Aquifer Recharge Field Trip, Saturday 10/21, 10AM

Celebration of Our Mountains and El Paso Water have scheduled a very valuable field trip this Saturday at 10 AM. Recharging our aquifers is vital for our water supply and for our survival as a city in the Chihuahuan Desert. You will see a critical strategy that El Paso Water uses to recharge the aquifers.

Saturday, October 21, 2017, 10:00 AM
Aquifer Recharge Field Trip

Learn more about El Paso Water’s pioneering efforts to clean wastewater to drinking-water quality standards. EP Water has been using reclaimed water to recharge the Hueco Bolson Aquifer for decades. Hear more about water reclamation from Scott Reinert, El Paso Water’s water resources engineer. Meet at Painted Dunes Golf Club, 12000 McCombs St., inside the restaurant for orientation. Participants will caravan for a short drive to the recharge basins. Expect minimal walking during this 1.5-hour field trip. Bring comfortable shoes, water and a hat.

For more information, contact Scott Reinert, 915-253-2004, sreinert@epwu.org.


http://www.celebmtns.org/2017-events/2017/aquifer-recharge-field-trip

Celebration of Our Mountains on Facebook

El Paso Water on Facebook

Bobcats and Poppies

These pictures of bobcats at TecH20 show us just why it is so important to preserve our natural environment whether we build or not. They show just why organizations such as the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition, El Paso Group Sierra Club, the Frontera Land Alliance, the Friends of the Rio Bosque and many other groups work hard to preserve our mountains and deserts and wetlands.

The pictures were taken at TecH20 by staff members after someone spotted the cats. Josh Moniz of EPWU posted the pictures on the Celebration of Our Mountains Facebook page.

And while we are at it, take a look at these pictures of the poppies of Castner Range in 1995:

There is plenty to celebrate about our mountains.

Inc. Gives Kudos to Celebration of Our Mountains

Hikers enjoy the Hitt Canyon Loop Hike led by the Dean of El Paso Hiking, Carol Brown. Photo by Shu Y. Mayr

Fellow creature on the Hitt Canyon Loop Hike. Photo by Shu Y. Mayr

The El Paso Inc. recognized Celebration of Our Mountains in their most recent edition. Cindy Graff Cohen wrote a wonderful article about this yearly program of events: Play in the Franklins.

It is good to get the recognition. I have been the Director of COM since 2009.

On the Hitt Canyon Loop Hike. Photo by Shu Y. Mayr

On the Hitt Canyon Loop Hike. Photo by Shu Y. Mayr

This year's program is already off to a great start. Just this weekend, folks enjoyed the Hitt Canyon Loop Hike, biking to Scenic Drive with a blessing of the bicycles and a field trip to Percha and Caballo Dams to see the migratory birds. 

Last week's Beginners Hike ensemble. Photo by Carol Brown

Coming up tomorrow will be another Beginners Hike led by environmentalist, Judy Ackerman.

Dr. Paul Hyder talking about "The What, Why, Where and Who of Deserts" Photo by Shu Y. Mayr

On Saturday there is a Northern Pass Hike, a field trip to the Prehistoric Trackways in the Robledos and a repeat of the always popular "Who's Running Around the Desert at Night" led by biologist and ecologist, Dr.  Paul Hyder.

On Sunday, the UTEP Geology Club will lead a hike to the El Paso Tin Mines, the only tin mines ever operated in the United States.

Check out all of the upcoming Celebration of Our Mountains events at www.celebmtns.org. 

Lois Balin Talks about Celebration of Our Mountains June Event: Bat Watch

Our Urban Biologist, Lois Balin, was recently interviewed by ABC-7's Mauricio Casillas. Topic: Celebration of Our Mountains special June 30th event: Bat Watch. See the interview HERE. Get information about the event HERE. Plan to attend this free program about our friends, the bats.

Visit Keystone Heritage Park on Saturday

Click on image to enlarge.

For more information visit Celebration of Our Mountains.

Keystone Heritage Park, Saturday, October 22, 9am to 1pm

Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

For more information: http://www.celebmtns.org/2016-events/2016/spend-the-day-at-keystone-heritage-park

Stargazing this Friday at TecH2O

Click on image to enlarge.

Don't Miss Desert Skies Viewing

Here's an upcoming Celebration of Our Mountains event produced by TecH2O of El Paso Water.

Great Weekend for Celebration of Our Mountain Events

What a line up of Celebration of Our Mountains events this weekend. There is literally something for everyone.

Mexican Free Tail Bats

Tonight watch a flight of bats and learn more about these wonderful creatures from our Urban Biologist, Lois Balin. 

