, totaling 7,502 acres.
Protests are due by Wednesday, May 14.
Rocky Mountain Wild has prepared a screen showing conflicts between the proposed parcels and important wildlife, wilderness, and other resources values including:
- Parcels in the Brantley Wildlife Area
- Parcels in Gypsum wild-buckwheat designated critical habitat
- Parcels on lands within 10 miles of Carlsbad Caverns National Park
- Parcels within an area identified as a priority corridor region for pronghorn
- Parcels in other habitat for terrestrial species of economic and recreational importance
Plus, three parcels, NM-2025-07-0492, NM-2025-07-0493 and NM-2025-07-0499, are in areas identified in Bureau of Land Management published Reasonable Foreseeable Development Scenario Documents as having low potential for oil and gas development and are more that 2 miles from currently active wells.
Please take a moment and send your protests to the Bureau of Land Management asking them to protect the wildlife and wild lands in this region by removing affected areas from the proposed parcels list. Protest directions can be found in the "
Documents" section of the Q3 2025 Oil and Gas Lease Sale webpage.
To date, we have helped defer more than 3 million acres of public land from oil and gas development! Together, we can save even more.
Additional Resources:
Oil & Gas Toolkit - including a guide from our Senior Conservation Biologist, Megan Mueller, on how to write technical comments about impacts to plan and animal species. Check it out under "Writing comments and Protects" here
Virtual Event Recording: Oil and Gas Lease Sale Comment Writing Workshop
July 2025 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease e-planning website
New Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sales webpage
For the wild!
Chris Talbot (they/them)
Communications Director, Leadership Team
Rocky Mountain Wild
P.S. RMW scopes each and every oil and gas lease sale in our region. Help fund this important work with a
one-time or monthly donation here.
Header:
Gypsum wild-buckwheat, northeast of the Seven Rivers Hills, southwest of the confluence of the Pecos River and the Seven Rivers in Eddy County, New Mexico. Courtesy of Patric Alexander (public domain).
