Animal Corridor Close to Being Finished

Photo by Rick Bonart 6/16

We've been following the progress of the animal corridor/underpass at the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park. The photo above is taken looking south. The project should be done by September just in time for Celebration of Our Mountains.

The corridor is envisioned by some as a part of a new Mountain to River trail. It includes the hike bike trail along the Transmountain frontage where currently some trees have died and are being replaced by cacti - something not originally planned. More on that later.

Wildlife Corridor Progressing

Click image to enlarge. Photo by Rick Bonart

Rick Bonart who took the picture above had this to say about the underpass/wildlife corridor at the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park: 

"The wildlife corridor is coming along. Note it's done in 2 sections to allow natural light in the middle, and dirt bottom, and water will drain in a separate section to avoid erosion... ‎in other words best practices design."

Bonart is proposing a small stock tank nearby to support wildlife. "I just want a bunch of birds, deer, javalina rabbits, ferrets, etc.," he said.

Many are recommending that the underpass be named the "Bonart Wildlife Corridor" after Dr. Rick Bonart who has spent years advocating for this structure.

For further reading:

5 Things You Need to Know about Wildlife Corridors

Wildlife Corridor

10 important wildlife corridors

The Spine of the Continent

Progress on Tom Mays Corridor

Photos by Rick Bonart

It may not look like much yet. However, work on the Tom Mays underpass (Animal, Hike, Bike Corridor) continues at a steady clip. The official name of this corridor being constructed by TxDOT is the "Park Connectivity Project". Tom Mays is a "Unit" of the Franklin Mountains State Park.

TxDOT Regional Engineer, Bob Bielek, reports: We are trying to accelerate and finish this year but most likely February or March of next year."

Tom Mays Underpass, Solar Energy, New Council and Glass Recycling

Rather than doing several posts, I decided to just bring you up to date about several items.

Photo by Rick Bonart

At long last the work has begun to construct a hike/bike/animal corridor underneath Transmountain to connect the FMSP land to the south to the FMSP’s Tom Mays Unit to the north. I had been made aware of this several weeks ago from a friend of mine and also a friend of TxDOT Regional Engineer Bob Bielek. Now the buzz has begun via email as some have passed by the construction site.

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On the solar front, a potential settlement on EPEC's rate case before the PUC may happen tomorrow. Some are saying that it is the best proposal, which means that nobody will be happy. Who may be the unhappiest: (1) all the folks who will lose their jobs when EPEC kills the solar industry in El Paso, (2) all current solar users and (3) all El Pasoans who will lose a chance to have a clean, sustainable energy future.

Take a look at what France is doing. Imagine roads of solar panels that you can drive on. 

Check out the Bloomberg Business Report Who Owns the Sun. Be sure to watch the video.

Also read New Report Reveals Electric Utility Industry's Influence at Universities. (Note that NMSU is part of the cabal.) It is clear that the fossil fuel and electric utility companies are "out to get" the distributed solar energy industry. 

Read Senator José Rodríguez's op-ed piece in yesterday's El Paso Times as well as his piece in the Rio Grande Guardian. HERE is what he wrote to the PUC. 

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Good news from last week's regular City Council meeting. An ordinance establishing a Regional Renewable Energy Advisory Council passed. Many thanks go to Rep. Peter Svarzbein for being proactive on Council rather than playing politics and being reactive.

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Finally, it seems like glass recycling in El Paso is off to a good start. Marshall Carter-Tripp reports: "I went to the Northwest Collection Center today.  As promised, no water bill was required.  What they had was four recycle bins along a wall.  They had different color tops.  You put the glass in the bins yourself.  Unfortunately the bin with the blue top had been pretty much filled with brown bottles, so I put my blue bottle in with the green bottle and hoped for the best.   The clear glass went in a bin with a grey top. Hope they will refine it a bit but it went well."

For the glass recycling pilot program to succeed, we not only should recycle bottles but use the end products for mulch and more.

The Friday Video: Robert Newman "The Trailblazer"

Robert Newman is a legend. If you are a hiker, mountain biker, conservationist or just a lover of the Franklin Mountains, you know this man. Mountain Biker and publisher of GeoBetty, Don Baumgardt wrote on Facebook that Newman is "the man who single-handedly built some of the best bike trails in El Paso (and therefore, some of the best trails in all of Texas.) What the world needs now is more Robert Newmans. We don't have to all build trails, but we can do something we love and for the benefit of others."

[If you get elpasonaturally by email, the video won't be embedded. Go to www.elpasonaturally.blogspot.com to view. Thank you.]

Improve Connectivity at FMSP Soon To Start

TxDOT calls it simply "Improve Connectivity at FMSP". It's an animal corridor and a separate hike and bike trail. It is the means to connect the south and north sides of Franklin Mountains State Park at Tom Mays Park now cut off by Transmountain Road. 

The project has been a possibility for a long time. The problem has been funding but it looks like the funds are now there.

