Alamogordo Daily News October 2, 2012 By Janice Merino As I looked out upon the beautiful mesa, I imagined my ancestors running over the grasslands. The Chiricahua were nomadic by nature and would travel by foot from place to place, over hundreds of miles, following their food source through the seasons. My soul whispered, “I love this land.” My people could easily be hidden in the shadows of the land, hidden from the U.S. Cavalry. They were the last to surrender to the U.S. government. They were excellent warriors and knew how to be one with nature. As I hiked through the hills and...

EcoFlight – Southern New Mexico: Otero Mesa – Monument Proposal from EcoFlight on Vimeo.

By Dr. C. Richard Tinguely, For the Alamogordo Daily News May 29, 2012 One Wednesday afternoon in 1961, I discovered Otero Mesa — although at the time I didn’t even know its name. During this time I had a busy dental practice in El Paso. To unwind from the stress, I jumped into my little Piper aircraft and explored the open range east of El Paso. Flying leisurely along, I scared up a large herd of antelope. I dropped down to about 10 feet above ground, slowed down to pace the running herd, and followed them to large meadows of the greenest grass I’d ever seen. Grazing in this...

In July 2011, the Coalition for Otero Mesa developed the following report, which details point-by-point how the campaign to save this wild and beautiful grassland fits perfectly into the Obama Administration’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. In June of 2010, over 400 supporters of protecting Otero Mesa turned out to an administration listening session in Albuquerque. Since that time there have been several other public forums held in Alamogordo, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces, all designed to educate the public about the values of Otero Mesa, and why this crown jewel of the American Southwest...

My name is Twyla Rayne. I am an Apache Indian from the Mescalero Reservation. Otero Mesa is more than just a place to me. It’s a sanctuary, it’s a place of peace, understanding, reliability, not only for me, but animals of all sorts, as far as spirits go. I felt spiritually reborn; I am concerned for its spiritual well-being. Like a seed it needs care, patience, time, it needs nutrition, not only to a certain extent but for it to be completely pure it needs natural resources to be as providing as possible, it still feeds on its instinctive well-being. Who are we to contaminate that? My dream...

By Styve Homnick, For the Alamogordo Daily News June 12, 2012 In 1906, George and Alice Bent wound up in a town that would later bear their last name. They bought the copper mine and employed about 34 men and one woman. They opened a post office and grocery store, and it’s been Bent ever since. The opinions you are about to read come from conversations we had with some of the friendly folks who make Bent the charming place that it is. Richard “Chito” Barron is a retired railroad engineer. He started with Southern Pacific and worked in the machine shop overhauling engines. He...

By Rocky Kistner, Huffpost GREEN May 18, 2012 An essential mineral ingredient used in a variety of electronics from cell phones to smart bombs could be a death knell for a pristine part of a wild New Mexico desert grassland coveted by environmentalists—and considered sacred to Native Americans. That ingredient—rare earth elements—is at the heart of a recent battle to protect one of the crown jewels of the southwest, the Otero Mesa, a unique desert environment that sits atop one of the largest untapped fresh water aquifers in the state. Check out this beautifully shot video from NRDC’s...

By Dr. Hildy Reiser, For the Alamogordo Daily News October 24, 2012 I have been a resident of Otero County for 18 1/2 years, an avid native plants gardener for over 17 1/2 years, and a wildlife ecologist and natural resources professional for more than 30 years. I have been to many beautiful places in the U.S. and abroad, and though my slide trays, photo albums and digital files are full, there are always a few scenic wonders that stay in my memories forever: the call of loons on northern Minnesota lakes; Shoshone Point, on the edge of the south rim of the Grand Canyon; redwoods shrouded in mist...

By Pete Eidenbach, For the Alamogordo Daily News September 11, 2012 When our ancestors first explored Otero Mesa 10 millennia or more ago, the mesa was occupied by a juniper/oak woodland alternating with plains grassland, far different from today’s Chihuahuan Desert grassland and scrub. Instead of today’s cattle, the mesa was populated by some formidable wildlife. During the day, our ancestors heard the trumpeting of ancient elephants — the mammoth. At night they would have been awestruck by the howls of sabertooth cats, jaguar and dire wolf in the dark night. Like these fearsome...

Phil Taylor and Manuel Quinones, E&E reporters June 30, 2011 Tribal and environmental leaders lobbied the Obama administration this week to designate a national monument on more than a million acres in southern New Mexico, a sacred land to some that contains one of the United States’ most intact and ecologically diverse desert grasslands. Members of the Mescalero Apache Tribe in southeast New Mexico and a leader of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance met with Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation and Interior Department officials to urge protections for Otero...

Rainbow on Otero Mesa's Alamo Mountain, 2010 POLITICS: Babbitt blames White House ‘munchkins’ for bartering away public lands (06/08/2011) Phil Taylor, E&E reporter Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt today attacked the White House for failing to stand up to what he warned is an all-out congressional assault on public lands and urged the Obama administration to use its executive powers to protect at-risk landscapes. Babbitt called on President Obama to block harmful policy riders in upcoming legislative battles and to propose new national monuments that would force lawmakers and...

Albuquerque Journal Sun, Jun 5, 2011 By Ted Rodriguez, Alfred LaPaz, Larry Shay, Houston Murphy, and Styve Homnick / Mescalero Apache Advocates For Otero Mesa National Monument Until a few months ago only a handful of the curious knew the importance of Otero Mesa to the Apache. Otero Mesa is one of the most sacred of places, if not the holiest, to us Apache. From time immemorial we have had profound ties to this enchanted land. Historically, Apache country spanned from Western Texas to Eastern Arizona and deep into Northern Mexico. We shared all of New Mexico with the Pueblos. Otero Mesa is centrally...