Navajo, Zuni tribes to implement restoration plan for Fort Wingate, focusing on forest and fish
KNAU News Talk - Arizona Public Radio | By Associated Press
Published February 7, 2024 at 6:56 AM MST
Two Native American tribes, the state of New Mexico and the U.S. Army have finalized a restoration plan for a former military installation near Gallup.
Explosives and munitions were stored and disposed of at Fort Wingate until it closed in 1993.
The Navajo Nation, Zuni Pueblo and the New Mexico Office of Natural Resources Trustee reached an agreement with the federal government in March 2022 to settle claims that land, water and cultural resources were negatively impacted by hazardous substances at the site.
The site now is undergoing environmental cleanup before the tract of land can be transferred to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to benefit the two tribes. Both tribes have long-standing historical ties to the lands in and around Fort Wingate, which sits on about 24 square miles. The land is almost entirely surrounded by federally owned or administered lands, including national forest and tribal lands.
More:
https://www.knau.org/knau-and-arizona-news/2024-02-07/navajo-zuni-tribes-to-implement-restoration-plan-for-fort-wingate-focusing-on-forest-and-fish
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Also, from the same area:
$1.1 million plan finalized for Fort Wingate's environmental damage
By Scott Wyland swyland@sfnewmexican.com Feb 6, 2024 Updated 6 hrs ago
Rows of bunkers cover the landscape in 2012 at Fort Wingate near Gallup. Two Native American tribes, the state and the U.S. Army have finalized a restoration plan for the ex-military installation.
Gallup Independent file photo via the Associated Press
A $1.1 million plan has been finalized to restore some of the environmental damage done while the defunct Fort Wingate operated a munitions depot near Gallup.
Two years after reaching an initial agreement, Zuni Pueblo, the Navajo Nation, the U.S. Army and the state decided on two projects to offset the former military base’s adverse effects on the area’s natural resources.
One project in the restoration plan will bolster the nearby Cibola National Forest, partly through tree thinning and distributing some of the downed timber as firewood to people in the Navajo Nation. The other will enhance habitat for the bluehead sucker, a fish that’s culturally important to Zuni Pueblo and is on the state’s endangered list.
“This is a milestone,” state Natural Resources Trustee Maggie Hart Stebbins said. “This is the biggest stab in actually getting the money to the Navajo Nation and Zuni tribe, the affected communities.”
More:
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/1-1-million-plan-finalized-for-fort-wingates-environmental-damage/article_b38e3a72-c510-11ee-a06e-17f3ad7a0ca0.html