Conservation
Concerns in New Mexico: Wild Lands and Wildlife
Otero
Mesa
Otero
Mesa is just an hour's drive from El Paso and perhaps 90 minutes from
Las Cruces or Alamogordo. 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.
A
critical source of groundwater, the Salt Basin Aquifer is located
beneath New Mexico’s Otero Mesa and extends south into El Paso and
Hudspeth counties in Texas. Proposed oil and gas drilling in Otero Mesa
areas run by the Bureau of Land Management lands has raised concerns
about risks to the aquifer.
Under
the BLM’s plan for Otero Mesa oil and gas development,
141 exploratory wells resulting in 84 producing wells could be drilled.
While the BLM has provided stipulations for no surface disturbance or
controlled surface use for a portion of this area, groundwater will
still be at risk for contamination by carcinogenic petrochemicals and
salt water from drilling.
On
April 28, 2009, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected
BLM's Otero Mesa leasing plan The court ruled that BLM failed to
consider an alternative of not leasing Otero Mesa and to examine
possible impacts of leasing on groundwater. The court remanded the plan
to BLM to draft an environmental impact statement that considers
leasing's impacts on water, wildlife, and Chihuahuan Desert
grassland.
Solution:
A 3-year joint federal and state study of the Salt Basin Aquifer is
needed to determine its quantity, quality, and its vulnerability to
contamination. Oil and gas leasing should wait until the study is
carried out and alternatives for protecting the aquifer are thoroughly
considered.
Wolves
Missing
from the landscape for more than 30 years, the howl of the Mexican gray
wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), can once again be heard in the mountains of
the southwestern United States. The Mexican wolf, like many species
protected by the Endangered Species Act, is getting a second chance to
play its role in nature through an ambitious recovery program led by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).
The
Mexican wolf once roamed throughout vast portions of Arizona, New
Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. But, as human settlement intensified across
the Southwest in the early 1900s, wolves increasingly came into
conflict with livestock operations and other human activities. Private,
state, and federal extermination campaigns were carried out against the
wolf until, by the 1970s, the Mexican wolf had been all but extirpated
from the United States and Mexico.
The
Forest Service established a recovery team in 1979 to assist the agency
in mapping out a recovery strategy for the Mexican wolf. The FWS
approved the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Plan in 1982. The plan
recommended maintenance of the captive breeding program and
re-establishment of a viable, self-sustaining population of at least 100
wolves in the wild within the Mexican wolf’s historic range. Due to the
perilous status of the Mexican wolf at the time, and amidst uncertainty if
captive-reared wolves could successfully be returned to the wild, the
recovery plan stated that delisting might never be possible. The plan,
therefore, did not provide a definitive recovery goal (criteria to
down-list or remove the Mexican wolf from the endangered species list) for the Mexican wolf, but instead provided an
interim objective to focus and stimulate reintroduction and recovery
efforts.
Solution:
The NM REP Executive Committee has chosen
to increase its efforts regarding the wolves. REP is in a
unique position to mediate between wolf supporters and
ranchers. Each group has viable concerns and we will work hard
with all parties to find workable solutions. This program can
be successful and Mexican wolves can roam once again.
Update:
As of September 2011, FWS counted 31 wolves
with
radio collars dispersed among 10 packs, five in New Mexico. The FWS' 2008 assessment of the
reintroduction
program estimated wolf numbers at 50, halfway to the objective of
establishing a population of 100 wolves. In the absence of recovery
criteria, reaching the objective of 100 wolves would not necessarily
indicate that the Mexican wolf population is at a healthy
level.
State
Home | Contact
| ISSUES
