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.

McGregor Range, a U.S. Army installation, includes approximately 300,000 acres of withdrawn BLM land on Otero Mesa.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.

It was far from homogeneous, however: differences in soil composition, climate, and surface runoff created a patchwork of unique plant communities, or ecological sites.

Black grama, blue grama, tobosa, alkali sacaton, vine mesquite, bush muhly, and dropseeds were the dominant species in these HCPCs; the dominant species in non-riparian, degraded flatland ecological sites are now creosote bush and honey mesquite.

The only major throughway on Otero Mesa is U.S. Route 180, which crosses the plateau to between El Paso and Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

[1] While access is restricted on McGregor Range, the public can use the Owen Prather Highway (New Mexico State Road 506) to cross it.

At its southwest corner, Otero Mesa dramatically rises to form the Sierra Diablo, which tower over Salt Flats.

Along with the outflow of Piñon Creek onto Crow Flats, the Sacramento Mountains Bajada is the primary groundwater recharge zone in the Salt Basin.

Rising dramatically from the plains of Otero Mesa, these plutons "represent the northern extent of the Trans-Pecos magmatic province."

"The Cornudas Mountains have been examined for potential economic deposits of gold, silver, beryllium, rare-earth elements, niobium,...uranium, [and nepheline,] but no production has occurred."

Otero Mesa is a 1.2 million acre (4,900 km2) area in northern Chihuahuan Desert region of southern New Mexico.

Between 1954 and 1965 the U.S. Army expanded its McGregor Range facilities at Fort Bliss onto Otero Mesa by purchasing ranches.

On Tuesday, April 28, 2009, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled against the US Bureau of Land Management plan for leasing the Otero Mesa for oil and gas extraction.

The oil company HEYCO had been granted a lease for extracting natural gas form Otero Mesa, pending the outcome of the litigation.