ACTION ALERT! Protect Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument

Travel-National Geographic image

The designation of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument could be in danger of being Trumped. Back in April, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of the Interior to conduct a review of all national monuments designated since 1996. The Southwest Environmental Center writes: "The intent behind this order is clear: to reduce or eliminate monuments to make way for more mining, logging, and extraction."

SWEC tells you where to go online to make a comment. It even gives you some tips for making an effective comment. Go HERE.

Tomorrow (June 27) at 9AM the Doña Ana County Commissioners will consider a resolution to save Organ Mountains-Desert Peak. If you want to attend, follow this Action Alert from the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition:

Creation of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in 2014 inspired Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition’s efforts to make Castner Range a National Monument (these efforts continue).

This Tuesday, the Doña Ana County Commission will be voting on two Resolutions that will potentially impact the future of our Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument.

We urge you to attend the County Commission meeting on Tuesday and contact the Commissioners now asking them to pass the Resolution supporting the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, and oppose any anti-Monument resolution or amendments.

The stakes couldn't be higher-it's crucial that the County Commission take a strong stand of support of our National Monument. YOUR voice is critically needed on Tuesday to make this stand.
Help Protect Public Lands
What:  Dona Ana County Commission Meeting
Date:  Tuesday June 27th
Time:  9 AM
Location:  845 N. Motel Blvd. Las Cruces, NM  88007
Agenda:  HERE

Urge Doña Ana County Commission to protect our public lands and oppose any anti-Monument resolution or amendments.
Here are the Commissioners Email Addresses and office phone numbers:


District 1
BILLY G. GARRETT
Office:      (575) 525-5808
E-mail: bgarrett@donaanacounty.org

District 2
RAMON S. GONZALEZ
Office:      (575) 525-5804
E-mail: rgonzalez@donaanacounty.org

District 3
BENJAMIN L. RAWSON
Office:     (575) 525-5807  Cell:  575-649-4153
E-mail: brawson@donaanacounty.org or brawson@rawson-inc.com

District 4
ISABELLA SOLIS - CHAIR
Offfice:     (575) 525-5810
E-mail: isolis@donaanacounty.org

District 5
JOHN L. VASQUEZ - VICE CHAIR
Office:      (575) 525-5809
E-mail: jvasquez@donaanacounty.org
Additional Background Information

Join the Facebook Event HERE.
Article: "Pearce urges Zinke to shrink Organ Mountains monument" HERE.
Friends of Organ Mountains Desert Peaks Information HERE.
Monument Official Site HERE.

Sierra Club has more information HERE.

From the Albuquerque Journal. Click on image to enlarge.

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.

SWEC Spring 2016 Back by Noon Outings

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Back by Noon Outings are sponsored by the Southwest Environmental Center (SWEC). 

"Established in 1992, we are a member-supported, grassroots conservation organization based in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

"Our mission is to protect and restore native wildlife and their habitats in the Southwestern borderlands, through advocacy, education and on-the-ground projects.


"We speak for wildlife and wild places. We work to protect and restore vital habitats, like Otero Mesa and the Rio Grande, and endangered species, like the Mexican Grey Wolf." - About SWEC

Hyder on Herpetofauna at SWEC

Gila Monster

[The following is a press release from the Southwest Environmental Center. Dr. Paul Hyder is actively involved in Celebration of Our Mountains, Master Naturalists, and frequently speaks to a number of El Paso's outdoors and natural history groups. Hyder's presentation is well-worth the trip to Las Cruces.] 

Herpetofauna of the Northern Chihuahuan desert

Did you know that the Chihuahuan Desert is home to over 170 herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians within a specific region) species? Though conditions in the desert can be harsh, that doesn’t stop a diverse array of species from flourishing.

Join us for a special presentation at the Southwest Environmental Center (MAP) on August 11th at 7:00 pm as Dr. Paul Hyder explores the various aspects relating to the ecology and biology of these animals within Dona Aña and Otero Counties in New Mexico and Hudspeth County in Texas.

The presentation is part of SWEC’s monthly Tuesday Talks series, and is free and open to the public. For more information, call (575) 522-5552.

