Creating More Trailheads in El Paso up against Bureaucratic Obstacles

Click on image to enlarge.

Over the last few years one of the greatest achievements for outdoor recreation in El Paso was the construction of the Lost Dog Trailhead. The Borderland Mountain Bike Association (BMBA) guided by the leadership of Rick Bonart, Brent Sanders and David Wilson created the trailhead with generous donations from Jobe Materials, the West Texas Urban Forestry Council, the El Paso Water Utilities and others. This private-public partnership created the trailhead faster and cheaper than what it would have cost had the City of El Paso alone constructed it.

Now BMBA is negotiating a contract with the City to build more trailheads. The problem is agreeing on which sites to use. 

An analysis was done on a list of sites produced by the City's Parks and Recreation Department and reviewed by the Open Space Advisory Board. Some of the money designated for trailheads was either on private property or state property. Of the 15 projects on the City's list, 12 are on property the City doesn't have permission to use. 

Unfortunately, the Director of Parks and Recreation, Tracy Novak, doesn't want to vary from the list because composing that list required lots of work to create. This is bureaucratic insanity. Process is valued over product.

In addition BMBA tried to get seed money from the Paso del Norte Health Foundation but the Foundation would not partner with them. Their strict requirements for proving the benefits of any project outweighed the demand for more trailheads.

Rick Bonart summed it up this way: "We all need to work together and make these Quality of Life projects move forward."

El Paso County Moving Ahead with Trail Initiative

El Paso County is hard at work on an inititative for a county-line to county-line trail system. They are seeking funding from the Paso del Norte Health Foundation. A form letter to the Foundation's Selection Committee that businesses, organizations and individuals have begun to personalize and sign reads:

"El Paso County residents have long recognized the need to increase access to outdoor quality of life amenities in our community.  And community leaders have also long recognized the connection between outdoor amenities like parks and trails to physical health, community engagement and even economic development.  A county-line to county-line trail that allows for walking, running, hiking and exploring would add to our inventory of outdoor recreation and promote outdoor activity that our residents could benefit from.  It could link the river to other natural waterways and drains; it could connect historic trails and sites to existing green space and parks; it would create connectivity between our two diverse valleys, underserved communities and areas in between."

The Open Space Advisory Board has been discussing a trail system for several years now but the Parks and Recreation Department seems to be stuck on the process for actually creating that trail system. They need to be focused on producting the product. It sounds like the County is focused on just that.

The El Paso County Historical Commission chaired by Bernie Sargent has been a leader in promoting the preservation and promotion of historical sites in El Paso. (Find the Historical Commission's Facebook page HERE.) By linking heritage tourism with open space, recreational opportunities for El Pasoans will increase El Paso's quality of health and be a magnet for greater economic growth in our Sun City.

City of El Paso Promotes the Destruction of the Franklin Mountains

If you have ever walked on a desert path, this is nothing like it. The path that Parks and Recreation has devised at the Archaeology Museum is unnatural and is the result of the UGLY gouging at the CEMEX McKelligon Canyon quarry.

I have published about the eradication of the Franklin Mountains by CEMEX at their McKelligon Canyon quarry. I've also pointed out that the city's Parks and Recreation Department has created unnatural paths using red rock screenings from the same quarry on the grounds of the Archaeological Museum. 

Click on image to enlarge.
Read it and weep.

Take a good look at the June 17, 2015 Purchase Order above. Apparently Parks and Rec buys a huge amount of materials from the CEMEX quarry and stores it at their Land Management Warehouse on Delta. Notice the tonnage of the Franklin Red, Mesa Red, Red Top Soil, screenings and sand. Notice the bottom line: $39,692! In other words, Parks and Recreation promotes the destruction of our mountains.

But it not just the Parks and Recreation Department. Every month our Streets and Maintenance Department buys tons of materials from the quarry. 

Aerial photo of CEMEX McKelligon Canyon quarry by Scott Cutler

Bottom line: the City of El Paso is complicit in the destruction of the Franklin Mountains by CEMEX at its McKelligon Canyon quarry.

If we love our mountains, it is time to tell the City to stop. We don't need all the rock and screenings used on park paths and medians. Besides, the placement of rocks in medians must follow the plans of a graduate from the University of Ugly Design. 

Currently the El Paso Group Sierra Club has an action petition asking Franklin Mountains State Park and Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife to do a survey to determine whether CEMEX has encroached on park land. In a comment to one of my posts, Dan Knapp says that they have indeed encroached. 

Look soon for an action petition telling Parks and Recreation and Streets and Maintenance officials to stop buying materials from CEMEX. 

