Protect Otero Mesa from Oil and Gas Development

Otero Mesa is an ecologically sensitive and endangered area just east-northeast of El Paso. It is directly east of White Sands, south of Alamogordo and the Lincoln National Forest and north of Dell City. It is west of the Guadalupe Mountains and the Brokeoff Mountains below which sits Dell City. Otero Mesa sits on a large aquifer and it is a target for oil and gas development even though there is probably not much of either in the area and exploration would extremely damage this pristine land.

Since 2001, the Southwest Environmental Center has been leading the fight to prevent any oil and gas exploration. Kevin Bixby, the Executive Director of the Center, recently sent out this urgent message asking for action before next Tuesday, June 1:

Ask the BLM to protect Otero Mesa from oil and gas development
As part of its “Tri-County” planning process, the Bureau of Land Management is crafting a management plan for Otero, Sierra, and Doña Ana Counties (NM) that covers Otero Mesa. The agency is accepting public comments until June 1 on how oil and gas should be addressed in the plan. Please take a moment to ask the BLM to protect Otero Mesa by closing it to oil and gas development.
It gets a little convoluted, but here is the situation. The BLM has proposed opening up 90% of Otero Mesa--one of the largest remaining desert grasslands in North America--to oil and gas development. The original BLM plan was shot down by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2009. Now the BLM wants to defer all decisions about oil and gas on Otero Mesa until some later date--even whether to close areas that they know should not be drilled, and even though it is in the middle of a big planning process that will determine how Otero Mesa will be managed for the next 20 years.
By contrast, SWEC and other conservation groups have proposed protecting approximately 600,000 acres of Otero Mesa as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, where oil and gas development would not be allowed. (We also support establishment of a national monument for the same purpose, but that is a designation only the President, not the BLM, can make.)

Send your comments to:

nmlcdo_comments@blm.gov.
Attn: Dwayne Sykes (BLM, Las Cruces, NM)

Suggested message:

Dear Mr. Sykes,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Tri-County Resource Management Plan. I urge BLM to close Otero Mesa and other special areas in the Tri-County area to oil and gas development. Otero Mesa has too many other values that would be threatened by drilling, such as grasslands, wildlife, water, wilderness, recreational opportunities, and important Native American and historic sites. I urge the BLM to close Otero Mesa to drilling and establish an Otero Mesa Grassland ACEC, as proposed by conservationists.

You can see the same message online.

The video above is a bit dated (2007). For more updated info, go here and get to know the Southwest Environmental Center.

The Otero Mesa may be in New Mexico - but it is also part of our region of the Chihuahuan Desert. What happens there affects El Paso. Please take a moment to send a message to the BLM office in Las Cruces.