Some FYIs

Hat tip to Judy Ackerman for sending me a link to an El Paso Times story, Bats are the overlooked wonders of our desert. Last June, Celebration of Our Mountains had a special bat watching event. Someone who follows the COM Facebook page just a day ago asked whether there would be another bat event. COM is ready. Hopefully Judy and Urban Biologist, Lois Balin, will repeat the bat watch next summer. 

Check out the concept being used in this store in Cape Town (a bit out of the way). It's a zero waste store called Nude Foods. Might be a good idea to start pushing that idea here. Read 10 Ways to Adopt a Zero Waste Lifestyle. 

Finally, here is a commercial site selling fermentation kits. I saw it on Facebook and it looks interesting. Bon appetit.

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.

An Animal Corridor? Really?

Do these pictures . . . 

look like this:

Unless there is some magic left for TxDOT to do, it isn't even remotely the same as the plans shown for an animal corridor.

Lois Balin, our Urban Wildlife Biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department had this to say after visiting the site:

"I inspected the wildlife crossing with Rick Bonart on Friday afternoon.  I am sincerely hoping that they are not finished with it yet.  Currently, there are many shortfalls.  It looks more like a new entrance to FMSP than a wildlife crossing.  There are wide graded roads along 375 on the south side as well as continuing on through the underpass into the park on the north side.  It currently does not look very wildlife friendly.  There is a very steep enormous drop off on the south side of the crossing that does not encourage the use of wildlife.  I see no significant difference in grades for the humans and wildlife.  I thought there would be a narrow surfaced section for the hikers and bikers and a wide natural and soft earthen section for the wildlife.  I had suggested using a barrier between the two sections.  I see no difference whatsoever at this point. The surface is hard and compacted.  Of course, they are not finished.  I can only hope they  will reduce the steep grade on the south and use natural surfaces and native vegetation to make it more attractive to wildlife.  Also, I didn’t see a funneling fence into the corridor as yet."

As to Ms. Balin's observation that "[i]t looks more like a new entrance to FMSP" - it does. I too have inspected it and the "road" not corridor ends where eastbound Transmountain is. Another entrance for vehicles to the park? Is it in anticipation of the new FMSP Visitor's Center? That Center was to have been built on the eastside of the mountain near the current Archaeological Museum. Concerns about water and electrical utilities have dictated a change to the opposite side near the entrance of the Tom Mays Unit.

Something is very wrong here.

The Friday Video: Owls Underground

Here's our very own Urban Biologist, Lois Balin, in a well-produced Texas Parks and Wildlife Department video. It well documents the kind of habitat destruction caused by urban sprawl as well as the habits of burrowing owls who are pretty darn cute. (The video also includes the amazing dog, Zimba.) Lois and her volunteers have constructed some burrows fitted with cameras so that the birds can be documented in their homes.

Sad to report that yesterday Lois discovered that a burrow at the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park had been vandalized. She and some of her helpers are doing repairs today. It is so sad that some will destroy things just for the sake of destruction.

If you'd like to volunteer to help Lois with her burrowing owls, contact her at Lois.Balin@tpwd.texas.gov.

Visit El Paso Urban Wildlife on Facebook.

Here's one more video about development, burrowing owl habitat and Lois:

Construction Encroaches on Burrowing Owls Habitat 

If you get elpasonaturally by email, click on the link or go to elpasonaturally.blogspot.com to see "Owls Underground".

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.

"Storm water, Arroyos, and Slope Stabilization Recommendations for Arid Lands"

Arroyo 41A Pre-Development

Our friend, Lois Balin, our Urban Wildlife Specialist, just shared with us a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department recently released paper on arroyos: "Storm water, Arroyos, and Slope Stabilization Recommendations for Arid Lands". It's short and easy to read and should be read by engineers, developers, builders, city planners, parks and rec people - and people such as yourself who care about our mountains and neighborhoods. Especially now that we are in the midst of our monsoon season and have already experienced flooding due to poorly planned and managed sprawl, it would be wise to think about how we treat our arroyos in the future. City Council reps lust for park ponds. But park ponds don't do what arroyos can do if treated correctly. In upcoming posts, I'm going to be saying more about the flooding on the north-side of the Archaeology Museum/"Wilderness Park" grounds. This paper will give you some background as well as background any time arroyos and development are discussed. For now, some takeaway quotes (but please read the paper HERE):

"Traditional arroyo management using concrete walls, channels, and culverts, and building on floodplains creates unhealthy stream systems. Traditional methods are expensive to build and maintain and mostly lead to more problems while removing vegetation and wildlife."

