Plan El Paso Draft Elements section 8 on Sustainability Recommendation helps to support efforts to protect 800 acres along Trans Mountain Road

Please join me in contacting El Paso's elected officials in support of the DRAFT Plan El Paso report on Sustainability. Here is a copy of a letter I sent to my representative this evening. Please read over section 8 on sustainability and write your own letter of support.

Dear Representative,

As you know ever since I moved to El Paso in 2000 I have been doing all I can to promote the protection of wildlife corridors in the “unprotected from development” PSB public lands surrounding the Franklin Mountains. These lands help to protect important wildlife corridors for many species of wildlife including mule deer, javelina, coyotes, foxes and mountain lions.

This week I was very pleased to read in the Plan El Paso Draft Elements section 8 on Sustainability at www.planelpaso.org a very hopeful sign that the Plan El Paso effort is on the right track in helping to protect our environment. The draft report states that “the City should produce or commission a plan for biological corridors and habitat that identifies existing habitats and corridors and candidate sites and routes for restoration.” This statement alone supports the current citizen effort to protect natural open space along the Trans Mountain Road and if the city adopts the Plan El Paso plan on sustainability and implements it, a biological corridor plan would also help the city achieve important goals of the El Paso Liveable City Sustainability Plan adopted by City Council on September 15, 2009. Goals yet to be achieved in that plan on page 56 include: 1. Achieve international recognition for successful preservation of our Chihuahuan desert natural heritage for all time, 2. Complete a biodiversity inventory by 2011 and 3. Identify and prioritize habitat that will be protected by 2012.

I would like to ask that you support the draft Plan El Paso document and use the recommendation on biodiversity, along with all the evidence you already have of public support for conservation of public wild lands, in supporting the effort to protect the nearly 800 acres of land along the Trans Mountain Corridor.

Finally, to further help you understand the importance of protecting natural habitats that remain in El Paso I would like to recommend that you and others on council obtain a copy of Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity by Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein (Jun 2, 2008), a must read for all leaders who care about our environment. There is also a short 8 minute Biodiversity is Life video produced by the United Nations Environmental Program on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1VYmpTikgw:

Sincerely,

Rick LoBello

West El Paso