Established in 1992, the Southwest Environmental Center works to protect and restore native wildlife and their habitats in the southwestern borderlands. Visit wildmesquite.org to learn more. Contact Tricia Snyder, 575-522-5552; tricia@wildmesquite.org. 

Mexican Wolves Need You! Rally Tomorrow in Las Cruces

Mexican Wolves Need You!

Come to a rally in Las Cruces tomorrow at noon

Congressman Steve Pearce (R-NM) has introduced a bill that would strip Mexican gray wolves of protection under the federal Endangered Species Act and turn management of wolves over to the states. This bill, disingenuously named the "Wolf Transparency and Accountability Act,” would essentially be a death sentence for wolves, since there are only about 109 left in the wild and the last time the states were in charge Mexican wolves went extinct in the U.S.

Please join us for a rally outside Rep. Pearce's office to show him that we love wolves and want them to roam the Southwest’s wildlands.

Where: U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce's office,  570 N. Telshor, Las Cruces, NM

When: 12-1 p.m., Wednesday, July 15

Bring: Your enthusiasm for Lobos, a sign (we will have some available), and if you wish an umbrella or hat for shade. Water will be provided.

Update: Parking around Pearce's office is extremely limited. Carpooling and drop offs are highly recommended. We will have a shuttle running from a parking lot about 1/3 mile away, at Spruce Avenue and Lewis Street, beginning at 11:45 am. Click here to see map.

Click her for more information. For questions or more details, contact Tricia at 575-522-5552 or tricia@wildmesquite.org. 

Please support elpasonaturally©. Go HERE to donate and help turn the El Paso southwest "green".

See "Lords of Nature" in El Paso

Click image to enlarge.

The Friday Video: Otero Mesa Proposed Mining + Call to Action

Here's the video:




Here's one way for you to take action:

Click on image to enlarge.

For more information:

New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
The Southwest Environmental Center
Fans of Otero Mesa

SWEC Presents New Back by Noon Outings

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Franklin Mountains State Park Presentation Thursday at 6 p.m.

Our next Chapter meeting will be tomorrow evening, April 5^th beginning at 6 p.m. We will have a very special presentation: “Flora, Fauna and Recreation at the Franklin Mountains State Park”.  Many of you know Richard Love, a volunteer with the Franklin Mountains State Park in the Tom Mays Unit. If you don’t know Richard, you may have come across the bird blind on one of your trips to the park. Richard helped design and build the blind and has done some extraordinary photography there and at other locations in the park. He has been a photographer for over 30 years now and has made a study of the wildlife of the Chihuahuan Desert. (See some photos from Tom Mays.) Along with Richard, FMSP volunteers Heath Shawhart and George Murray will also be speaking.  Richard Love will discuss birds and animals of the Chihuahuan Desert and Franklin Mountains and include his personal photography. Heath Shawhart will talk about the recreational and hiking activities in the park and include tips on desert survival skills and desert plants. George Murray will speak about reptiles, plants and blooms.  Our Chapter meetings continue to be held at the El Paso Garden Center, 3105 Grant Avenue. (Map)

Stay tuned for more information about volunteer training for the Franklin Mountains State Park on April 14^th or contact Adrianna Weickhardt now at Adrianna.Weickhardt@tpwd.state.tx.us.

There will be another Transmountain cleanup/volunteer opportunity and continuing ed class this coming Saturday (April 7^th).  The cleanup will be from 9:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. Meet for the cleanup at the pull-out just past the Adopt a Highway sign on the right-hand side of westbound lane on Transmountain Rd, west of the Gateway South intersection.  Call 915-525-7723 for information.  Then, Master Naturalists and Master Gardeners are sponsoring a continuing ed presentation at 11:00 a.m. at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology: “West Texas Wildlife & Birding Trails”.  The speaker, Beth Nobles, Executive Director of the Texas Mountain Trail organization, helps visitors and residents enjoy the great outdoors through the Far West Texas trail system.  This is a cooperative program with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and includes ten driving loops and 57 sites in Far West Texas.  El Paso hosts two of these loops, the El Paso Uplands from Franklin Mountains State Park to Hueco Tanks State Park and the El Paso Rio from Keystone Heritage Park to Rio Bosque Wetlands.  The public is invited and the event is free.

