We Don’t Need Retreat Plans — We Need to Stand Our Ground

By NM State Senators Pat Woods, Pat Boone, and Candy Spence Ezzell

Out here in the West, we don’t scare easy. We’ve built our lives and our livelihoods around working with the land—through drought, wind, and fire. We know better than anyone what it takes to farm and ranch in a dry climate. So you can imagine how it sounds when a group of university professors comes forward with a new plan to help us “adapt” to climate change: abandon our farms and move agriculture somewhere else.

They call it “managed retreat.” In plain English, that means paying farmers to shut down operations, sell off land and water rights, and walk away from generations of hard work. The idea is rooted in academic theory, not real-world experience. And while it might make for an interesting journal article, it’s not a serious solution for the challenges we face in the West.

Yes, the drought is real. Yes, water is tight. But Western farmers aren’t looking to pack it in—they’re looking for ways to stay. What we need isn’t a payout to give up. We need investment in smarter water management, soil conservation, and crop research that fits our region.

Farmers are already adapting. They’re switching crops, upgrading irrigation systems, fallowing land, and collaborating with neighbors to stretch every drop of water. They’re doing all this with little fanfare, while feeding the country and keeping rural economies alive. That’s the kind of innovation we should be supporting.

These academic proposals don’t just miss the mark—they miss the people. The folks making these recommendations often don’t live in the communities they’re talking about. They see agriculture as a data point or a policy problem. But for those of us who grew up on this land, farming isn’t just a business. It’s a heritage. It’s a way of life rooted in place.

When you talk about removing agriculture from these areas, you’re not just talking about changing land use. You’re talking about gutting rural towns, displacing families, and erasing community identities. No amount of job retraining or relocation grants can make up for that kind of loss.

We know there are hard decisions ahead. But the right path forward isn’t retreat—it’s resilience. Let’s support farmers with the tools they need to keep going: drought-tolerant seed research, voluntary water-sharing agreements, local conservation efforts, and support for sustainable practices that fit our region’s reality.

And let’s not forget: states and local communities are already leading on this. We don’t need a top-down plan to tell us how to manage our land. What we need is support that respects our knowledge, honors our traditions, and strengthens our capacity to adapt.

The West has always been a place where people made the most of a tough environment. We don’t walk away from a challenge just because it’s hard. That’s not who we are.

So to those who think the answer is to pull up stakes and move on, we say this: Come out here. Talk to the people who are still farming, still ranching, still raising families on this land. You might find that we don’t need a plan to retreat. We need a commitment to help us stay.