Global InformationOtero Mesa information
Otero Mesa is a plateau in the Trans-Pecos. The plateau extends north from Hudspeth County, Texas into Otero County, New Mexico.[1] Otero Mesa is the dominant landform in Hudspeth County, composing 70% of its land area.[1][2] Otero Mesa has a more limited extant in Otero County, NM. Overall, 2/3 of Otero Mesa are in Texas, but the colloquial usage of "Otero Mesa" is restricted to the component of the plateau in New Mexico.[1][3][4] This is only a political distinction; Otero Mesa is physiographically continuous across the NM-TX state line.[1]
In the center of Otero Mesa, the plateau is interrupted by the Cornudas Mountains, a cluster of buttes that jut almost 2,000' above the plateau.[1] The Cornudas Mountains include Wind Mountain, the highest point on Otero Mesa at 7,282'.[1] The range is peppered with thousands of petroglyphs, complementing the well-known Hueco Tanks site farther west.[5][6]
Otero Mesa is the northernmost part of the Chihuahuan Desert at its longitude.[7] While the Chihuahuan Desert extends another 200 miles north along the Pecos and Rio Grande River Valleys, the high backslopes of the Sacramento, White, and Manzano Mountains between the basins are too mesic to support Chihuahuan Desert vegetative sites.[7][1] These areas are instead classified as Southwestern Tablelands.[7][8]
Grassland is the predominant landcover on Otero Mesa.[9] These semi-arid grasslands are a remnant of a much larger network of Chihuahuan Desert steppes that carpeted uplands and bajadas 150 years ago.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][3] Overgrazing and fire suppression has degraded large swaths of this ecoregion into scrubland.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][3] Consequently, conservation organizations have recognized Otero Mesa as a significant ecosystem deserving protection.[22][23][4]
In Texas, Otero Mesa is divided into private ranches. North of the state line, Otero Mesa is a patchwork of Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico State Land Office, and private lands.[24] Livestock grazing is the primary land use here as well, but most of it is authorized under federal and state permits.[24][25] Extensive federal ownership makes this area easier to protect; thus, for the sake of expediency, conservationists have defined "Otero Mesa" as the part of Otero Mesa in New Mexico.
McGregor Range, a U.S. Army installation, includes approximately 300,000 acres of withdrawn BLM land on Otero Mesa.[1] Livestock grazing is allowed on most of this acreage, but a Fort Bliss Training Complex (FBTC) Recreational Access Permit is still required to visit the range when it is not in use.[26][27]
- ^ a b c d e f g h "The National Map - Advanced Viewer". apps.nationalmap.gov. Retrieved 2021-08-16.
- ^ "U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Hudspeth County, Texas". www.census.gov. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
- ^ a b c Whitford, Walt, and Kevin Bixby. The Last Desert Grasslands. Southwest Environmental Center, 2006.
- ^ a b "Explore Otero Mesa: The Last Desert Grassland". www.wildmesquite.org. Retrieved 2021-08-16.
- ^ Solveig, Turpin; Turpin, Jeff (2013). "Rock Art and Site Distribution in the Cornudas Mountains: A Reconnaissance on University Lands Hudspeth County, Texas". TAS, Inc. – via Academia.
- ^ Seymour, Deni J. Pasaron Por Aquí, 2012. Prepared for New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society.
- ^ a b c "Level III Ecoregions of the Continental United States" (PDF). United States Environmental Protection Agency.
- ^ "Primary Distinguishing Characteristics of Level III Ecoregions of the Continental United States". Level III and IV Ecoregions of the Continental United States. United States Environmental Protection Agency. September 2013.
- ^ "MRLC Viewer". www.mrlc.gov. Retrieved 2021-08-16.
- ^ a b Grover, Herbert D.; Musick, H. Brad (1990-12-01). "Shrubland encroachment in southern New Mexico, U.S.A.: An analysis of desertification processes in the American southwest". Climatic Change. 17 (2): 305–330. Bibcode:1990ClCh...17..305G. doi:10.1007/BF00138373. ISSN 1573-1480. S2CID 153791113.
