Breaking News: The BLM has reversed course and will now accept comments by email and fax, reversing their original decision to the contrary.  So if you want to send your own comments directly, send them to:
Email: sd@nm.blm.gov
Fax: 505-438-7452

About Otero Mesa and the Threat of Oil and Gas Drilling
Otero Mesa lies in south central New Mexico, west of Carlsbad and northeast of El Paso, Texas. In addition to supporting what many consider to be the state's most genetically pure pronghorn herd, Otero Mesa also provides habitat for mountain lions, coyotes, ringtail cats, desert mule deer, black-tailed prairie dogs and large numbers of amphibians.

It is crucial habitat for migratory songbirds and many raptors, including the endangered northern aplomado falcon. It draws other species common to the northern prairie states and many southern species of birds come north to Otero Mesa in search of the habitat and vital seeds that only native grassland can provide. Altogether, 200 species of birds use the area.

And migratory birds draw migratory birders: a half million bird watchers pursue their passion every year in New Mexico; over 30 percent come from out-of-state.

Over Half a Million Acres Deserve Wilderness Designation
New Mexico conservationists have carefully inventoried the greater Otero Mesa's 1.2 million acres and believe that 520,000 acres of public land in the region are fully suitable for wilderness designation.

Despite these natural, wild values, the oil and gas industry is moving aggressively to turn this pristine landscape into a full-scale industrial zone. Otero Mesa's splendid opportunities for traditional recreational activities including hunting, camping, hiking, photography and wildlife viewing could vanish with the sort of intensive oil and gas development the industry is demanding.

Extensive oil and gas exploration pose such a threat to this splendid expanse of desert grassland and its great diversity of native plants that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson issued an executive order directing "all appropriate and relevant state agencies to provide support for the utmost protection of these grasslands as a matter of state policy.”

Judging by the BLM’s new oil and gas drilling plan, federal policy doesn’t include much protection at all. The agency has released what it calls “a supplemental plan for Fluid Minerals Management on Otero Mesa.” It’s an oil and gas drilling plan and is much at odds with the Governor’s plan and what the public has said it wants for the area.

One-Stop Chopping: Cut Environmental Protection, Boost Drilling
The supplemental plan would:

- Open 1.4 million acres, including the Otero Mesa and the nearby Nutt Grasslands area to oil and gas leasing without any special protections or limitations on operations, a doubling of the area the agency proposed to lease in a 2000 land use plan;

- Eliminate earlier provisions to protect the Mesa’s land, air and water and greatly reduce the industry’s responsibility to care for the wild place in which it wants to drill; and,

- Offer new protection from oil and gas drilling for only 35,790 acres. However, this area was already designated for closure for at least 5 years to protect aplomado falcon habitat.

Please Take Action Now to Protect Otero Mesa!
The deadline for comments is Monday, June 28. In nearly every WildAlert we send, we urge you to write your own comments if you have time (and we know it takes time!). Personal letters are more important than ever on this issue. The BLM is betting that few people care enough to write; we’re betting the agency is wrong. We’ve included addresses for both the BLM and for key elected officials, as well as a sample letter from which you can take the major points for your own letter.

Send your letter to:
Linda Rundell, State Director
Supplement Comments
Bureau of Land Management
P.O. Box 27115
Santa Fe, NM 87502-0115
Email: sd@nm.blm.gov
Fax: 505-438-7452

Please send a copy of your letter to (see full address below):
Edwin L. Roberson, Las Cruces Field Manager, BLM

New Mexico residents: please send copies of your letter to (addresses below):
Gov. Bill Richardson
Sen. Pete Domenici
Sen. Jeff Bingaman
Rep. Steve Pearce

Sample Letter

RE: Supplement to the Proposed Resource Management Plan Amendment (RMPA)/Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Federal Fluid Minerals Leasing and Development in Sierra and Otero counties

Dear Ms. Rundell:

Before offering my comments on the supplemental plan, I must register my strong opposition to the process you’ve imposed on this comment period. Rejecting all but mailed comments can only operate to limit the numbers of citizens who may be heard on this important issue.

I make no judgement about motive, but can’t resist pointing out that many people will likely assume you are more interested in discouraging public participation than in encouraging it or that you intend no changes to your draft document regardless of what the public has to say about it. Both are unfortunate.

Otero Mesa is a nationally significant area and its natural, cultural and wildlife resources should be preserved for all Americans. I urge the Bureau of Land Management to fully protect and preserve it.

I support provisions in the supplement to protect aplomado falcon habitat. But the supplement fails to explain how the BLM chose the areas for protection and how it will adequately protect falcon habitat not included. Please provide specific explanations of both.

The supplement does not justify the shift from measures earlier proposed to protect the desert grasslands (through No Surface Occupancy Stipulations) to an untested approach of limiting surface use to 5 percent of the area and then trying to “reclaim” the destroyed vegetation. You offer no scientific analysis to support this experimental approach and there is thus no assurance that sensitive grasslands will not be damaged beyond repair.

Also, the BLM has neither reduced nor justified the risk of impacts to other important resources, such as public watersheds, ground water, and big game species. I ask that you conduct a thorough scientific analysis to address the concerns that the public and state agencies have raised about oil and gas impacts on the Otero Mesa and make this analysis available to the public. I further request that the BLM make appropriate changes to the proposed management approach based on the findings of this analysis.

The BLM has claimed that the remaining risks to the resource can be lessened through restrictions in future oil and gas drilling permits. But in the current plan your agency hasn’t committed to imposing such restrictions and will almost certainly have less authority to impose restrictions at the time of permitting. Therefore, you should instead adhere to the protections that you proposed in your 2001 draft or adopt New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s proposal.

The BLM’s current proposed plan addresses only a small portion of Otero Mesa, leaving over 1.1 million acres open to drilling with few or no restrictions on oil and gas development. Again, I strongly urge the BLM to adopt the Governor’s Alternative Management Proposal for Otero Mesa, including the governor’s request that you support creation of a National Conservation Area for this region to assure adequate protection for the aplomado falcon, as well as other species and resources in the region.

Thank you for your careful consideration of my comments.

Sincerely,
(Your name and address. This is very important! The agency will not consider your comments without them.) CC:

Please CC your comments to:

Edwin L. Roberson
Las Cruces Field Manager Bureau of Land Management
1800 Marquess St.
Las Cruces, NM 88005

Gov. Bill Richardson
State Capitol
Room 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501

Sen. Pete Domenici
118 Loretto Town Center
505 S. Main
Las Cruces, NM 88001-1209

Sen. Jeff Bingaman
148 Lorreto Town Center
505 S. Main
Las Cruces, NM 88001-1200

Rep Steve Pearce
400 N. Telshor, Suite E
Las Cruces, NM 88011-8214