White-faced Ibis. Picture by Barry Zimmer at Fort Hancock, Texas 2012

Tomorrow morning go with the El Paso Trans Pecos Audubon Society to see migrant birds at the reservoirs of McNary, Ft. Hancock and Tornillo. 

Also tomorrow take a hike in beautiful Hitt Canyon in the Franklin Mountains led by the Dean of Hiking, Carol Brown.

Discover the natural wonders of our desert, listen to live entertainment and visit informative booths at the family-friendly 12th Annual Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta sponsored by the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition, City of El Paso Parks and Recreation, the El Paso Zoo, El Paso Water and Texas Parks and Wildlife.  

Visit the Last Desert Grasslands, the Otero Mesa 9/17. Join the Southwest Environmental Center on this Back by Noon outing to explore the grasslands, wildlife and petroglyphs of New Mexico’s Otero Mesa. The destination is Alamo Mountain, one of the isolated peaks of the Cornudas Mountains that rise dramatically from the surrounding grasslands. Learn about the threats to this extraordinary landscape and efforts by conservationists to protect it. Reservation required. Call 575-522-5552 for more information. Trip leaves from Las Cruces at 8 AM.

There's another Beginners Hike on Monday.

Finally, plan now to attend the 16th Annual Artistic Celebration of Our Mountains at Ardovinos Desert Crossing. This event has been a mainstay of COM. You know that it is Celebration of Our Mountains time when Robert Ardovino has the Artistic Celebration.

You can't do it all. But, as I said, there is something for everyone this weekend. So, hike our mountains, explore our desert, discover our wetlands and see our stars.

12th Annual Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta this Saturday

Click on each image to enlarge.

For more information, go to chihuahuandesert.org and celebmtns.org.

Celebration of Our Mountains Kicks Off This Saturday

Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

The 22nd Annual Celebration of Our Mountains kicks off this Saturday with two great events. Be sure to visit www.celebmtns.org for more information and to find out about any additions to the 2016 COM or updates about events.

Please visit El Paso Water and Wyler Aerial Tramway State Park.

On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EPWater/ and https://www.facebook.com/WylerAerialTramwayStatePark/

On Twitter https://twitter.com/EPWater

The Knapps Want to Sell but Who Is Going to Buy?

Sherry Mowles and Dan Knapp will be the guests on the El Paso History Radio Show with hosts Jackson Polk and Melissa Sargent this Saturday, April 9th beginning at 10:05 AM on KTSM AM 690 and online at KTSMRadio.com. Dan and Sherry are owners of the 600+ acres of land on Mount Franklin known as Sierra del Puerte.

Just this past Tuesday members of Save Our Sierras (SOS) spoke to the El Paso City Council. They are lobbying the City to buy the Knapp property using Quality of Life and stormwater funds and doing some kind of land swap with the City.

The Knapps would prefer not to develop the upper portions of their land. Those parts will be expensive to develop. However, it is either develop or continue to pay taxes. So the Knapp family is seeking a buyer before they have no alternative but to build.

Can the City do it? The better question might be: WILL the City do it?

Open Space Advisory Board members are reportedly working on a resolution to City Council recommending the sale. However, why has the City done nothing so far? Indeed it would seem that there has been every effort made to thwart OSAB's discussions of the land to move to actionable items. Why? 

Simple. The City wants the tax money especially after development.

If a buyer is going to be found, it may have to be the State or the State in partnership with the federal government. Afterall, the Knapp land abuts the State Park and it is a favorite area for beginning hikers. A hike through that land is a staple event for the El Paso fall program, Celebration of Our Mountains.

SOS may be barking up the wrong Desert Willow.

Dan and Sherry will also share some great El Paso history stories. 

By the way, they will be followed by El Paso author L.C. Hayden who will talk about her novel, Secrets of the Tunnels. Hayden says that there is an extensive network of tunnels underneath downtown El Paso.

Check out the El Paso History Channel this Saturday beginning at 10:05 AM on KTSM 690 AM.

More Mule Deer Sightings

I love these animals. A reader who lives near Temple Mt. Sinai just north of Crazy Cat mountain took these pictures. These are probably the same mule deer that were recently spotted at the Palisades. 

Mule deer are browsers who like lower branches of trees, grasses and shrubbery. They need range which is why it is so critical that any development around the Franklins respects their and other animal's habitat. By the way, their mating season is about to begin.

Click image to enlarge.

At the very right hand bottom of the map is the Palisades. About 45° northwest of there is the Synagogue and just below that is Canterbury Dr. along an arroyo. The animals have also been seen at the Camelot Condominiums just to the north of Temple Mt. Sinai.

