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Public lands are central to the lives of New Mexicans. We camp, hike, harvest food, spend time with friends and family, and trace the stories of ancient cultures across public lands throughout the Land of Enchantment. The federal Bureau of Land Management manages 13.5 million acres of public lands in New Mexico, and 245 million acres nationwide, all on behalf of the public.

And the public entrusts federal officials to steward and safeguard these landscapes with integrity. President Donald Trump recently nominated former New Mexico Congressman Steve Pearce to serve as director of the BLM. Pearce鈥檚 time in Congress makes clear that he would be a terrible steward for public lands. To honor the purpose of the BLM and reflect what Americans cherish about public lands, the U.S. Senate must reject this nomination. If you love New Mexico鈥檚 public lands, please tell Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luj谩n that public lands and wildlife deserve better than Steve Pearce.

According to recent polls, New Mexicans overwhelmingly support keeping public lands in public hands, but Pearce had advocated for selling them off. In a 2012 letter to the speaker of the House, then-Congressman Pearce called for a federal divestment of public lands. In 2016, Pearce co-sponsored legislation that would have required the BLM to sell off more than 4.8 million acres of public lands by 2024. As the BLM director, Pearce would closely align with Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who recently sought (but failed) to include a provision in the 鈥淏ig Beautiful Bill鈥� to sell off public lands across the West.

In Congress, Pearce was hostile to national monuments. In 2017, he supported a bill to undermine the Antiquities Act, the law that Republican and Democratic presidents have relied on for more than a century to protect beloved places like the Grand Canyon and New Mexico鈥檚 Bandelier and Gila Cliff Dwellings national monuments. He opposed the designation of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces, and after it was established in 2014, he twice introduced bills to greatly reduce it. As most national monuments in the western U.S. are managed by the BLM, we should expect neglect, if not maltreatment, of these iconic landscapes if Pearce is confirmed as the BLM director.

Pearce also opposed federal protections for New Mexico鈥檚 most vulnerable wildlife, including Mexican wolves, lesser prairie chickens and Mexican spotted owls. He went so far as to fabricate absurd fictions straight out of Grimms鈥� fairy tales about wolves 鈥� arguing from the floor of the House of Representatives for defunding Mexican wolf protections with the claim that wolves would respond to a baby鈥檚 laugh or cry by stalking outside a home for weeks, waiting to catch the child.

While Pearce opposed protections for public lands and wildlife, he sought to expand oil and gas development on public lands. In 2018, he sponsored legislation that would have diminished the BLM鈥檚 ability to regulate fracking of publicly owned mineral rights. That same year, Pearce sponsored a bill to shield oil and gas development on public lands from comprehensive federal environmental review.

Given his record in Congress, Pearce would sneer at the BLM鈥檚 mission to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of public lands for present and future generations. Heinrich and Luj谩n have important votes in deciding whether Pearce serves as the BLM director. They should follow the will of their constituents and protect public lands by rejecting Pearce鈥檚 nomination.

Chris Smith was born and raised in northern New Mexico. He is the Wildlife and Wild Places program director for WildEarth Guardians.