Natural areas surrounding cities like El Paso provide a vast array of ecosystem services that benefit all people including clean air, drinking water and recreational activities. These lands also sequester significant amounts of carbon, thereby reducing atmospheric greenhouse gases. Many species of wildlife including some of our areas most iconic wildlife species, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, mule deer and javelina, greatly depend on these wildlands for survival.
When air quality is addressed by urban development projects it is largely discussed in regards to transportation planning such as encouraging biking and walking trails, but there is often no or little attention directed to the a value of air quality ecosystem services provided by plants that filter the air for every person living in the area. Why is this so important to a community's well being? Take the problem of dust storms in El Paso as an example. According to a study of the respiratory effects of dust storms in El Paso County from 2000-2005 residents were 10.3% more likely to be hospitalized for a respiratory illness on a day with a synoptic-scale dust event than on a day without a dust storm. People who may be more vulnerable than others during these dust storms include infants, children and adolescents, the elderly, people with respiratory conditions, such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema, people with heart disease and people with diabetes. According to the CDC from 1997-1999 an estimated 7.4 million people ages 15 and up reported an episode of asthma or an asthma attack with an estimated cost of $7 billion. Here in West Texas a 2007 report by the Texas Department of Health Services reported an 11.5 % (per 10,000) rate of asthma related hospitalizations.
Many urban development plans mention health concerns and how air quality emissions can be lessened by reducing vehicular emissions and their underlying cause, but there is often no mention of the value of natural vegetation in not only filtering our air, but also in capturing CO2 if large areas of natural vegetation and associated microbes in the soil are removed for development. Speaking of microbes a single tablespoon of healthy soil might contain over a billion beneficial soil microbes!!! How many microbes live in one acre of natural open space in El Paso is anyone’s guess. The number is too big for most of us to fathom. Microbes provide amazingly complex ecological services. In addition to decomposing organic waste materials into organic humus, microbes in the soil fix atmospheric nitrogen and help plants to grow in areas where nitrogen is scarce. Other minerals like sulfur and phosphorus require microbial transformation in the soil that surrounds the roots to make them more available to plants. They also improve aeration by loosening dense and compacted soils.
All across the country many cities take for granted the value of these services when making environmental decisions. To help cities address this critically important issue the Environmental Protection Agency is currently developing an Ecosystem Services Research Program that seeks to “effectively measure and communicate the type, quality and magnitude of services that humans receive from ecosystems in order that their true value is considered in decision-making.“ (EPA National Atlas for Sustainability, 2012)
I was very pleased to read in the recently approved Plan El Paso report on sustainability, a very hopeful sign that the Plan El Paso effort will help El Paso move towards more sustainable development. The 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 Plan El Paso is funded and implemented, 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 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. All of the above will also help El Paso do something that is more than likely not a big agenda item in leadership and planning board rooms, protect ecoystem services essential to the survival of humanity.
Planners do a great job planning roads, walkways, parks, utilitiy easements, schools and more. But how often to you see an analysis of the impact of a development on ecosystem services? The answer is rather dissappointing, you don't see it. Why, because city planners are rarely required to understand or implement strategies to protect ecosytem services when working on development plans. Environmental impact studies are not required by law when developing many public lands and even rarely when it comes to private lands. What we need in this country is a national mandate for smart development, one that calls for ecosystem services to be considered at the same level of importance as safe roads and walkways and other critical development goals.
Plans like Plan El Paso will no doubt help our city become a more livable city, but what about those ecosystem services? Could we consider their value and and wait a bit longer before we unleash the army of bulldozers ready and waiting to destroy more of our natural open space? For those who are suffering from respiratory ailments and have inhalation aerosols by their side, I certainly hope so.
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