Helping to Save The Otero Mesa

The Otero Mesa is a vast desert grassland in southern New Mexico.  This blank spot on the map has become one of my favorite photography destinations over the last several years.  It is an area of open range, lonely mountains, and big sky.  It is a place I rarely encounter another person.  I have written about it on this blog several times as the Lost Mesa since so few people have heard of it and even fewer know how to get there.


I was recently approached by the Coalition for Otero Mesa to write an article for them about the Otero Mesa.  The coalition is an umbrella organization for over twenty different civic, environmental, sportsman, and landowner groups working to protect the vast Otero Mesa.  The organization had some success fighting oil and gas drilling on the mesa but it now faces the threat of hard rock mining.  

The goal they are working toward now is to try to secure National Monument status for the Otero Mesa.


I could not agree more with them about the special qualities of this area and the need for a protected status.  I put together a piece and provided them some images that was recently published in the Carlsbad Current-Argus, Ruidoso News, and the Alamogordo Daily News.


See the article here:


Otero Mesa Article

I hope you can read the piece, look at some of the other blog posts I have done on it here and check out the image galleries on my website and begin to agree that this is an area worthy of protection.

Lost Mesa Gallery

The fight to save such a place is daunting.  The mesa is so isolated that even though it is 1.2 million acres (that is one a half times bigger than Big Bend National Park) it is unknown and that anonymity will make it an uphill climb.  I can only hope that bringing back images from this remarkable place can help get the idea of preservation moving forward.


To learn more about the Coalition for Otero Mesa.


Coalition for Otero Mesa