Unnatural Paths at Wilderness Park

I've been posting about Parks and Rec's exploits on the land surrounding the Museum. (The 17 acres owned by the City were first known as “the Wilderness Park.” There have been some objections to using that old name for the Museum grounds.) I visited there today and will have more to say in the days to come about what is happening. For now, I just want to point out one horrendous fact: El Paso's Parks and Recreation Department is contributing to the destruction of the Franklin Mountains.

The work on the old paths includes spreading red rock chat (screenings) which most probably came from the CEMEX quarry at McKelligon Canyon. (I'm checking.) Although pretty, red rock paths are not natural. What they really are is rock dynamited out of the side of the mountain, crushed and then spread in landscapes.

If you like the destruction of the Franklin Mountains, you will love how Parks and Rec is contributing to it. Red chat screenings do not rock.

Makes me sick.

Parks and Recreation Plows through Another Arroyo

Photos above taken by Marilyn Guida on 12/7/15
at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology

Need to rent a bulldozer? Need to destroy yet another arroyo? Call Parks and Rec. Actually the last arroyo was Arroyo Park and it was EPWU that bulldozed outside of their right-of-way. However, Parks, which manages Arroyo Park, did not bother to contact the neighborhood association. Now they (Parks and Rec not EPWU) have plowed through another arroyo. This time at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology.

Maybe as early as last August, members of the archaeological community contacted Parks and recommended consulting with a hydrologist prior to doing any work to remediate the arroyo at the museum since it had suffered flood damage a year ago. 

It appears that they have just proceeded with their work without consulting any engineers or hydrologists. They removed the beloved gazebo in November.

I've been told that the flood plain changed from the southside to the northside of the museum. This occured when Trans Mountain was created in 1969 and has changed how water flows out of the Indidan Springs Canyon. The result has been the devastating flooding and a loss of life at Fairbanks and the need to constantly remove soil underneath Highway 54. Just something else for you and me to pay with our onerous property taxes.

I am no expert on the situation and will bring you more as I learn more. For now, if elpasonaturally were to hand out an environmental idiot award, Parks and Rec would be the top contender.

Destruction in Arroyo Park

Dr. Billy Rogers must be spinning in his grave. A big fading sign by the tennis club reads "Billy Rogers Nature Preserve". It was installed by the Friends of the Arroyo. Along Robinson is another sign which is the official park sign. It reads "Billy Rogers Nature Preserve".

Nature Preserve? Not according to Joel M. Ehler who is adding a big structure on the bottom of the arroyo below his Rim Road property. To do the construction, the contractor carved a road straight down the hillside. A city official told me that "the conservation overlay for the neighborhood does not regulate viewshed/arroyo side." The question remains why Ehler does not have the sense of civic duty to preserve the arroyo. How will he remediate?

Nature Preserve? Not according to the El Paso Parks and Recreation Department. Also not according to the EPWU before they were confronted by neighbors. Here's the story:

EPWU has a right-of-way in the arroyo to work on a water line which supplies Upper Rim. Not only did they plow through their rightaway, they plowed a new road inside of the park destroying plants, the biocrust and wildlife. Rim Road Neighborhood Association leaders, Bob Brannon and Richard Teschner, protested and demanded at a meeting with the head of engineering at EPWU, Alan Shubert, that the land be put back the way that it was. EPWU agreed and has hired Mike Gaglio to remediate. Of course it will take generations to restore the biocrust, but at least the road can be erased and new vegetation planted all at EPWU's expense. One wonders, however, whether EPWU would have done anything to remediate had the neighborhood association not acted.

The ultimate culprit seems to be the Parks and Recreation Department which never came to the Rim Road Association (or any other stakeholders) about any work inside of the park in spite of a park partnership agreement which had been renewed by former President Richard Teschner. Parks and Rec ignored that agreement. Dr. Teschner, who is now the President of the Neighborhood Coalition Council, said: "This whole affair shows just how important neighborhood associations are." 

EPWU has agreed to to remediate since being confronted. Parks and Rec was negligent by not informing and working with the neighborhood association with whom they have an agreement. 

Again, will the City of El Paso and far too many El Pasoans ever come to value nature preserves, open spaces and our living, breathing, natural Chihuahuan Desert? Will they ever really care?

El Paso's Natural Open Space: Some Questions for Policymakers and Citizens

Just words on a sign. The picture was taken in 2010. What progress has been made on the Palisades open space since then? Ask the taggers not the City.

[The following was written by elpasonaturally reader, Marshall Carter-Tripp. Not only are her points and questions thought-provoking, they represent the frustratioon that many citizens have with the open space policies of the City of El Paso. elpasonaturally had always looked at the Boulder, Colorado ordinances as the best examples of controlling sprawl and preserving open space. Do not expect the any strides in a similar direction from the current reactionary El Paso City Council. To do the right thing will require a sea change in the next two City Council elections in which conservation-minded persons are elected and the sprawler puppets retired.

