San Andres National Wildlife Refuge

San Andres National Wildlife Refuge is located approximately 30 miles northeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico, in Doña Ana County, and encompasses 57,215 acres of the southern portion of the San Andres Mountain range.

The Refuge is not open to the public due to security restrictions. The Refuge is surrounded by federal lands belonging to the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR).

The San Andres mountain range is about 80 miles long, forming an arc six to 12 miles wide which concaves along its east face. The mountain range is bordered by the Jornada del Muerto plains to the west and the Tularosa Basin to the east. The San Andres Mountains represent a tilted fault block, uplifted vertically along an east bounding fault zone. The mountain range is relatively gentle on the west side, breaking into a series of precipitous cliffs and benches on the east side. Desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana) generally occupy a habitat found on the east side of the range.

Elevation on the Refuge ranges from 4200 to 8239 feet. Major east-west canyons delineate five mountain sub units within the Refuge, which are known (from south to north) as: Bennett, Brushy, San Andres, Oñate, and Block. Water is available to wildlife in the form of permanent and intermittent seeps and springs located throughout the range. Extensive water drainage in canyon bottoms can occur immediately following heavy rainfall in the form of thunderstorms.

Five plant communities are found on the Refuge. These include desert-shrub (14,305 acres), desert riparian (2,860 acres), grass-shrub (28,610 acres), mountain shrub (5,720 acres), and piñon-juniper (5,720 acres). Merriam's Life Zones represented on the Refuge include the Upper (above 7,000 feet) and Lower (below 6,500 feet) Sonoran of the Chihuahuan Desert. In general, unprotected areas are characterized by grass-shrub communities dominated by such plants as needle and thread grass, grama grass, mountain mahogany, prickly pear cactus, agave, yucca and ocotillo. Protected slopes are dominated by stands of piñon pine and juniper. Riparian vegetation occurs around springs and in major drainages, and includes apache plume and desert willow.