El Paso Is Losing Out on $18 Million

Here's a follow-up to yesterday's post about the Rio Bosque's precarious situation.

The nonprofit, independent research group, Headwaters Economics, published a fact sheet, Quick Facts: The Economic Benefits of Southern New Mexico's Natural Assets, Fall 2010. Item #3 states:

"Bird watching alone is significant for New Mexico, and the state ranks fifth nationally with 46 percent of its birders coming from outside its borders. The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, for example, brings in $13.7 million annually from non-residents to the three counties of Socorro, Bernalillo, and Sierra; along with $4.3 million in regional tax revenue."

That's $18 million!

As a matter of fact, I know birders and Master Naturalists and hikers and friends and neighbors from El Paso who frequently go to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. El Paso's Rio Bosque Wetlands Park could be a similar attraction not just for wildlife but for eco-tourist and tax dollars.

So how do we as a City invest in the Rio Bosque? The City contributes $10,000. EPWU lets John Sproul and volunteers truck water from the Bustamante Plant so that they can laboriously hand-water suffering and dying trees. The El Paso County Water Improvement District #1 prevents 7,800 acre-feet per year of water from the Bustamante from being piped directly to the Bosque past their canal and their drain. The El Paso County Water Improvement District #1 sucks groundwater from the Bosque when one of its wells (CW-4) is operating.

We just bought Sea Biscuit and we have put him out to pasture to die.

The City of El Paso will also provide a sculpture and signage for the Park. The City will spend $170,000 on that art project but not a dime extra for needed equipment in the Park. Moreover, the interest in the Park by the City's Parks and Recreation Department is nil - just an item on their inventory like several other neglected natural areas.

With all due apologies to my friends at MCAD and the Public Art Program, the sculptor who they hired to do the Rio Bosque sculpture and signage is Heath Satow, whose studio is in Los Angeles. He's good at what he does; but he will take the $170,000 and spend and/or invest it in . . . Los Angeles not El Paso.

$18 million!

That's the kind of change that could come El Paso's way if it just got smart about eco-tourisism and places such as the Rio Bosque. I bet a few changes at City Hall and a Green Chamber of Commerce for El Paso would help matters.