Petroglyph National Monument would have had a shot at a spot on the National Register of Historic Places under a project set to begin this fall.
Project lead Paul Reed — a preservation archaeologist and the New Mexico state director for Archaeology Southwest — was prepared to get started on the work with his colleagues. They had already completed a cultural landscape report, wherein they identified 29 interested pueblos and tribes who were associated with the petroglyphs and wanted to ensure the monument was afforded maximum protections.
Then, last month, the U.S. Department of the Interior nixed the project’s funding. It became one of four New Mexico projects the agency blocked financial support for — to the tune of $309,000 total — in a sea of nationwide disapprovals of National Park Service agreements with outside partners.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years through different programs with the Park Service and with our organization as a contractor, and projects sometimes get questions, we answer questions,” Reed said. “Sometimes they’re like, ‘OK, we’ll fund it next year,’ and they do. I’ve never seen this kind of a blockage before, so it definitely is unprecedented.”
The other blocked projects in New Mexico include:
- $100,607 for documentation research of Aztec Ruins National Monument for museum collections and the identification of items eligible to return to tribes
- $30,984 for the temporary hiring of an enrollee in the Experienced Services Program — which uses the skills of older workers, age 55 and up, to fill workplace gaps — at the National Trails Office in Santa Fe to help develop travel itineraries and create content
- $8,000 for maintenance of eight automated weather stations in and near Valles Caldera National Preserve
The projects were detailed in a nationwide {a style=”background-color: #ffffff;” href=”https://westernpriorities.org/resource/map-agreements-blocked-by-the-trump-administration-at-61-national-park-sites/” target=”_blank”}map{/a} released last week by nonpartisan conservation organization the Center for Western Priorities, which said the funding revocations indicate “how much disdain Interior secretary Doug Burgum has for America’s public lands.”
The Interior Department told The Washington Post earlier this month it had targeted projects that were “actively working against the best interests of the American people and the priorities of this administration.”
Nationwide, the department disapproved 140 National Park Service agreements with outside partners, like Archaeology Southwest. A handful of those agreements have been appealed or partially appealed, according to the Center for Western Priorities, but $25.9 million in cut funding remains.
Joshua Tree National Park in California lost 10 agreements, the most of any park unit.
The Association of National Park Rangers, a nonprofit that supports National Park Service employees, described the cuts as a “blow” to the many partner organizations the agency works with.
“The Association of National Park Rangers is disappointed that the Secretary of the Interior has looted these important projects in order to fund some of the vanity projects for the president in Washington DC,” executive director Bill Wade said in a statement. “Some of the cancelled projects involve potential impacts to resources and visitors, such as wildfire preparedness and hazard tree removal.”
Petroglyph National Monument sits on about 7,200 acres on Albuquerque’s West Mesa. One of the largest petroglyph sites in North America, it features more than 20,000 individual petroglyphs made by Indigenous people about 500 years ago — though some date back thousands of years.
The monument project would have involved exploring and documenting what makes it a traditional cultural property, Reed said, then submitting a National Register nomination. But the project cannot go on without its $169,127 in federal funds, so the project team plans to try again during the next funding cycle.
“And I have no crystal ball for what odds we have or how good of a chance there is,” Reed said.
Lily Alexander is a state accountability reporter for The New Mexican and Searchlight New Mexico, focusing on equity and transparency. Her position is part of the New Mexican Public Service Journalism Fund, and her stories are available to all readers without a paywall.
