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

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...

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...

Meet  the man with a passion for Otero Mesa: Styve Homnick. In this feature article from Vámanos! weekly, Styve shares his journey from Brooklyn blues musician to wilderness defender and his special relationship with the Mescalero Apache. Walking Between the Worlds: The Life of Styve Homnick

On June 1st, Congressman Martin Heinrich (D-NM) wrote a letter to the Las Cruces Bureau of Land Management airing concerns over potential impacts of hardrock mining in America’s wildest grassland – Otero Mesa. Click here to read the full letter, and please call Congressman Heinrich to thank him for standing up for Otero Mesa.  In Albuquerque: 505-346-6781 In Washington, D.C.: 202-225-6316

Mining Claims in Otero Mesa Nearly Triple Geovic Mining Corp goes from staking 68 mining claims to 183 in the heart of America’s wildest grassland FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 5, 2011 CONTACT: Nathan Newcomer, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance 505-250-4225 John Cornell, New Mexico Wildlife Federation 575-740-1759 New Mexico Wilderness Alliance* The Wilderness Society* Southwest Environmental Center* New Mexico Wildlife Federation* National Wildlife Federation* Sierra Club* The Audubon Society* Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership* Restoring Eden* Environment New Mexico* Apache Advocates...

March 2, 2011 – KRWG TV Las Cruces interviews New Mexico Wildlife Federation’s John Cornell and New Mexico Wilderness Alliance’s Nathan Newcomer on the new mining claims staked on Otero Mesa’s Wind Mountain by Geovic Mining Corporation. Length: 5:52

Paradise Could Be Easily Lost Albuquerque Journal Monday, March 21, 2011 By Bennett A. Brown And John Cornell Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership; New Mexico Wildlife Federation “Otero Mesa is a majestic desert grassland in a remote area of southern New Mexico. Bordered on the north by the Sacramento Mountains and on the east by the Guadalupe Mountains, this 2,400-square-mile landscape encompasses roughly 1.2 million acres of public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Roughly half the area is grassland, including the largest remaining Chihuahuan Desert grassland assemblage...

Guest Commentary: The Antiquities Act By Bill Richardson “When Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings dating back to the 12th century were threatened, President Woodrow Wilson saved them by establishing Bandelier National Monument in my home state of New Mexico, 95 years ago this February. Now the designation of future monuments may be in jeopardy. Our next Bandelier, Grand Canyon, Statue of Liberty or other natural, historic and cultural treasures that shape our character and tell our story, may not be protected if current efforts to limit the Antiquities Act succeed. Bandelier...