An appearance by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson highlighted an extremely successful "Public Forum for Otero Mesa" held in Albuquerque, NM on Saturday, January 31, 2004. Attendance surpassed expectations when some 700 people from around the state came to show their support for protecting this wild land and to voice their opposition to the BLM's recently released plan to exploit the Otero Mesa region by opening it to oil and gas exploration.
Governor Richardson used the occasion to announce that he was issuing an Executive Order directing all appropriate and relevant state agencies to "provide support for the utmost protection of these grasslands."
>> Read more about the executive order.
The Public Forum demonstrated the broad base of support for protecting the greater Otero Mesa region from the full-scale oil development approved by the Bush Administration. Speakers at the event included ranchers, conservationists, hunters, religious leaders, students, and senior citizens.
>> For more information about Otero Mesa's unique resources and values, go to: http://www.oteromesa.org
Special guest speakers included Jack Loeffler, a close friend and author of a biography about Ed Abbey; poet, Jimmy Santiago Baca; New Mexico writer William deBuys; Chair of the New Mexico Acequia Association, Antonio Madina; former New Mexico Governor David Cargo; activist rancher Tweeti Blancett; and a member of the Pueblo of Acoma, Petuuche Gilbert.
Background
The Otero Mesa region is just an hour's drive from El Paso and 90 minutes from Las Cruces and Alamogordo. Encompassing more than 1.2 million acres of Chihuahuan Desert grassland, Otero Mesa extends eastward from the Hueco Mountains to the Guadalupe Mountains and north from the Texas border into New Mexico. This vast and complex grassland is home to many species of wildlife, native plants and independent cattle ranches that have been in operation for generations. More than a half a million acres of potential wilderness have been identified in the region.
In 1998 due to a sharp increase in nominations for oil and gas leases in the region, BLM delayed leasing in the area until they could amend their 1986 Resource Management Plan (which did not anticipate large amounts of oil and gas development in the area) and complete a new Environmental Impact Statement assessing the effects of oil and gas development to the area. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement -- developed under the Clinton Administration -- was released in October 2000.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Otero Mesa on January 5, 2004. The FEIS is a dramatic departure from the draft proposal commented on by the general public. The final proposal more than doubles the available acreage open to drilling (from approximately 779,000 acres to 1.4 million acres), opens critical wildlife habitat to oil and gas development and provides inadequate protections for the rare grasslands in the region. The FEIS ignores the strong opposition to drilling in Otero Mesa voiced by thousands of New Mexicans, including New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, five former state Game and Fish Department directors, the heads of several sportsmen's groups, area ranchers and five former members of the BLM's own Resource Advisory Committee.
For More Information
