ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Otero Mesa’s Value Lies in Beauty

I MADE MY first trip to Otero Mesa in September. Otero Mesa is a huge New Mexico resource, but not as an oil and gas field.

Otero Mesa’s value lies in its water, its wildlife and its beauty— all of which are as immense as its 1.2 million pristine acres. I am horrified that this huge area of quintessential New Mexico now faces ruin.

I saw pronghorn antelope, mule deer, a golden eagle, burrowing owls, a great horned owl, harriers, red tailed hawks, kestrel, a gray fox, kangaroo rats, jack rabbits galore, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, nine species of native grasses, myriad yuccas, cacti and more. Otero Mesa is easily one of the most alive places in America.

That Otero Mesa is vast, beautiful and supernaturally alive is without doubt. That there are measurable oil or gas reserves is highly suspect. Can we afford to permanently ruin Otero Mesa? I say no— emphatically no.

All New Mexicans need to rally around this unique, imperiled asset. Otero Mesa has huge income potential for southern New Mexico as a future national park. Shortsighted, meaningless destruction of this land by greedy oil companies could very well be the biggest environmental mistake we’ve ever made as a state and as a country.

JOE ADAIR
Albuquerque