New Mexico is celebrating the state’s largest private land donation which adds 15 square miles to the Sabinoso Wilderness Area.
The donation, made by the Trust for Public Land, was accepted by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. It increases the wilderness area by 50 percent and offers both valuable habitats for local wildlife as well as recreation areas for residents and visitors. The area is home to elk deer, mountain lions, bears, and more.
The donated land features canyons, woodland mesas, pockets of ponderosa pine trees, and savannah-like grasslands. The protection of the land also honors its original purpose as ancestral homelands of the Jicarilla Apache and northern pueblos of New Mexico.
