Save the Cottonwoods

Here's a time sensitive message from Kevin Bixby at the Southwest Environmental Center.

Immediate action needed to save cottonwoods near Las Cruces

The NM Department of Transportation is on a mission to cut down trees along I-10 in Las Cruces. Please help us stop them.

Since April, NMDOT has cut down about 45 of the native trees growing along the highway just east of the Rio Grande, some of them maybe 50 years or older. Now, it has announced its intention to remove the remaining dozen or so trees, despite previous assurances that it wouldn't.

Why? Good question. It's hard to get a straight answer out of NMDOT.

At first, the reason given was for safety. Apparently the trees were in a required "clear" zone that would allow vehicles leaving the roadway to recover. (Never mind that these trees are at the base of a steep embankment and any cars going off the roadway at that point would have greater worries than hitting a tree.) Later the department admitted the trees were outside the clear zone, and that the presence of a guardrail made it a moot point anyway, but said that the homeless people camped under the trees posed a hazard. When we proposed that they remove the underbrush (mostly nonnative salt cedar) and leave the trees as an alternative solution, they agreed.

Now the department has changed its mind, apparently because the neighboring farmer has complained that the cottonwoods ON PUBLIC LAND are "stealing" his water and fertilizer and shading his pecan trees. (See article in today's LC Sun-News.) SWEC respects water rights, but this is taking the concept too far. The cottonwoods are on publicly owned land. If anything, the pecans are benefiting just as much or more from the rainwater running off the interstate on to his property. Not to mention that some of the cottonwoods probably were there before his pecans were planted.

They are an integral part of the bosque ecosystem, and they provide many benefits to people and wildlife. SWEC has been working hard to get MORE cottonwoods along the river and in the floodplain. NMDOT should be protecting them, not cutting them down, especially when it lacks a compelling transportation-related reason to do so.

Please take a moment to call or email these NMDOT officials TODAY. If they hear from enough people, they will be forced to reconsider.

Ask them to:

• Immediately cease cutting down any more cottonwoods along I-10 near the Rio Grande.
• Plant at least 45 new native trees to replace the ones already removed, in approximately the same location.

Here are the officials and their contact info:

• Gary Girón, Secretary, NMDOT: Gary.Giron@state.nm.us; (505) 827-5110
• Frank Guzman, NMDOT District Engineer: frank.guzman@state.nm.us; (575) 494-0363
• John Hummer, NM Transportation Commissioner: john@steinborn.com; (575) 496-7272

Thank you for taking action. If possible, please let me know at kevin@wildmesquite.org that you contacted them.

Read the Las Cruces Sun-Times story. Historically, in the El Paso area cottonwoods were chopped down in the 1930s to straighten the river. (The wood was used for fuel for the machines re-channeling the Rio Grande.)