Aguirre Spring Campground area near Las Cruces, NM
BLM/New Mexico
Aguirre Spring Campground Area near Las Cruces, New Mexico

Chihuahuan Desert  
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment (REA)

Status | Location and Setting | Management Questions | Conservation Elements | Change Agents | Data, Maps, and Models | Memos and Reports 

REA Status
The Chihuahuan Desert REA was initiated in September 2012 and is scheduled for completion in late 2014. The Chihuahuan Desert REA team is currently in the Pre-Assessment Phase. 

Location and Setting 
The Chihauhuan Desert ecoregion includes portions of New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and the country of Mexico; the extent of analysis will generally be restricted to the US.  However, when existing data sets that include Mexican portions of the ecoregion are obtained, they will not be clipped to the international border.  This ecoregion consists of over 125 million acres (approx. 195,000 sq.miles). The REA covers all or part of 5 BLM Field Office Boundaries.

Landscape Approach
Rapid Ecoregional Assessments (REA)

States in the Chihuahuan Desert REA
Arizona
New Mexico 
Texas

Contact: Project Manager
for more information

Location Map

Chihuahuan Desert REA Map

The Chihuahuan Desert is considered to be one of the most biologically diverse deserts in the world, based on species richness, for both flora and fauna. The dominant vegetation of the Chihuahuan Desert is made up of shrubs such as Creosote(Larrea tridentata) and Tarbush (Flourensia cernua), however, many diverse grasslands dot the ecoregion, containing species such as Purple Three-Awn (Aristida purpurea), Black Grama (Bouteloua eriopoda), and Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula). The Chihuahuan Desert receives, on average, around 10” of rain a year, making it typically more wet than the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts.

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Management Questions, Conservation Elements, and Change Agents
Development of the management questions, the conservation elements, and the change agents are currently underway. The Assessment Management Team for the Chihuahuan Desert REA will make their final selection of these items by the end of April 2013.