New Mexico State University is partnering with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to create opportunities for faculty and student research at the Organ Mountains-Desert Mountain Peaks National Monument.
President Barack Obama designated the nearly 500,000 acres of federal land in southern New Mexico as a national monument in 2014 to protect its natural beauty for future generations.
In April this year, the university signed a memorandum of understanding with the Las Cruces district of the BLM that offers NMSU the opportunity to engage in a variety of scientific research in the picturesque desert mountain area. The first project to support the development of a vegetation map of the monument has recently gotten underway with the signing of a contract between NMSU and the Las Cruces office of the BLM.
“In June, we started working with the local BLM office to develop project specific scopes of work to allow BLM to provide us funding for well-constrained and well-defined research efforts,” said Christopher Brown, lead researcher on the development of the MOU and associate professor of geography. “The goal of this work is to support the resource management plan (RMP) that BLM is required to complete.
“The BLM has a very strong charge to ensure they provide access for multiple uses of the monument, while also protecting the resources on the monument,” said Brown. “Equestrians, mountain bikers, rock climbers, birders, paleontologists and conservationists desire access to the monument. BLM has to provide access to the monument, but they also have to preserve resources, objects and value of the park.”
Brook Milligan, NMSU biology professor, is among the first professors to finalize a project under the new agreement. Milligan’s proposal involves working with Gregory Penn, NMSU Ph.D. candidate in biology, on a project to develop a vegetation map for the monument.
“Our goal is to build models of the factors that influence the occurrence of each of the most important plant species,” said biology professor Brook Milligan. “These factors include such quantities as elevation, slope, substrate, and the occurrence of other species.
“Being able to collaborate with local land managers to address a fundamental need at the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument is a wonderful opportunity to connect basic science to practical problems of importance. These opportunities are always valuable lessons for students who enjoy seeing the value of their work and education.”
Working with Milligan, Penn will focus on creating a vegetation map for the area.
“The map will show where different types of plants are likely to be found within the monument,” Penn said. “Vegetation maps have been around for a long time, but this one is different because it can convey much more. For example, traditional maps simply suggest that a plant is or is not in a particular area. In addition, this map could suggest how sparse or abundant the plant is likely to be in any given area.”
Other projects under consideration include human ecology mapping, economic development research, and exploring wildlife issues on the monument. “The MOU basically tells BLM we’re on call to do whatever science they need to complete the RMP,” Brown said. “Through this agreement, there’s the likelihood of getting funding to come to the university to support a wide variety of graduate student research and faculty work. Because this is a large consortium, there are many opportunities for students to participate on any of these projects in any department.”
NMSU faculty, staff and students have worked actively with the BLM for years on a range of different projects including several for the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument in the Robledo Mountains near Las Cruces.
Information from NMSU