Joe Muench Strikes Again

On February 12th, Joe Muench of the El Paso Times wrote another one of his unenlightened editorials: No stopping flattened skunks on Trans Mountain.  He begins by saying: "OK, nobody's for blip-blapping skunks on roadways. But our environmentalists just won't give up on trying to stop the expansion of Trans Mountain Road."  Joe is unhappy with the Sierra Club for suing TxDOT because TxDOT arguably failed to do all the due diligence necessary with its environmental assessment (not to mention their absolute failure to listen to the public before they made their plans).


Don Baumgardt, owner of Piñata Publishing and creator of GeoBetty.com, wrote to the Times but his letter was truncated. Here is the full edition:

"I just read Redneck Joe Muench’s editorial about the need to bulldoze the mountain on the west side along Transmountain Road.  He said all this progress needs to happen and the “enviros” just need to “accept it”.  I’m reminded about that other old redneck line that has since gone out of favor about just relaxing and enjoying the inevitable.  Not so fast, Big Joe. Maybe eliminating the bottleneck of a two-lane section of highway makes perfect sense.  Bulldozing large swaths of mountain for unneeded gateways and overpasses to nowhere doesn’t.  Joe says, “let’s find something we can all want to save”.  Well Joe, we have.
 The process allowing public input has clearly shown a desire to protect open spaces.  The Sierra Club has stepped up to fight TxDOT, the developers and their mouthpieces.  If TxDOT wants to send the money to some other city that wants it more, let ‘em have it – and Joe, our developers and the sprawl that goes with it."

The point remains that many wanted expansion just not to the extent that TxDOT planned behind closed doors.

Jamie Ackerman and Bill Hoover check out the culverts. 

(Third tunnel not shown.)

Since Joe makes light of flattened animals, it may be worth noting that some are talking about incorporating some kind of animal corridor while creating a safe entrance into the Tom Mays Unit of the State Park. Urban Wildlife Biologist, Lois Balin, first mentioned them in a letter to TxDOT in 2006. One proposal are 3 existing culverts underneath Transmountain just east of the State Park entrance. Ms. Balin has pointed out that they would have to be changed to 10 feet in diameter and that the 8 foot drop on one side would need to be rectified and natural flooring created. (10 feet is necessary because the principal concern are mule deer.) Such a re-do is possible using what is called jack and bore.

What a tunnel re-do might look like.

Click to enlarge image.

The Oregon Department of Transportation invested in wildlife crossings and had this to say:

"US Forest Service and ODFW professionals have helped ODOT design the system, which has been proven to work in as many as 600 other sites across the country according to USFS biologist Sandra Jacobson.  They’ll be planted with deer friendly vegetation, to make them inviting to the migrating animals. With the under-crossings in place, Jacobson says the return on investment will be about 2 – 1…in other words, for every dollar spent on the project, they will save two dollars in damage and medical bills."

That's quite a return on investment. Joe mentioned skunks. He failed to take into account mule deers which are increasingly seen closer to the City because of the lack of water in the mountains now. 


Nobody, Joe, wants to "blip-blap" a skunk. More to the point, nobody wants to die or incur expensive damages to car and person.