Why a Conservation Easement Still Makes Sense

Frontera Hugs Its Cactuses but Also Lugs Its Load

Many people think of the Frontera Land Alliance as just another little cactus-hugging group. “Oh those people mean well, but …” It’s true of course that the current members of the Frontera Board of Directors—Mike Gaglio (president), Richard Teschner (vice president), Scott Winton (secretary), Charlie Wakeem (treasurer), Scott Cutler (at large), Doug Echlin, John Moses and Kevin von Finger, and our Executive Director Janaé Reneaud Field—never forget to hug their front-yard ocotillos as they head for work each day. But Frontera itself is somewhat more than passing prickly hugs. Thanks to the generosity of our donors and the wisdom of our investments, with $100,000 in the bank we are not “broke” (as our critics have contended). Thanks to on-going supplementary donations we routinely consult with our traditional law firm and also hire attorneys from smaller firms as the need arises. We are engaging in partnership with the Texas Land Conservancy for “back-up” and continuity in the hyper-unlikely event that Frontera blows away in the winds of April. Our fees for managing a conservation easement are not “exorbitant”; in fact, and as Janaé pointed out at one of the meetings of the Joint City-PSB Committee she was invited to speak and interact at, easement management costs depend entirely on the details of the easement, which she is asking the City to provide—such things as appraisal, survey, title, Environmental Phase One and so forth. To quote Janaé, “the direct cost to Frontera to hold a conservation easement is just the annual site visit, which on the average is $500. And if any violations occur then we’re also dealing with legal fees and staff time.” Janaé continues: “If Frontera were to manage the Scenic Corridor as a park for public use, the City must tell us what it wants—restrooms? Parking? Trails? Campgrounds? Picnic sites? Barbeque grills? Swings and slides, sandboxes and teeter totters? The City hasn’t told us that. That is why a partnership with Texas Parks and Wildlife is best: Frontera holds the conservation easement (thus guaranteeing that the 837-acre Scenic Corridor property remains conserved in perpetuity), while the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) manages and/or owns the land.”

And in light of the report (presented to OSAB just yesterday—June 6—by staffer Carlos Gallinar of the City Development Department) from the Joint City-PSB Committee, that’s what Frontera supports: a combination of Plan One (whereby the City enters into a partnership with the TPWD, dedicating and/or selling the 837 acres to TPWD for incorporation into the Franklin Mountains State Park) and Plan Four, which deploys a conservation easement to Frontera [the El Paso area’s only 501(c)3 non-profit land trust] so the land can be conserved in perpetuity. The problem with not deploying a conservation easement is that TPWD has sometimes sold its park land to private concerns, and this would set a bad precedent for the 837 acres. The problem with the Joint City-PSB Committee’s fall-back recommendation—that the land be dedicated as a city park—can be summed up in just two words: “Blackie Chesher.” That city park’s history is well known. Gifted to the City in the early 1960s with several deed restrictions, the Blackie Chesher Regional Park (of the City of El Paso) is now the home to several uses that the deed restrictions don’t permit. Had a conservation easement been applied to Blackie Chesher, none of that would have happened. Instead, the land would be preserved in perpetuity. As we insist the 837 acres be.

--Richard Teschner