- ^ a b Buffington, Lee C.; Herbel, Carlton H. (1965). "Vegetational Changes on a Semidesert Grassland Range from 1858 to 1963". Ecological Monographs. 35 (2): 140–164. doi:10.2307/1948415. ISSN 0012-9615. JSTOR 1948415.
- ^ a b Branscomb, Bruce L. (May 1958). "Shrub Invasion of a Southern New Mexico Desert Grassland Range". Journal of Range Management. 11 (3): 129–132. doi:10.2307/3893715. hdl:10150/553887. ISSN 0022-409X. JSTOR 3893715.
- ^ a b Brown, Albert L. (July 1950). "Shrub Invasion of Southern Arizona Desert Grassland". Journal of Range Management. 3 (3): 172–177. doi:10.2307/3894118. ISSN 0022-409X. JSTOR 3894118.
- ^ a b Bahre, Conrad J.; Shelton, M. L. (September 1993). "Historic Vegetation Change, Mesquite Increases, and Climate in Southeastern Arizona". Journal of Biogeography. 20 (5): 489. doi:10.2307/2845722. ISSN 0305-0270. JSTOR 2845722.
- ^ a b Humphrey, Robert R. (April 1958). "The desert grassland a history of vegetational change and an analysis of causes". The Botanical Review. 24 (4): 193–252. doi:10.1007/bf02872568. ISSN 0006-8101. S2CID 21410270.
- ^ a b Gibbens, R. P.; Tromble, J. M.; Hennessy, J. T.; Cardenas, M. (March 1983). "Soil Movement in Mesquite Dunelands and Former Grasslands of Southern New Mexico from 1933 to 1980". Journal of Range Management. 36 (2): 145. doi:10.2307/3898148. hdl:10150/646090. ISSN 0022-409X. JSTOR 3898148.
- ^ a b Hennessy, J. T.; Gibbens, R. P.; Tromble, J. M.; Cardenas, M. (May 1983). "Vegetation Changes from 1935 to 1980 in Mesquite Dunelands and Former Grasslands of Southern New Mexico". Journal of Range Management. 36 (3): 370. doi:10.2307/3898490. hdl:10150/645947. ISSN 0022-409X. JSTOR 3898490.
- ^ a b Wooton, E.O. (1908). "The range problem in New Mexico". New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin No. 66.
- ^ a b Parker, Kenneth W. (1952). The mesquite problem on southern Arizona ranges (PDF). U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. OCLC 5193888.
- ^ a b Bahre, Conrad Joseph (1991). A Legacy of Change : Historic Human Impact on Vegetation in the Arizona Borderlands. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-3639-9. OCLC 962149316.
- ^ a b Leopold, Luna B. (April 1951). "Vegetation of Southwestern Watersheds in the Nineteenth Century". Geographical Review. 41 (2): 295–316. doi:10.2307/211025. ISSN 0016-7428. JSTOR 211025.
- ^ CEC and TNC. 2005. North American Central grasslands priority conservation areas: technical report and documentation. Eds. J.W. Karl and J. Hoth. Commission for Environmental Cooperation and The Nature Conservancy. Montreal, Quebec.
- ^ World Wildlife Fund et al. 2000. Ecoregion-Based Conservation in the Chihuahuan Desert: A Biological Assessment. Eds. Eric Dinerstein et al. http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwfbinaryitem2757.pdf
- ^ a b "ArcGIS Web Application". www.arcgis.com. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
- ^ "NMSLO Land Status". mapservice.nmstatelands.org. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
- ^ "Programs: Natural Resources: Rangelands and Grazing: Livestock Grazing: McGregor Range Grazing Contracts | Bureau of Land Management". www.blm.gov. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
- ^ "McGregor Range | Bureau of Land Management". www.blm.gov. Retrieved 2021-08-17.