Students fight to protect NM site

Just west of Carlsbad lies what may be New Mexico’s next national monument: Otero Mesa.

Nathan Newcomer, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance’s associate director, said he has fought for Otera Mesa’s protection for nearly a decade. He said the Bush administration wanted to develop full-scale oil and gas facilities in the area.

“We’re demonstrating to President Barack Obama and … local leaders … that New Mexicans want to see Otero Mesa become America’s next great national monument,” he said.

Fighting to turn the possibility into reality, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance rallied Saturday at the KiMo Theater. In setting up letter-writing stations and scheduling keynote speakers, the organization implored citizens to get involved.

Spread across 1.2 million acres, Otero Mesa is on the largest Chihuahuan desert grassland left on American public land.

Newcomer and the NMWA stymied plans for oil development after a nine-year battle with Washington. He said New Mexicans and Gov. Bill Richardson helped save the land.

“Now we find ourselves in a position today where we have a president and an administration that wants to chart a new course in landscape conservation,” Newcomer said.

It’s apparent why people want to protect the land, said John Kavanaugh, president of the UNM Wilderness Alliance.

“This place is just unbelievably beautiful,” he said.
Fresh off a campaign to protect New Mexico lobos, Kavanaugh said he got UNM students involved with the Otero Mesa effort. He got more than 20 students to write letters to the President Obama.

Student Daniel Richmond took Kavanaugh’s call to action. He crafted Otero Mesa-native animal stencils and encouraged people to decorate and write notes on them.

Richmond said he sent freshly colored stencils and the dozens of rally letters addressed to the Obama.

“For me, it’s the point of doing something,” he said.