Save Albuquerque's Elena Gallegos Open Space

“Save the Elena Gallegos” is a 501(c)(3) New Mexico incorporated nonprofit and grassroots community group fighting to save Albuquerque’s Elena Gallegos Open Space from prohibited government development.

Your donation will go toward our legal fees as we seek an injunction against the City of Albuquerque and ask a judge to uphold the covenants which protect the Elena Gallegos from development. All donations are tax-deductible!

We are also selling t-shirts and tote bags through Ink Blot, an eco-friendly fashion fulfillment platform:

https://inkblot.ink/collections/save-the-elena-gallegos

Please share this GoFundMe with your friends, family, neighbors, and communities. Thank you for helping us save this beautiful land!

More about our cause:

For full details, please visit our petition at www.change.org/saveelenagallegos and our website at www.saveelenagallegos.org.

In January 2022, the City of Albuquerque announced plans to build a large government “Education Center” in the Elena Gallegos Open Space.

Such a building is expressly prohibited by both the 1982 Purchase Agreement and the Deed which govern the Elena Gallegos. Both documents contain clear land use restrictions which preserve her as pristine wilderness and prohibit all buildings in her acreage.

(This paragraph is lifted directly from the Purchase Agreement and is reprinted word-for-word in the Deed. We have both documents available to download in full on our website.)

Those of us who are regular hikers, bikers, birdwatchers, and picnickers in the Elena Gallegos were devastated by this announcement. We know that this building on its own will damage the fragile ecosystem of the Elena Gallegos and harm the wildlife who call her home. It will also ruin the experience of the thousands of humans who visit her every year precisely because they want to escape from modern buildings and immerse themselves in nature.

But far more concerning than the impact made by one building are the long-term consequences of violating the legal covenants. If the City is able to establish a precedent for buildings in the Elena Gallegos, they will render the land use restrictions in the Deed unenforceable by an outside party and open the door for future development in the Elena Gallegos. We as a community and as private citizens will have no legal path to stop future City administrations from developing the Elena Gallegos however they want.

We cannot allow the City to break the covenants and begin development in the Elena Gallegos; the future of all of her 640 acres depends on it! We formed “Save the Elena Gallegos” in September 2022 to save this precious land and keep her wild. We launched our official petition on October 8, 2022 and are heartened that it has received widespread support from Burqueños. Now we’ve retained a lawyer and are pursuing legal action against the City.

Thank you for caring and for joining the fight! Let’s save the Elena Gallegos!

“To those devoid of imagination, a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.”

—Aldo Leopold, Albuquerque’s first Environmental Planner