The Open Space Advisory Board meets tomorrow, September 2nd, at 3PM in City Building 3, 801 Texas Avenue, in the unmarked Thorman Conference Room in the basement. The meeting is open to the public and there is a public comment section at the beginning of the meeting for any item not on the agenda.]

Through the PSB stormwater set-aside and the City of El Paso’s Quality of Life funding for Open Space acquisition, El Paso can preserve hundreds of acres of undeveloped Open Space, for the benefit of those who live here – humans and wildlife.  This effort began with City Council approval in late February 2007 of a master plan entitled ”Towards a Bright Future: A Green Infrastructure Plan for El Paso, Texas” (the Open Space Master Plan). A few months later the Plan was awarded the Excellence in Planning Award from the National Association of Recreation Resource Planners (This plan, unfortunately, is no longer readily available on the internet.)   Implementation moved slowly; Council created an Open Space Advisory Board some two and a half years later, in June 2009.   This Board makes recommendations to Council about priorities under the master plan.  It has no authority to require that any action take place; even its ability to discuss various is limited. 

The, perhaps inevitable, result is that Natural Open Space is not a priority for city management and the goals laid out in the Master Plan do not appear to be incorporated into city staff activity.  For example, the Open Space Master Plan calls for expansion of Keystone Heritage Park (as does the City’s Parks Master Plan).  In July 2012 the Open Space Advisory Board progress report noted that the city had purchased 29 acres south of Keystone Dam, which could be used to buffer Keystone.  But in early February 2015, supporters of Keystone learned that the city’s Environmental Services was planning to build a large trash collection site on this land. The possibility that the land in question might contain unexplored cultural resources had not been investigated.   Leaving aside the considerable noise and debris inherent in a trash collection station, which could seriously affect the quality of a visit to Keystone, the decision to build it meant that the Keystone expansion goal could not be realized.  The city had already taken no action to buy land to the north of the park, land that was now under development.

Taking a second example, the Palisades Canyon land acquired by the PSB once it had the purchasing power (the Master Plan had considered it too expensive to list it as a key goal).  Hikers and bikers had visited these 202 acres for many years, despite the “no trespassing” signs.  Usage expanded once the parcel was purchased by the PSB in 2010 and a “welcome to the Palisades” sign was installed.  Nearby residents noted, however, that many of the users did not adhere to the announced rules, such as dogs on leashes, and no private motorized vehicles.  Graffiti appeared along the trail and was not removed, even after requests were made to the streets and maintenance graffiti unit. (The city’s website asserts that graffiti removal is done in public spaces, specifically citing parks.  Apparently because the Palisades is not a park, and the graffiti cannot be seen from the street, removing it is not important.)  Trucks and other vehicles go up the trail almost every day, now apparently to service the transmission tower at the end of Sierra Crest, built in mid-2015.  These are not PSB vehicles; who granted an easement for this traffic?  How much such traffic could be tolerated in Natural Open Space? No city agency takes responsibility for what happens in the Palisades – the “official owner,” the PSB, has no component to supervise Open Space, and the Parks and Recreation Department will only occupy itself with the trailhead, once constructed.  To date even a doggy bag dispenser is lacking.  (And as the Palisades is not a city park, the dog waste ordinance would not apply, so could fines be levied?) 

The city has not supplied staff for other components of the Open Space inventory.  Keystone land is owned by the city, but it has been entirely built and maintained by a private charity, and public outreach is through its Friends of Keystone group.  Similarly, the Rio Bosque wetlands, now owned by the PSB, are managed by UTEP, and a private non-profit Friends group manages public involvement.  Park Partnerships are available for designated city parks, for help with equipment, maintenance and cleanup, but these Natural Open Space areas are not city parks.

Let’s consider what has been done in some other southwestern/western cities.  Boulder is perhaps the poster child for Open Space protection.  Voters there approved a city charter amendment in 1959 that restricted the provision of city services to development below a certain altitude, protecting the mountain from development.   In 1967 the citizens of Boulder followed with a special sales tax to provide revenue for Open Space.  Boulder County then created a Parks and Open Space Department, now celebrating its 40th anniversary.  Key to its operation is a partnership arrangement in which businesses, civic groups, and individuals provide financial and volunteer support to monitor and care for the 100,000 acres plus of Open Space now preserved in Boulder County.

http://www.bouldercounty.org/os/getinvolved/pages/ospartnership.aspx
https://bouldercountyopenspace.org/40/

