The Caja del Rio Plateau is one of the most culturally and ecologically rich landscapes in the entire Southwest. Located southwest of Santa Fe, it contains thousands of petroglyphs, innumerable sacred sites and vital wildlife corridors. The Caja is still used today by surrounding sovereign Pueblo nations and local Hispano communities for a wide variety of traditional land uses. This 107,000-acre expanse of piñon-juniper savanna and dramatic basalt canyons connects us to our past and each other, and demands protection.

Despite this, the landscape faces immediate threat from proposals for a major bypass route to Los Alamos, and a highly impactful powerline to feed LANL’s growing energy needs. This development would permanently industrialize this fragile plateau, desecrating its cultural sites, severing its wildlife corridors, and adversely impacting the traditional land uses of the surrounding communities.