Alan Barton, NMFWRI Director
2026 marks a milestone in the history of the United States, as we celebrate 250 years as an independent nation. The July 4 holiday marks the date on which the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, penned primarily by Thomas Jefferson to assert sovereignty over the American territory and to state the grievances that motivated separation from Britain. Equally as important is the type of nation that this document envisioned, one based on ideals of freedom, equality, and self-determination, as stated in the document’s most salient passage:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.
Although mentioned in neither the Declaration of Independence nor the U.S. Constitution, in our 250 years the federal government, as well as state and tribal governments, have acted to secure a clean, healthy and well-managed natural environment for the populace. Congress and legislatures have passed laws and created agencies that have sought to strike a balance between preserving ecosystems and outstanding landscape features, and permitting judicious use of natural resources for human betterment, while ensuring that government decisions about land and resource management occur with the consent of the governed.
With this in mind, I will note that 2026 marks other significant anniversaries in the realm of conservation.
At the country’s 1876 centennial, 150 years ago, Congress created the first federal office dedicated to forestry, creating a special agent in the Department of Agriculture, with the duty “to prosecute investigations and inquiries, with the view of ascertaining the annual amount of consumption, importation, and exportation of timber and other forest-products, the probable supply for future wants, the means best adapted to their preservation and renewal, the influence of forests upon climate, and the measures that have been successfully applied in foreign countries, or that may be deemed applicable in this country, for the preservation and restoration or planting of forests; and to report upon the same to the Commissioner of Agriculture to be by him in a separate report transmitted to Congress” 19 Stat. 167. Dr. Franklin Hough was appointed to the position of Special Agent, and his report led to the creation of the Division of Forestry, the predecessor to today’s Forest Service, five years later.
A century later, in 1976, Congress enacted two landmark conservation laws that fundamentally changed how federal land management agencies carry out their work. The National Forest Management Act (NFMA) and its regulations established a process requiring each unit in the National Forest System to prepare and periodically update a forest plan. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) created similar requirements for the public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Together, over the past 50 years, these statutes have made the management of federal forestlands more systematic, more scientific, and more democratic.
Notably, both statutes require public participation in the development of these land management plans. NFMA says “The Secretary shall provide for public participation in the development, review, and revision of land management plans including, but not limited to, making the plans or revisions available to the public at convenient locations in the vicinity of the affected unit for a period of at least three months before final adoption, during which period the Secretary shall publicize and hold public meetings or comparable processes at locations that foster public participation in the review of such plans or revisions” 16 U.S.C. §1604(d). Similarly, FLPMA says “The Secretary shall allow an opportunity for public involvement and by regulation shall establish procedures, including public hearings where appropriate, to give Federal, State, and local governments and the public, adequate notice and opportunity to comment upon and participate in the formulation of plans and programs relating to the management of the public lands” 43 U.S.C. §1712(f).
Public participation, as a two-way dialog between agency personnel and interested members of the public, ensures that the agencies, as arms of the federal government, operate in concordance with the informed consent of their constituents, for the overall benefit of the public. While the federal government has never explicitly recognized a clean and healthy environment as an inalienable right (or a “fundamental right” in modern legal parlance), many states have done so in their state constitutions, including some of the original 13 states that signed the Declaration of Independence and many of those added since then.
New Mexico is one such state; Article XX, §21 of the New Mexico Constitution says: “The protection of the state’s beautiful and healthful environment is hereby declared to be of fundamental importance to the public interest, health, safety and the general welfare. The legislature shall provide for control of pollution and control of despoilment of the air, water and other natural resources of the state, consistent with the use and development of these resources for the maximum benefit of the people.”
NMFWRI is proud to partner with the federal and state agencies created to carry out these laws, in the interest of our affected entities and the public in New Mexico. And as our nation celebrates its 250th birthday, we look to the values embedded in the Declaration of Independence and strive to uphold these in our work alongside our fellow New Mexicans. Working together, we can carry our nation forward, prepared to thrive over the next 250 years with healthy forests and natural areas, and a clean environment.