"A holistic approach to channel systems must consider the vegetation as a key component. A 200’ buffer zone along arroyos would provide stability of the lands.  Vegetation has a huge influence on runoff, erosion, and sediment transport in arroyos.  Growth of vegetation protects the soil surface from erosion and crust formation, improves soil structure and macro-porosity by enhancing infiltration rates, and provides wildlife habitat."  



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Riverside Canal at the Rio Bosque Should be Preserved not Lined with Concrete

Click to enlarge image. Canal is red line at top of park boundary.

I attended the meeting of the Texas Water Development Board at the TecH2O Center this morning. The reports were basically nodding-off boring with the exception of Malynda Cappella's briefing on Zero Discharge Desalination. ZDD's not exactly a party pleaser but the presentation made it so. I didn't stay for the report on the Texas v. New Mexico litigation. I did hear Chuy Reyes, the General Manager of Water Improvement District #1. You can always count on Chuy to say some things that make you shake your head and wonder if God at some point ran out of neurons.

Mr. Reyes trumpeted the cornucopia of El Paso farmers: pecans, Pima cotton, corn, wheat, chili, onions and alfalfa. Then he said that "some of us" are working to get dairy farms back to El Paso. Mind you that his remarks were made in the context of water conservation and what the water district was doing for water conservation. Pecans, cotton, dairy farms - these are all pretty heavy consumers of water. When the Texas State Wildlife Biologist, Lois Balin, addressed the board following Chuy, she began with a suggestion that less water hungry crops could replace our current guzzlers. Her words fell on the deaf ears of what could pass for the Dallas Country Club - a board of 4 men, 1 woman and no Hispanics or blacks. Not one asked Ms. Balin a follow-up question about crops or the Rio Bosque.

Reyes went on to talk about the need to concrete all canals. There is some virtue in concreting canals - but there is never any virtue in destroying wildlife habitats and precious ecosystems in the process. Balin's principal point was the need to preserve the less than one-mile stretch of canal which borders the Rio Bosque. It is earthen - river alluvian. Ms. Balin said that, on her most recent visit to the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, she counted 25 species of birds using that canal, observed soil invertebrates and, of course, the rich plant life. Concrete some of the canal beyond the borders of the wetlands sure, maybe. But don't concrete line that portion that makes up the precious ecosystem of the Rio Bosque. People who see only the dollar and cents of concrete lining canals can at least understand the dollars to be gained by ecotourism. Again, a similar area in New Mexico brings in $18 Million a year in tourism.

It would, however, be nice if these concrete loving folks would understand one other very simple concept. If I lose a gall bladder and a kidney, I can limp along. If other vital organs start shutting down, I'm in trouble. An organism needs the complexity of organs, glands, skin, blood and sinew working together to be healthy, live and keep on living well for a length of time. Now think of the living world as one big organism. It's made up of vertebrates such as ourselves, invertebrates, things flying, things crawling, microscopic things making processes work in soil and in gut. If you start shutting things down in this organism, life becomes less healthy and less lengthy. 

A less than one mile stretch of canal with a rich ecosystem should be preserved. 

EPWU Issues New Policy Mindful of Wildlife

A new policy regarding the clearance and dredging of irrigation drains was authorized by EPWU CEO John Balliew this past Friday. The policy was written in response to the massive destruction of animal habitat, including bird nests, and vegetation along the Montoya and Nemexas drains this past summer. That destruction was ordered by El Paso Water Improvement District Manager Jesus "Chuy" Reyes following a brush fire and a complaint by a prominent El Paso attorney. The El Paso Water Utilities was forced to help with the clean-up by prior agreements with the water district.

The extreme clear cutting of the drains resulted in an outcry from people living in that area of the Upper Valley, the El Paso conservation community and wildlife experts. Elpasonaturally had a number of posts about the operation beginning here.

John Balliew acted quickly to develop a new water utility policy that would be more mindful of animal life and vegetation. He put EPWU attorney, Lupe Cuellar, in charge of writing that policy. Ms. Cuellar worked with wildlife experts such as John Kiseda and Rick LoBello of the El Paso Zoo and Urban Wildlife Biologist, Lois Balin, along with leaders in El Paso's open space community. Very significantly she worked with utility field operations - the persons who actually do the work of maintaining the land. The new policy is written as a guide for field management.

Sensitivity to the nesting season and limiting the amount of vegetation to be cleared away during any given operation are central to the policy. Before any work can be done the EPWU's Environmental Planner will make an evaluation. That person has been identified as Valerie Provencio, the utility's archaeologist with expertise in ecology. A calendar governing the scope of operations was adopted as part of the project.

