Description

MLRA 70B represents the southern terminus of Land Resource Region G, the Western Great Plains. The entirety of this MLRA is within two primary river basins carved out of the Great Plains by the Canadian and Pecos rivers. The basins are characterized by the Tucumcari Basin portion of the Canadian River and the Pecos River Basin with its associated Mescalero Sand Plain, Artesia Group saline red beds, and piedmont deposits. This MLRA constitutes the transition from the Basin and Range Province of the west to the Southern High Plains, with its Ogallala aquifer-bearing deposits, to the east. Most of the MLRA is rangeland punctuated by extensive areas of petroleum extraction in the south and east parts of the Pecos Basin. In smaller areas along waterways, diverted water from the main river or shallow water tables provide irrigation to bottomland fields.