Liz Walsh begins the Kevin Von Finger Speakers Series 10/24/17 at 7PM

Click image to enlarge.

Liz Walsh's talk this coming Thursday inaugurates the 2017-2018 Kevin Von Finger Speakers Series sponsored by the El Paso Group Sierra Club.

The series is named after the late Sierran and ecologist, Kevin von Finger.

October 24, 2017: "What's in a hueco?" - Liz Walsh

November 28, 2017: "Climate change and regional sustainability" - Deanna Pennington

January 23, 2018: "Trash and Recycling 101" - Ellen Smyth

February 27, 2018: "Creating Habitat for Burrowing Owls in El Paso" - Lois Balin

 

March 27, 2018: "Dude, come on, wolves need a decent life" - Rick LoBello

April 24, 2018: "The role of utilities in renewable energy and sustainability" - El Paso Electric

May 22, 2018: "The ecological and environmental consequences of the 'Wall'" - Paul Hyder

All talks are held on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 7PM at the Centennial Museum at UTEP.

Wyler Aerial Tramway: Celebrating 15 Years!

Click on image to enlarge.

Park Ranger and Interpreter, Diana Moy, posted on Facebook: 

"We are super excited and want to invite all of you to come and celebrate 15 years of the Tramway as a State Park! 

"The celebration will take place at the park on Saturday, March 12 from 12 to 4. Parking will be available at the Amphitheater in McKelligon Canyon [Map] and shuttles will be available to bring visitors to the Tramway and back to your vehicle.

There will be lots of activities, exhibitors, food trucks, and more; don't miss the fun!"

The El Paso Group Sierra Club will be distributing free 13" x 10" x 15" x 10" reusable shopping bags and will share a table with the El Paso Zoo.

Please visit Wyler Aerial Tramway State Park on Facebook.

TPWD Has No Idea

In my November 13th post, I said that Cemex has much more mountain to destroy at its quarry at McKelligon Canyon.

I wrote: "I asked Dr. Cesar Mendez, the Superintendent of the Franklin Mountains State Park, about the boundaries between the park and CEMEX and whether there had been any encroachment that he was aware of. He replied that he is concerned about 'any potential encroachment, as well as the changes in the landscape. But there is not much we can do if they are working legally and within their boundaries.'  He added that 'for now we are neighbors and respect each other.' He and his team keep their focus on protecting the land within the State Park as well as potential land that they might annex."

Dr. Mendez advised me to contact the open records division of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD). I sent this request:

"Please provide me with any information describing the boundary between the Franklin Mountain State Park and the Cemex Quarry near McKelligon Canyon in El Paso, Texas. Digital files are preferred."

The response from TPWD Attorney, Laura Russell:

"According to our staff, the best available data currently is the El Paso City / County parcel data maintained by the Paso Del Norte Mapa, a coalition of local agencies.

http://www.pdnmapa.org/HTML/datasets.html

This parcel data is the foundation of the data TPWD presently uses in our GIS to depict the boundary of Franklin Mountains SP.  Franklin Mountains SP does not have a boundary survey.  It is described in the 1987 deed by Sections included in the park."

I also asked about a boundary survey for Wyler Aerial Tramway State Park. Ms. Russell again responded:

"Mr. Tolbert, Wyler Aerial Tramway is totally contained within the boundaries of Franklin Mountains SP.  It does not share a common boundary with the CEMEX quarry.  Have a good day."

So on Tuesday of last week I emailed Ms. Russell and asked: "How does TPWD know that Cemex has not encroached on its boundaries already?"

No response from her to date. 

It appears that the TPWD has no idea whether Cemex has already encroached on their boundaries. At its last Executive Committee meeting the El Paso Group of the Sierra Club voted to begin a petition calling for such a survey.

We the People

Click on image to enlarge.

We the people want preserved, in its natural state and in perpetuity, all of the undeveloped land owned by the City of El Paso on the western side of the Franklin Mountains that is north of Transmountain Road, east of the EPNG Pipeline Road and south of the New Mexico/El Paso boundary and on the eastern side of the Franklin Mountains that is north of Transmountain, west of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and south of the New Mexico/El Paso boundary.

The Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition, the Sierra Club El Paso Group and elpasonaturally have launched a new "We the People" petition for everyone in El Paso to sign calling upon our leaders to work together in saving what remains of the lower elevations of the Franklin Mountains. You and your family and friends can help send a message to our City by printing out a petition today and collecting signatures between now and May 1.

Go HERE for the petition.

Completed petitions can be scanned and emailed to me (Jim Tolbert) at diegotolbert@gmail.com or snail mailed to me at 2701 Frankfort Ave., El Paso, TX 79930.

You can find the petition, a map of the lands covered and a fact sheet including instructions at franklinmountains.org. 

Be sure to read the Fact Sheet which gives 6 good reasons for preserving this land including lowering our onerous property taxes.

Want an impassioned plea to save our mountains? Read Joseph Pacheco's comment to my post about preserving Castner Range.

Here is his comment in full:

I truly hope this [preserving Castner Range] can be done, but I am doubtful. After all the western portion of the park is, in my humble opinion, lost as development will fully engulf the whole are within 5 years. It is truly sad that El Pasoans could show so little interest in protecting their mountains, placing shopping and access to McDonalds of higher importance. Once I finished my graduate degree in central TX I fully planned on returning home to El Paso, but each time I go home to visit the direction the city has taken and the urban sprawl that El Paso's leaders have progressed makes me sick to my stomach, making my return very doubtful. 

I constanlty avoided going thru loop 375, because I did not want to see what was done to my beloved desert, but when I finally did it was very sad and I almost wept at seeing what has happened to the entire area: new neighborhoods springing up only a mile or so from the park, a giant freeway closing the entrance to Franklin State Park, a new giant medical complex right on Transmountain Rd. I am all for a new hospital, but not on Transmountain Rd. More and more development will happen. Neighborhoods are almost at the base of the picnic/scenic area of South Franklin Mountain. In my opinion the entire mountain range is under siege and the park itself in a few short years will no longer be worth visiting, because who wants to see the roofs of homes or traffic as part of the outdoors experience. 

El Paso leaders or its residents just don't see the tragedy happening right before their eyes or they do and just don't care. A perfect example is the Tramway. A wonderful idea that is a tourist magnet. But, it being right next to a giant quarry ruins the entire experience and destroys the point that El Paso was trying to make by resurrecting the Tramway in the first place and that is El Paso is a unique city, wild and mountainous, respectful of nature and appreciative of our natural geology. But, again instead tourists who go to the tramway are shocked by the giant eyesore of a quarry which destroys the whole purpose of the tramway. Not only that, McKelligon Canyon is also a victim of this rock quarry. 

As if El Pasoans are not satisfied enough with destroying the Franklin Mountains they seem fully set on tearing down the Hueco Mountains as well. 

El Paso had the opportunity to be a unique city and setting an example. It could have been an opponent of urban sprawl and protected the cities natural beauty. It could have built smart, set a new pathway for cities of the 21st century. El Paso could have become a tourist city by promoting its natural beauty and becoming a green city. But the city chose the corrupt way, the way which required little vision and no wisdom. Only short term financial and political gain.

It does not surprise me of El Pasoans apathy regarding this topic. I would always speak to fellow El Pasoans about the mountains and tell them just how lucky we are to have such beauty in our city. I would tell them El Paso is the only city in the Untied States that has a mountain range right in the middle of it and I thought that has always been awesome! However, most of the time I would just get a glazed over look as if my fellow El Pasoans had no idea what I was talking about. They just did not care or think much about it.


While our fellow neighbor Las Cruces protects its mountains and has gone so far as to get the Organ Mountains designated as a National Monument. El Pasoans only care is to get from the Northeast to the West side 15 minutes faster so the can stop at the new McDonalds to eat and shop at the new Wal Mart, both of which are being built right next to the former great Franklin Mountains State Park.