Southwestern Tablelands

Southwestern Tablelands

The Southwestern Tablelands flank the High Plains with red hued canyons, mesas, badlands, and dissected river breaks. Unlike most adjacent Great Plains ecological regions, little of the Southwestern Tablelands is in cropland. Much of this region is in sub-humid grassland and semiarid rangeland. The eastern boundary represents a transition from the more extensive cropland within the High Plains to the generally more rugged and less arable land within the Southwestern Tablelands ecoregion. The natural vegetation in this region is mostly grama-buffalo grass, with some juniper-scrub oak-grass savanna on escarpment bluffs. Prairie fires were likely important in maintaining the grasslands and suppressing encroachment of shrub and woody species. Pronghorn antelope is the most common large native mammal of the region.

Flora:

The Semiarid Canadian Breaks: One-seed juniper, sand sagebrush, skunk bush sumac, and yucca, along with
side oats grama, little bluestem, western wheat grass, blue grama, buffalo grass, galleta, and alkali sacaton.

The Mesa de Maya/Black Mesa: Piñon and one-seed juniper.

The Piñon-Juniper Woodlands and Savannas: Piñon and juniper.

The Upper Canadian Plateau: Short grass prairie, some midgrass prairie, scattered juniper savanna, and juniper woodland on hills.

The Canadian Canyons: Blue grama, galleta, sand drop seed, threeawns, ring muhly, broom snakeweed, cacti, yucca, and cholla. Some areas of sideoats grama and little bluestem, with blue grama, western wheat grass, galleta, and buffalo grass also occurred.

The Central New Mexico Plains: Livestock grazing is the dominant land use. Pronghorn antelope are common as well as coyote and a variety of raptors.

The Pluvial Lake Basins: Fourwing saltbush and alkali sacaton.

The Southern New Mexico Dissected Plains: Juniper savanna, blue grama, black grama, hairy grama, side oats grama, triden, threeawn, juniper, lotebush, yucca, dalea, and a variety of acacias.