American Stewards of Liberty | Packed House at Muleshoe Refuge Expansion Meeting

In Littlefield, Texas, a crowd of over 350 landowners and concerned citizens gathered to hear from local, state, and national experts. They discussed the federal government’s largest effort to date to expand a National Wildlife Refuge beyond its authorized boundaries.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, along with Margaret Byfield with ASL, Monty Edwards, Edwards Realty & Auctions, Jeff Bilberry, Chairman of Chaves County, New Mexico, Michael Perry, former New Mexico Game and Fish Warden who also worked for the New Mexico State Land Office, and other elected officials from both Texas and New Mexico spoke against the federal expansion.

In April 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), along with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, and The Nature Conservancy publicly announced the “Final Land Protection Plan & Environmental Assessment” (LPP) for the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge, without directly working with the impacted local governments.

The Service intends to increase the current 6,440-acre Refuge by permanently protecting 700,000 acres within a seven million acre “acquisition boundary” prioritizing land preservation over future economic development of the region. The plan encompasses 15 counties in Texas and five in New Mexico.

Those counties include Bailey, Castro, Cochran, Crosby, Dawson, Gaines, Garza, Hale, Hockley, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Parmer, Terry and Yoakum in Texas and Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Lea, and Roosevelt in New Mexico.

The speakers all emphasized how this expansion is part of Biden’s unauthorized 30×30 Land Grab, a.k.a. “American the Beautiful.”  The proponents of the LPP have all continuously stated this was a “voluntary” plan that they intend to accomplish through purchasing of fee title or conservation easements in perpetuity.

Once everyone realized this was part of 30×30, the “voluntary” argument carried little weight.

Speakers talked about the economic impact of this expansion, explaining once 700,000 acres are taken out of the community, it will permanently impair the local tax base that supports local services.

Margaret Byfield explained when the federal government buys land outright or a Land Trust places a conservation easement on it, reducing the land’s value by more than 40 percent, the county loses the tax revenue from that land. This loss of revenue impacts the county’s ability to fund roads, hospitals, schools, and emergency services.

Speakers all related how the trickle-down effect of losing the tax base would affect all local businesses and industries such as restaurants, cotton gins, livestock and agriculture producers and harm the entire economy of the region.

Ag Commissioner Sid Miller explained how this plan is part of Biden-Harris’s 30×30 plan initiated when he took office.  “He didn’t go through Congress, they never voted on a 30 by 30 plan…his plan to take 30% of our productive land out of production by the year 2030 – that’s phase one.  Phase two is the 50-50 plan to take 50% of our productive land out of production by the year 2050,” as reported in the Muleshoe Journal July 29th.

Michael Perry explained how New Mexico has both federal lands and private lands, but once the federal government establishes a federal program, it not only destroys the local economies within their counties, but they begin to encroach on private lands and landowners in multiple ways.

He warned the Texans in the meeting to be very wary of any federal ownership and the use of conservation easements to expand the Muleshoe Refuge.

U.S. Rep. Jody Arrington (R-Lubbock), who was unable to attend the meeting, but has strongly come out in opposition of the LPP, said he doesn’t believe the expansion is a “good use of taxpayer dollars” and that, “there’s no such thing as a ‘voluntary government program.’”

ASL drafted recommended language to defund the Muleshoe LPP. Rep. Arrington successfully added defund language into the FY 2025 Interior Appropriations bill, which was reported in ASL’s Liberty Matters news service July 23.  It passed the full U.S. House of Representatives last week.

You can listen to Rep. Arrington’s floor speech here.

Amendment 166 reads as follows: “Prohibits funding from being made available for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s ‘Final Land Protection Plan & Environmental Assessment Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge.’ This plan aims to increase the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge in Texas from 6,400 acres to 700,000 acres.”

ASL recommends all the Counties, towns, school districts, soil and water conservation districts and other special districts pass resolutions opposing the expansion to make clear the LPP was not prepared with their input or consent.  You can access a model opposition resolution here.

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