Here is the memorandum stating the policy and initialed by Balliew:

EPWU Canal Clearing Policy 101813

TxDOT's "Wildlife Corridor"

You will recall that TxDOT said that it would construct a wildlife corridor to provide safe passage for animals underneath the Transmountain West Freeway that they are now plowing ahead with in spite of a lawsuit in court by the Sierra Club. Never mind the fact that the corridor was to be west of the Paseo del Norte interchange so that animals would have to walk through developments to find the corridor to begin with. Well, never mind the corridor because, the 600 foot long culvert that they are constructing, no animal will ever traverse.  The diagram for the corridor came to light from the court hearing. Here it is:


Wildlife Corridor Excerpt From 2552-01-033 Contract

Of course TxDOT officials have claimed working with Texas Parks and Wildlife. However, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Urban Wildlife Biologist for El Paso, Lois Balin, said: "I have never seen this design before nor discussed anything even close to a 600 foot culvert."


The maximum length for non-predatory species is 120 feet.


This isn't a culvert. So, what is it? It would seem that it functions best for stormwater and nothing else. 


TxDOT is noly trying to placate outraged citizenry who do not know much about wildlife and might think that a tunnel is a good faith effort to show that they care about our wildlife.


They don't.

Bulldozing.

Working as fast as they can.

Can't get much wider.

3 images above by permission of Bob Geyer, Vice-Chair, 

El Paso Sierra Club

Seen Any Burrowing Owls?

Click image to enlarge.

Massacre!

Massacre! Statewide there were 29 people fired from Texas Parks and Wildlife – 8 of them (28%) were from El Paso including Superintendent John Moses. From our region of Texas Parks and Wildlife (an area spanning 450 miles from Abilene to El Paso) eight people were fired. Of course, all 8 were from El Paso – our beloved Superintendent, 2 of his office staff and 5 workers at the Wyler Tramway.

Regional Director, Dierdre Hisler from Ft. Davis (over 200 miles away from El Paso) will oversee Dr. Cesar Mendez of FMSP and Ms. Wanda Olszewski at Hueco Tanks.

El Paso was once represented on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission by a political donor of some significance. El Paso is no longer represented. Want to know why the 8 firings were all from El Paso? Anyone with deep pockets want to contribute to Perry’s Presidential ambitions?

One bit of very good news: our Urban Wildlife Biologist, Lois Balin, will keep her job although it isn’t certain as of today if she will stay in her same office building.

Time to put the mountain lion incident to bed. Police Chief Greg Allen made some important changes with the notification process in such events – a change which will help put the right people on the scene, manage crowds and facilitate communication. However, the lion incident still reminds us that, especially in this drought, animals are entering “our” space more and more. Hikers are now regularly reporting deer sightings at lower elevations. Many people have argued for more water guzzlers for wildlife. Also of continuing concern is protecting wildlife corridors – something the TxDOT Transmountain plan has never addressed although they could provide plenty of overpasses for those they colluded in secret with while bypassing the public.

El Paso needs to adopt a similar plan to one in Pima County, Arizona which is committed to the long-term survival of the full spectrum of indigenous plants and animals and the conservation of its cultural resources. Learn more about the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan at their well-documented web site. El Paso’s Open Space Advisory Board does regard preserving ecologically-sensitive and riparian corridors as prime factors in choosing open space for protection. Recently OSAB recommended that Cement Lake become first on the priority list for acquisition. OSAB also recommended and City Council yesterday approved the rezoning of Keystone Park and Rio Bosque to a Natural Open Space (NOS) District and that both Keystone and Rio Bosque be designated as a Wildlife Sanctuary under the Natural Open Space (NOS) District.

Finally, because we all need to learn more about different strategies for managing water without resorting to huge retention ponds and other practices of unsustainability, read Hopi Gardens, a long but very interesting article on passive water harvesting to grow food in an arid environment. Some of the Hopi terrace gardens are visible along AZ Hwy 264 between Hotevilla and Tuba City. Landscape Architect David Cristiani of the Quercus Group reports that the gardens are “impressive for their use of gravity and passive rainwater harvesting to grow corn and other food plant varieties that mostly produce from the monsoon season and incidental winter moisture totaling [like El Paso] about 6 or so inches a year.” Cristiani adds: “Their corn varieties were selected over time for toughness to the local environment. The corn is short in stature – under 3 feet in height.” Native Seeds is a good source for seeds for this variety of corn.