Also this Saturday, April 7^th, the El Paso Cactus and Rock Club will be fieldtripping to the Jarilla Mountains of Orogrande, NM to look for early-blooming cactus hybrids. Carpools will form at 8:30 a.m. at the Wal-Mart parking lot at Transmountain and Hwy 54 near the nursery.  (Map)  Be sure to take a hat, sunscreen, lunch and water. Walking sticks and sturdy walking shoes are suggested. If you have a high clearance vehicle, please consider bringing it. Remember your camera. For more information call 915-833-7637 or 915-383-3006. For a calendar of upcoming Rock and Cactus Club events, go here.

Here’s a program that is worth the drive to Las Cruces next Tuesday evening.  On April 10 from 6 to 8 p.m., the Southwest Environmental Center is presenting two intriguing and important talks. Both will stress the importance of advocating for the most endangered mammal in North America, New Mexico's own Mexican wolf (Lobo). The Center is located at 275 North Downtown Mall in Las Cruces.  (Map)

The Southwest Environmental Center also seeks your help to preserve the Otero Mesa from exploratory drilling for rare earth metals. The hunt for rare earths is also on Round Top Mountain in Hudspeth County near Sierra Blanca, Texas (just down the road from us a tad). Why rare earths? Because all of us consumers like iPads and smart phones and things that glow in the dark.

On April 13, 14 and 15, 2012 the El Paso/Trans-Pecos Audubon Society will be visiting the Lesser Prairie-Chickens of Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Bottomless Lakes State Park.  April is the peak time for Lesser Prairie Chickens’ famous displays in their mating areas called booming grounds.  If you can, make motel reservations for Friday in Roswell and do some local birding.  Saturday morning tour Bitter Lake NWR.  Bring lunch and drinks for this all day affair.  Saturday afternoon bird and tour Bottomless Lakes State Park and on Sunday morning get a very early start to view the Lesser Prairie Chickens.  If you want more information or if you plan to go please contact Mark Perkins at 637-3521 or mperkins4@elp.rr.com.

The April 2012 Rio Bosque newsletter is now available. To volunteer at the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, contact John Sproul at 915-861-4361 or jsproul@utep.edu.

You can also volunteer at the El Paso Zoo. They have a new Volunteer Coordinator, Sherri Reneau, who can be reached at 915-351-5340 or reneausl@elpasotexas.gov.

Finally, Rick Lobello, the Education Curator at the El Paso Zoo, talked to our new class of Master Naturalists last week. One concept that is critical to urban planning is that of ecosystems services – the benefits that we derive from the ecosystem in which we live such as cleaner air, healthier soil, carbon sequestration, etc.. Learn more about it. Also, read a primer about ecosystem services from the United Nations Environment Program. This is good stuff.

The Master Naturalist© is written and published by Jim Tolbert who takes sole responsibility for the content of the letter.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, just reply to this letter or email jimhtolbert@elp.rr.com.

This is Volume 1 and Number 5 published on April 4, 2012

It Isn't Over

Here's today's elpasonaturally e-letter:

It’s not over until . . . you know the rest. The Federal Highway Administration has taken some time now to rule on TxDOT’s Environmental Assessment of its Transmountain project. They will either accept the EA or notify TxDOT that they must perform a full blown Environmental Impact Study. There is a Sierra Club account to collect money for legal fees in case FHWA says an EIS is not needed. “In that case the next step would be to sue TXDOT and FHWA,” a Sierra Club official told me. The Sierra Club attorneys will obviously not do anything else until FHWA has made their decision regarding the EA.

There is, however, the petition that has been re-circulating. It does not call for Transmountain not to be widened. It does call for keeping nearly 800 acres natural and it would prevent some of the major overpasses from being built as described in the Chris Roberts El Paso Times story, Bypassed, a story that keeps being talked about and keeps angering people.

Petitioners are carefully checking each signature to make sure that they are those of registered City of El Paso voters. Download the petition here. Email me and I’ll come pick it up or tell you how to mail it to me ASAP. The petition is just a sliver away from getting enough signatures. Even if City Council were to turn down the petition, the FHWA needs to know that El Pasoans don’t like being bypassed and don’t like the project as designed. There is no virtue in getting lots of highway money for El Paso went that money is spent on environmentally bad, poorly designed and poorly presented projects.

