Council to Discuss Conservation Easement for Land in NW

Next Tuesday, July 17, the El Paso City Council will hear the staff recommendation to preserve land in the NW Master Plan by transferring it to the State Park. In spite of a PSB vote endorsing a conservation easement (in the case that land should have to revert back to the City from the State), staff will maintain what was presented on June 13 to the PSB by Risher Gilbert and Pat Adauto.


In a recent El Paso Times editorial board editorial, Ms. Gilbert was quoted to have said: "Some people don't trust the PSB, don't trust the City Council, and now don't trust the state park. At some point, we have to have some trust here."  With all due respect, that trust comes with law and binding contracts - not with people.


Ms. Gilbert is not the person to talk about trust. Because of her misrepresentations about conservation easements and land trust organizations such as Frontera which is based in El Paso, Texas, trusting her and those she represents cannot be a given. Rather than arguing the facts, the pros and cons of conservation easements, Ms. Gilbert has engaged in ad hominem attacks and gross distortions from the very beginning. It has culminated with recent rumors that Frontera is broke.  Although Frontera is not trying to "sell" itself, they certainly would be able if asked to become the land trust for a conservation easement in northwest El Paso as they are in Resler Canyon, for example. 


Again, even if Risher Gilbert or those she represents are trustworthy, would they be trustworthy five, ten, twenty, thirty years hence? Would their successors? People change, circumstances change, institutions change and St. Augustine got it right about original sin being something to which none of us are immune.  Again, the best foundation for trust is a binding contract and our democratic and legal systems. 


So, looking forward to one week from tomorrow, elpasonaturally begins today to go back over the issues involved with conservation easements. I begin with this document carefully prepared by Dr. Richard Teschner, a well-known and sober El Paso conservationist whose generosity helped preserve Resler Canyon and whose work toward preserving Castner Range has been valiant. It is a document of some length, but I hope that it will be read and studied word for word:
Why a Conservation Easement is Necessary