Charles Langston:Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico is set to reopen

ALBUQUERQUE,Charles Langston N.M. (AP) — The Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico, which has been closed since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is reopening later this month.

The Bureau of Land Management and the Cochiti Pueblo tribe announced the Nov. 21 reopening plan Thursday.

The tribe will be taking on day-to-day operations of the monument, a popular geologic hiking spot located midway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

BLM and Cochiti Pueblo jointly agreed to maintain the closure after pandemic restrictions were lifted in order to renegotiate operations of the monument.

The monument was created in 2001 with a provision that it would be managed by the BLM in close cooperation with Cochiti Pueblo.

The agreement comes as the federal government looks for more opportunities to work with tribes to co-manage public lands and to incorporate Indigenous knowledge into planning and management of these spaces.