Even if you think that you signed the petition before March or April, you can sign again. Any doubt, sign.

Read the El Paso Inc. story about the state parks cuts. The El Paso Times also did a piece on last week’s massacre of Texas Parks and Wildlife employees that hit El Paso the hardest. One of my readers questioned my use of the term “firing” when I spoke about the termination of employees here in El Paso. She suggested that “laid off” was more apropos since “firing” has the connotation that the persons being laid off did something wrong. None of these people did anything wrong except work in El Paso for the TPWD since El Paso is a city unrepresented on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. Each and every one of these eight people has been hurt and will be missed. It is a tragedy and a travesty to lose John Moses, the John Wayne/Sean Connery of our local state parks. John wasn’t a pencil pusher. He got out there and knew the trails and the terrain of every square inch of our parks. I just hope he sticks around El Paso and continues to enrich our community with his leadership and wisdom.

Please support our friends at the Southwest Environmental Center. Read more here. Also, please visit Trap Free New Mexico, learn more, visit the petition page and the Facebook page.

Please Support the Southwest Environmental Center

Mid-year 2011 Appeal (2)

Protect Otero Mesa from Oil and Gas Development

Otero Mesa is an ecologically sensitive and endangered area just east-northeast of El Paso. It is directly east of White Sands, south of Alamogordo and the Lincoln National Forest and north of Dell City. It is west of the Guadalupe Mountains and the Brokeoff Mountains below which sits Dell City. Otero Mesa sits on a large aquifer and it is a target for oil and gas development even though there is probably not much of either in the area and exploration would extremely damage this pristine land.

Since 2001, the Southwest Environmental Center has been leading the fight to prevent any oil and gas exploration. Kevin Bixby, the Executive Director of the Center, recently sent out this urgent message asking for action before next Tuesday, June 1:

Ask the BLM to protect Otero Mesa from oil and gas development
As part of its “Tri-County” planning process, the Bureau of Land Management is crafting a management plan for Otero, Sierra, and Doña Ana Counties (NM) that covers Otero Mesa. The agency is accepting public comments until June 1 on how oil and gas should be addressed in the plan. Please take a moment to ask the BLM to protect Otero Mesa by closing it to oil and gas development.
It gets a little convoluted, but here is the situation. The BLM has proposed opening up 90% of Otero Mesa--one of the largest remaining desert grasslands in North America--to oil and gas development. The original BLM plan was shot down by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2009. Now the BLM wants to defer all decisions about oil and gas on Otero Mesa until some later date--even whether to close areas that they know should not be drilled, and even though it is in the middle of a big planning process that will determine how Otero Mesa will be managed for the next 20 years.
By contrast, SWEC and other conservation groups have proposed protecting approximately 600,000 acres of Otero Mesa as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, where oil and gas development would not be allowed. (We also support establishment of a national monument for the same purpose, but that is a designation only the President, not the BLM, can make.)

Send your comments to:

nmlcdo_comments@blm.gov.
Attn: Dwayne Sykes (BLM, Las Cruces, NM)

Suggested message:

Dear Mr. Sykes,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Tri-County Resource Management Plan. I urge BLM to close Otero Mesa and other special areas in the Tri-County area to oil and gas development. Otero Mesa has too many other values that would be threatened by drilling, such as grasslands, wildlife, water, wilderness, recreational opportunities, and important Native American and historic sites. I urge the BLM to close Otero Mesa to drilling and establish an Otero Mesa Grassland ACEC, as proposed by conservationists.

You can see the same message online.

The video above is a bit dated (2007). For more updated info, go here and get to know the Southwest Environmental Center.

The Otero Mesa may be in New Mexico - but it is also part of our region of the Chihuahuan Desert. What happens there affects El Paso. Please take a moment to send a message to the BLM office in Las Cruces.

Back by Noon Natural History Outings

Click on image to enlarge and read.

Southwest Environmental Center in Las Cruces has just published their new Back by Noon Natural History Outings. I went on two of these last year and both were great.

You can also see and download the PDF here.