Great Weekend for Celebration of Our Mountain Events

What a line up of Celebration of Our Mountains events this weekend. There is literally something for everyone.

Mexican Free Tail Bats

Tonight watch a flight of bats and learn more about these wonderful creatures from our Urban Biologist, Lois Balin. 

White-faced Ibis. Picture by Barry Zimmer at Fort Hancock, Texas 2012

Tomorrow morning go with the El Paso Trans Pecos Audubon Society to see migrant birds at the reservoirs of McNary, Ft. Hancock and Tornillo. 

Also tomorrow take a hike in beautiful Hitt Canyon in the Franklin Mountains led by the Dean of Hiking, Carol Brown.

Discover the natural wonders of our desert, listen to live entertainment and visit informative booths at the family-friendly 12th Annual Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta sponsored by the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition, City of El Paso Parks and Recreation, the El Paso Zoo, El Paso Water and Texas Parks and Wildlife.  

Visit the Last Desert Grasslands, the Otero Mesa 9/17. Join the Southwest Environmental Center on this Back by Noon outing to explore the grasslands, wildlife and petroglyphs of New Mexico’s Otero Mesa. The destination is Alamo Mountain, one of the isolated peaks of the Cornudas Mountains that rise dramatically from the surrounding grasslands. Learn about the threats to this extraordinary landscape and efforts by conservationists to protect it. Reservation required. Call 575-522-5552 for more information. Trip leaves from Las Cruces at 8 AM.

There's another Beginners Hike on Monday.

Finally, plan now to attend the 16th Annual Artistic Celebration of Our Mountains at Ardovinos Desert Crossing. This event has been a mainstay of COM. You know that it is Celebration of Our Mountains time when Robert Ardovino has the Artistic Celebration.

You can't do it all. But, as I said, there is something for everyone this weekend. So, hike our mountains, explore our desert, discover our wetlands and see our stars.

Guess Where the Water Will Come From

Here's an interesting story: Water Use for Fracking Has Skyrocketed, Stressing Drought-Ridden States. Now that fracking has begun just over the hill from El Paso on the Diablo Plateau/Otero Mesa and there will be at least a second well before December, guess where the water will come from.

There's still an online anti-fracking petition. Sign if you haven't. Tell your friends and family members.

Another Carlsbad NM Next to El Paso?

This is a Google Earth image of the once pristine land near Carlsbad. Do we want Otero Mesa/Diablo Plateau to look like this? Click image to enlarge. 

If Torchlight Energy Resources successfully drills all of the 172,000 acres on the Otero Mesa/Diablo Plateau, Hudspeth County will look like land around Carlsbad, New Mexico which once was pristine. Watch Torchlight's own slideshow of maps HERE to see just how big that 172,000 acres is and how close to El Paso.

They're Here!

Torchlight Energy Resources has begun their destruction of the Texas side of the ecologically valuable Otero Mesa with its rich biodiversity. (Sadly ironic Otero Mesa is called the Diablo Plateau on the Texas side.) You can read more about the project HERE. The waitress at the cafe in Cornudas reported that all the rooms in Dell City are full with people working on this and other drilling projects. The following pictures are courtesy of John and Camilla Walton.

The turn-off

Alamo Mountain on left, Wind Mountain in the middle. Facing East, New Mexico border is the fence, Texas to the right. Newly widened road. The road is probably the largest impact. Large amount of slow growing natural vegetation removed.

After 6.3 miles of the road from the junction at Loma Linda Road at Texas/New Mexico Border, the pad.

The Friday Video: Fracking Threatens Chaco's Sacred American Heritage

Nothing is sacred to frackers but money, money, money. 


The video above was taken from Fracking threatens the Chaco Canyon World Heritage Site published by Earthworks.

See also:

Wells creep toward Chaco (Durango Herald)

Don't frack Chaco Canyon (Environment New Mexico)

And, although a minor victory was achieved for this land, far more needs to be done. "To be sure, we still have work to do. The Greater Chaco Landscape is still in need of full protection and the rush to frack in the American West remains the most significant threat to the land, wildlife, our water and our clean air." - Jeremy Nichols, Wild Earth Guardians.

For closer to home:

What the frack? (Sul Ross student publication, Skyline. See p. 4 of pdf.)

And, much, much closer to home:

Drew Stuart, editor of the Hudspeth County Herald told me: "The Diablo Plateau and Otero Mesa are a continuous grassland ecosystem - so that many of the observations that conservation groups have made about the Otero Mesa would apply to the Diablo Plateau as well." Read all about this grassland and its rich biodiversity. Enlarge the pic at this post. See what the Texas side of this continuous grassland ecosystem will look like once Torchlight Energy is done.

By the way, other national historic parks are threatened:


Map above from Is Nothing Sacred? Fracking and Chaco Culture National Historic Park a story by Char Miller for KCET Los Angeles.  

Catching Up: Sierra Club and the Otero Mesa

On November 13, a number of us in the local chapter of the Sierra Club met to take action toward preserving the Otero Mesa. I posted the announcement of this meeting along with a video in another recent post. Judy Ackerman sent me this report:

"This Sierra Club meeting was extremely effectively orchestrated by facilitator, Camilla Feibelman, Rio Grande Chapter Director.  These Sierra Club teams set out to achieve 3 goals:  1) Actions that result in positive change, 2) Get politicians to listen, 3) Self change in the individuals involved.

"Announcing the meeting, Sierra Club President Lawrence Gibson said, “Otero Mesa, with its botanical diversity, archaeological and cultural sites, offers limitless and untrammeled vistas and a peacefulness unexpected in an area so close to the hustle and bustle of El Paso.”  Asked, “Why do you want to protect Otero Mesa?” Lawrence stated it all succinctly:  “This place is Holy.” 


"By the end of the meeting, all attendees participated and committed to future actions to preserve Otero Mesa.  The only disappointment was that, of the more than 20 attendees, all but 3 were the same old fart local environmental activists.  We need new, young blood to continue protecting our environment. Perhaps you have an innovative new perspective and methods.  Will your work and research help preserve natural ecosystems?  If so how will you do it? Have you been to Otero Mesa?  If not, stay tuned.  This project includes guided outings."

I too was impressed by Camilla and her ability to organize us and get us going.

By the way, I'm a candidate for the chapter board. I'm excited at the prospect of being able to serve in this capacity.

The Friday Video: Otero Mesa Proposed Mining + Call to Action

Here's the video:




Here's one way for you to take action:

Click on image to enlarge.

For more information:

New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
The Southwest Environmental Center
Fans of Otero Mesa

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.