Our Franklin Mountains are the home of an abundance of animal (and plant) species. Tomorrow, the local Audubon Society is leading a birding trip from the Museum of Archaeology as part of Celebration of Our Mountains. Join them. You may see more than just birds.

Get outside!

Super-Sized Celebration of Our Mountains

Photo taken on 9/19/15 by Shu-Yuan Mayr

Photo taken on 9/29/15 by Shu-Yuan Mayr

I've been reviewing how Celebration of Our Mountains is going so far this year. Here are some facts and observations:

2015 there were about 10,000 visits total to celebmtns.org.
2016 just to date is 9,744.

12% of web page visitors knew the URL already.
88% found it through search queries.

61% of visitors do so from a desktop; 39% from mobile.

Just in the past week there have been 645 visitors to the Facebook page.

Average event attendance in 2015 was 10/event.
Average event attendance so far in 2015 is 12-15/event.

Interest in Celebration of Our Mountains is growing.

More people from Ft. Bliss (including German AF) and Las Cruces.

Wow!

Begun in 1994 the purpose of Celebration of Our Mountains is to get people outdoors and to explore the natural wonders in our part of the Chihuahuan Desert. As people learn more about their mountains, desert and wetlands, they come to appreciate the importance of conservation, preservation and good environmental stewardship. I have been the coordinator/organizer since 2009.

By the way, purchase the 24 oz. classic, aluminum water bottle with the Celebration logo and carabiner. Everyone needs to carry some extra water on outdoor events, neighborhood walks, trips to the gym, etc. Just go HERE to order or contact me at celebmtns@gmail.com.

Celebration of Our Mountains

Last Sunday Hike at Wyler Aerial Tramway State Park

Celebration of Our Mountains is off to the best start in years - perhaps ever. People have come out to the events and weather has been good. The Fall 2015 program of events is just underway. You can see a list of all of the events at the COM website. Since the Official Event Guide was published, there have been a few added events and a few changes. Be sure to visit the Updates page.

Celebration of Our Mountains includes events from Franklin Mountains State Park, Wyler Aerial Tramway State Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Southwest Environmental Center's "Back By Noon" program. It's all online and weekends are full of options.

Our Panorama Hike included a Super Moon and a Total Lunar Eclipse.

It's not all hiking. It's seminars on wolves, birding, mountain biking, bats, archaeology, geology, astronomy and more. GUMO (Guadalupe Mountains National Park) has two events in October at night: one to learn about nocturnal animals; the other to see a real dark sky.)

COM is an opportunity to get outside. Just this morning I went birding with a group led by our Urban Wildlife Biologist, Lois Balin, at Keystone Heritage Park. We saw plovers, stilts, mallards and shovelers, verduns and warblers, a whole flight of white wing dove fleeing a Cooper's Hawk. There was pickle weed, aster, four wing salt bush, and tall cottonwoods that Kevin Von Finger planted years ago. 

I have been the coordinator/organizer since 2009. I have never been as excited as I am this year.

Do get outside.

11th Annual Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta Saturday, September 19th, 9 AM to 3 PM

The 11th Annual Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta kicks off tomorrow at 9 AM and ends at 3 PM. It is held at the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park. The event is sponsored by Texas Parks and Wildlife with help from volunteers from the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition. Many think of it as the start of Celebration of Our Mountains.

For a full schedule, visit Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition.

[If you receive elpasonaturally by email, you will not be able to see the video above. Please go to elpasonaturally.blogspot.com to view.]

The Friday Video: Urban Wildlife Facebook Page

Burrowing Owls

Swainson's Hawk

Burrowing Owl

Harris's Hawk

Check out the El Paso Urban Wildlife - Texas Parks and Wildlife Facebook page. Like it. Follow it. Share its posts. Go there to see a number of great videos of burrowing owls.

I mention this page because this morning I took a Celebration of Our Mountains tour of the burrowing owls of the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park. Lois Balin, our Urban Wildlife Biologist for TPWD, guided us. Not only did we see the owls (who weigh about a fourth to a third of a pound), we saw Swainson's Hawks, Harris's Hawks, a Roadrunner, a Kestrel or two, a Snowy Egret, Mexican Ducks and more. It was a perfect morning - mostly overcast and cool. The bit of sunlight that broke through made the Franklins and the Sierra de Juarez look as if they were covered with dazzling white snow. We saw the footprints of what we believe to have been a gray fox. Our tour was not only educational, it was joyful.

Lois is leading another tour next Friday,  September 11th, beginning at 7:30 AM. Reservations are required and there is a maximum of 7 people. (Our birdblind was the TPWD vehicle that can seat 7. It was better than a ride at Disneyland.) Check out Events on Celebration of Our Mountains for more details.