Nearer home, Albuquerque has nearly 30,000 acres of city-owned Open Space, based on the 1988 comprehensive city plan, complete with Visitor Center!  (And there are many more neighboring acres under state or federal control.) Volunteer programs allow for “adoption” of particular Open Space, and the Open Space Alliance serves as a “Friends of Open Space” group.  Albuquerque’s land is managed by a division within the Parks and Recreation Department.  The management principles are to: 

• Conserve Natural and archaeological resources; 
• Provide opportunities for outdoor education; 
• Provide a place for low impact recreation (in some but not all of the Open Space land), and
• Define the edges of the urban environment. 

https://www.cabq.gov/parksandrecreation/open-space


Looking at these success stories, we in El Paso might ask ourselves:

#1  Where does the acquisition of Open Space fit in Council’s Strategic Plan, if it does?  What concern, if any, is there for conservation of El Paso’s unique asset, the mountain range, excluding further development on it?

#2  Is there a schedule for acquisition of land, and what is the goal in terms of acres?  (El Paso is fortunate to have the Franklin Mountains State Park, nearly 25,000 acres, comprising the largest urban park in the country. But these acres are not enough!)  Should Council consider setting aside at least one meeting a year to review progress and remind staff of the Open Space and Parks Master Plans? 

#3  What might trigger creation of an Open Space division, with staff, in the Parks and Recreation Department?  And associated programs for partners for Open Space or Friends of particular Open Space areas?  (The Parks Department page on the city website shows Marci Tuck as the Open Space, Trails and Parks Coordinator.  Ms Tuck left the department in mid-May, 2015.  Apparently her role is not important enough to replace.   In any case she had no responsibility for open space per se, just connections through trailheads.)

#4  How are citizens to interact with the OSAB and the PSB regarding land acquisition or other Open Space concerns if they cannot attend the daytime meetings and speak during the Call to the Public?  Who determines how much of the PSB Open Space fund is used for Park Ponds rather than the purchase of Natural Open Space?  How can citizens affect these decisions?

- Marshall Carter-Tripp

El Paso City's Management Must Value Trees More

Italian Stone Pine in memory of Margaret H. Tolbert planted at Newman Park and donated by the office of Rep. Susie Byrd as part
of the Memorial Tree program of El Paso.

My friend, Marshall Carter-Tripp (the former Director of UTEP's Centennial Museum) raised again the issue of the need for more trees in El Paso.  To make that happen we need a city management which really values trees and doesn't just use Tree City USA as public relations window dressing.

Water Conservation through Sod Reduction

The following slide presentation was prepared by Mr. Tracy Novak, the Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation at the City of El Paso to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board last night, April 8, 2013. Novak used this program during his tenure in Nevada. It presents an excellent idea for water conservation through sod reduction at public parks.  Novak has been in his job in El Paso for a short while.  The big question is this: Where have they been hiding this guy!?

Compare the picture of Las Vegas Bay below in 2002 with an image of Elephant Butte in 2013. (Be sure to click on the image to enlarge it.)

Normally water would have been released to the El Paso area for irrigation in March.  It won't be this year until June.

Water Conservation and Sod Reduction

Parks and Recreation Department Disdains Freedom of the Press

I routinely get press releases from several City of El Paso Departments - both for my newman park blog and my elpasonaturally blog. Associated with both blogs are two e-letters that people subscribe to: elpasonaturally and Hola Vecinos, the Newman Park Association and friends letter. Today, Mr. Wayne Thornton, Public Relations Director for the City's Parks and Recreation Department, refused to put me on his press release distribution list because I'm "not media"/"not press". I wouldn't have thought to have asked him about it except that a reader of my neighborhood association letter asked why I had not included the Arts in the Park event this weekend sponsored by the Parks Department. I didn't because I hadn't heard about it. I certainly would have promoted this event at Memorial Park, if I had known. Apparently, I won't know about future parks and recreation events because I'm "not media"/"not press" according to Mr. Wayne Thornton, who by the way writes a delightful column for the El Paso Times and who, therefore, should have a stronger value of freedom of the press.

I not only think that the Parks and Recreation Department's refusal is wrong - it is wrong on so many levels. First, I'm a member (appointed by City Council) of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. For no other reason, you think that I would receive the courtesy. Next, other City Departments have no problem including me. Third, as a citizen (and, yes, as someone who publishes and distributes to subscribers, i.e., PRESS), my civil rights have been violated not to mention the slander involved. Finally, if this matter isn't resolved to my satisfaction, I believe that the Open Records laws of the State of Texas have been violated and that the Attorney General of this State should become involved.

To think - all I wanted to do was to promote a Parks event and help get the word out to a wider audience. Silly me.

Jim Tolbert
www.elpasonaturally.blogspot.com
www.newmanpark.blogspot.com
Publisher of elpasonaturally and Hola Vecinos