New Mexico’s Wild Forests Are Texas’s Wild Forests, Too
By Keary Molinaro, Outdoor Enthusiast
Texas has a lot of land. But almost none of it belongs to you.
More than 95 percent of Texas is privately owned. West Texas has no national forests. For many of us in El Paso, some of the closest places where we can experience large expanses of public forest are just across the New Mexico border.
That makes what happens to New Mexico’s national forests especially important to those of us in West Texas.
Right now, one of the protections for those forests is at risk. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, established in 2001, protects approximately 1.6 million acres of New Mexico’s national forests from industrial logging and permanent road building.
At first glance, that might sound like a New Mexico issue.
It isn’t.
As an outdoor enthusiast living in El Paso, I see the landscape around us as a connected system rather than a collection of state boundaries. Wildlife moves between New Mexico and Texas. Birds migrate through both. Watersheds cross those boundaries. The health of habitats in New Mexico can have consequences for the wildlife and water resources we depend upon here in West Texas.
We should be paying attention.
Because when New Mexico’s public forests are threatened, Texans have a stake in what happens to them, too.
What Is at Stake?
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was established in 2001 to protect inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System from permanent road construction and certain forms of development, including industrial-scale logging.
In New Mexico, the rule protects approximately 1.6 million acres of national forest lands.
These are not simply empty acres on a map. Roadless forests provide habitat for wildlife, protect watersheds, and preserve some of the remaining large, relatively intact landscapes in the region.
Roads can have consequences that extend well beyond the width of the road itself. They can fragment habitat, alter wildlife movement, increase human access and disturbance, and divide landscapes that animals depend upon for food, shelter, breeding, and movement.
Once a road network is established, the effects can be difficult to reverse.
That is why the potential rescission of the Roadless Rule deserves attention, not only from people who live in New Mexico, but from people living just across the border in Texas.
Why Should Texans Care?
Texas is one of the most privately owned states in the country. More than 95 percent of Texas is privately owned, and West Texas has no national forests.
That makes the public lands of neighboring New Mexico particularly significant for people in El Paso and throughout West Texas.
National forests are part of a public-land system that belongs to all Americans. They provide opportunities that many Texans simply do not have in their own state: extensive public forests, mountain landscapes, wildlife habitat, and places where people can experience nature without crossing private property boundaries at every turn.
For people in El Paso, New Mexico’s forests are also close enough to be part of our regular outdoor lives.
We hike there. We camp there. We hunt there. We watch wildlife there. We take our children there to experience landscapes very different from the desert where we live.
Those forests are not some distant resource that has nothing to do with us.
They are part of the natural landscape we share.
Wildlife Doesn’t Recognize State Lines
This is perhaps the most important connection for me as someone who spends a great deal of time outdoors.
Wildlife doesn’t recognize the boundary between New Mexico and Texas.
A golden eagle doesn’t stop flying when it reaches the state line. A turkey vulture doesn’t check a map before following a thermal. Migrating birds move across boundaries as they travel between breeding, wintering, and stopover habitats.
According to Audubon, the region between El Paso and New Mexico is part of a migration corridor used by species including Turkey Vultures, Golden Eagles, Flammulated Owls, Tree Swallows, Ospreys, and multiple species of shorebirds.
The health of those populations depends upon habitat that extends far beyond any single state.
Large mammals are no different.
Mountain lions require large areas of connected habitat, and maintaining connectivity between populations is important for genetic diversity. The mountain lion population in New Mexico relies in part on interaction with the population in West Texas to maintain that genetic connection.
When we protect habitat on one side of the border, we aren’t necessarily protecting only the animals that live there.
We may also be protecting the animals that eventually make their way into our own backyard.
Roads and the Fragmentation of Habitat
One of the reasons roadless areas matter is that intact habitat is becoming increasingly difficult to find.
A road may seem insignificant when viewed by itself. But wildlife experiences the landscape differently than we do.
For an animal that needs a large territory, a road can become a source of disturbance or a barrier to movement. For a population already separated from others, additional fragmentation can make it more difficult for individuals to move between habitats and populations.
For migratory species, the issue is even broader. Birds and other animals depend on a chain of suitable habitats throughout their annual movements.
Conservation therefore cannot simply focus on protecting individual species in isolated locations.
We have to protect the places those species depend upon.
And that means maintaining connected landscapes.
The Water Connection
There is another connection between New Mexico’s forests and West Texas that may be even more important to people who never set foot on a hiking trail: water.
The National Forest System provides drinking water to more than 60 million people in approximately 3,400 communities across 33 states.
Forests and roadless areas play an important role in protecting watersheds. Intact forest landscapes can help maintain water quality, reduce erosion and sedimentation, and protect the headwaters and watersheds upon which both people and wildlife depend.
For those of us living in El Paso, water is not an issue we can afford to take lightly.
We live in the desert.
The Rio Grande is one of the defining features of our region, and the watershed extends far beyond the boundaries of El Paso or Texas. What happens in the mountains and forests upstream can ultimately affect the larger watershed downstream.
And people aren’t the only ones who depend on that water.
Every animal living within the watershed has the same basic requirement.
Water is habitat.
Water is life.
Protecting the forests that help protect our watersheds is therefore not simply an environmental concern. It is part of protecting the ecological systems that support both human communities and wildlife throughout the region.
This Is Public Land
There is another reason I believe this issue deserves the attention of Texans: these lands belong to all of us.
When you live in a state where more than 95 percent of the land is privately owned, public lands can feel especially valuable.
They provide places where people can experience nature firsthand.
They provide habitat that isn’t dependent upon the priorities of an individual landowner.
They provide opportunities for hunting, hiking, camping, wildlife watching, scientific research, and education.
And they preserve landscapes that future generations may otherwise never have the opportunity to experience.
For me, that last point is particularly important.
I believe that spending time outdoors changes the way we see the natural world. It is one thing to read about a mountain lion, a golden eagle, or a forest ecosystem. It is another thing entirely to stand in that landscape and understand that you are part of something much larger than yourself.
Those experiences can create the next generation of people who care enough about wildlife and wild places to protect them.
What Happens Next?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to open a public comment period regarding the future of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
That means the public will have an opportunity to make its voice heard.
And Americans have already made their position remarkably clear.
Last year, when the administration asked the public for input on the potential rescission of the Roadless Rule, approximately 625,000 people submitted comments. More than 99 percent opposed rescinding the protections.
That is an extraordinary response.
It demonstrates that this issue matters to people across the country—not just to those who live next to national forests.
As Texans, we should be among them.
These Are Our Forests, Too
I don’t believe conservation means keeping people out of nature.
Quite the opposite.
I believe people need opportunities to experience wild places. We need to hike through forests, watch birds, hunt, camp, fish, explore, and take our children outdoors.
Those experiences are how many of us develop a personal connection to the natural world.
But enjoying public lands and permanently altering them are not the same thing.
There are some places where development makes sense. There are also places where the greatest value comes from leaving the landscape relatively intact.
Roadless areas represent some of those places.
For people in El Paso and West Texas, the importance of New Mexico’s national forests should be easy to understand. We live next to them. We visit them. Wildlife moves between them and our own communities. Migratory birds pass through them. Their watersheds connect to larger systems that eventually reach Texas.
The state line exists on a map.
The ecosystem doesn’t.
So when the future of 1.6 million acres of New Mexico’s national forest roadless areas is being considered, Texans should pay attention.
Because these aren’t simply New Mexico’s forests.
They are America’s forests.
And for those of us living in West Texas, they are our wild forests, too.
Voice your Opinion
The public comment period on the Roadless Rule is open until September 21,2026. Comments can be submitted at regulations.gov.