TxDOT opened bids yesterday and there were six. Three of them came within the acceptable 10% range above estimate. The lowest was 1.07% over estimate. Regional Engineer Bob Bielek reports: "Without doing a complete review for an unbalanced bid, 1.07% over is very close to the estimate.  Absent any abnormalities with the bid I would think that a contract will be awarded to the low bidder at the next Commission meeting.  In fact, the three lowest bids are all within, or close to, the 10% that we typically look for.  That said, given the time to get the contracts signed, etc. and the upcoming holidays, I would expect a construction start shortly after the first of the year."

Former PSB member, avid mountain bike rider and a major driver throughout the years for this project responded: "Very Cool! Woohoo!"

Very cool indeed.

The Friday Video: Flight over Sunset Trails of FMSP

The video above was shot by Derek Spear. It is a flight over the Scenic Overlook and Sunset Trails at the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park. Check out and subscribe to Adventure Drone on YouTube. Look at his other terrific videos.

[If you get elpasonaturally by email, the video won't appear. Go to www.elpasonaturally.blogspot.com to view it.]

Contrast Desert Beauty with Sprawl

[What I like about Rick LoBello's video below is that it provides a stark contrast between the beauty of the Franklin Mountains in the Chihuahuan Desert and urban sprawl. Rick has stopped at the top of Smuggler's Gap at the top of Transmountain Rd. He does a bit of a ramble along the Ron Coleman Trail and discusses some of the flora and fauna. He then vividly shows the affects of sprawl on the plant and animal life. Finally, on his way home, he stops at the entrance to the Tom Mays Unit again to inform us about some of the native Chihuahuan Desert plants. 

His video gives us a graphic reminder why we should sign the online save our mountains petition.

You can still sign that petition to save our mountains. Just go to https://www.change.org/p/the-people-of-el-paso-texas-preserve-our-franklin-mountains-from-further-development. Be sure to tell your friends and family members.

If you receive elpasonaturally by email, the video will not display. Go to elpasonaturally.com to see it.]

The Friday Video: Double Feature about Animal Highway Crossings

[If you receive elpasonaturally by email, the videos won't display. Go to www.elpasonaturally.com to view them. You can sign up to get elpasonaturally by email in the box in the column next to this post. Also, please help us become the "Newspaper Tree" of El Paso. Your contribution will help us turn the El Paso Southwest "green".]

First of all, hat tip to Tami Gandt who sent this Seattle Times story about an ambitious animal crossing program in the State of Washington. Washington is a state that values its natural beauty and wildlife. The natural El Paso southwest is a beautiful part of the Chihuahuan Desert and it teems with wildlife. Is it too much to ask TxDOT and Bob Bielek to keep their promise for an animal passageway at the Tom Mays Unit? This passageway could also be used by hikers and bicyclists and will serve to connect the north and south sides of the park. Simple question, Bob: When will you do as you promised?

First a video from the Commonwealth of Virginia:




Here's one from Utah:

Remember that FMSP Hike-Bike-Wildlife Corridor and Entrance at Tom Mays?

In March TxDOT presented a report to City Council that included the hiking/biking/animal corridor into the Tom Mays unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park. The corridor is the key connection between the north and south sides of the State Park west of the mountains. It sounded like good news. But where are we now?

On April 7th of this year in an email, TxDOT District Engineer, Bob Bielek, said that he would like to accelerate the project and start sometime in the first quarter of the next fiscal year. (It begins in September 2015.) Acceleration is necessary because of all of the work beginning on I-10 from downtown to Executive. More demand will be put on Loop 375 (the Transmountain Highway.) 

In an email on the same day, Bielek stated that TxDOT workers pick up about 4 dead deer in a year and about 4 dead smaller animals a month. He didn't think that the death toll was too high. His opinion, of course; and the opinions of wildlife experts don't register with him or TxDOT.

Now let's review the record of broken promises and shifting predictions. Judy Ackerman passed some detailed notes about the corridor/connectivity project to me. Her notes begin in January 2013.

January 24, 2013 - the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission considers a proposed transfer of 8 acres of park land to TxDOT for the purpose of a new entrance into the Tom Mays Unit.

November 19, 2013 - at the Border Highway East Public meeting, Bielek stated in a conversation that Dr. Rick Bonart's idea for an animal crossing was a good one , that the project might cost $2 Million, and that TxDOT might start working on it in the Fall of 2014.

December 11, 2013 - plan unveiled to public and is warmly received.

April 10, 2013 - TxDOT holds a public meeting about the corridor/connection/new park entrance. Plans get a positive response.

April 15, 2013 - at a special meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Transportation Policy Board (TPB), Bob Bielek announces that he is committed to the project in 2014.

February 20, 2014 - at an El Paso League of Women Voters meeting, Bielek gives a Fall 2014 date for the beginning of a corridor between the north and south portions of the park that have lost direct access. He gives a date of Fall 2014 for the beginning of such a project.

April 11, 2014 - at a breakfast meeting sponsored by NE El Paso City Council Representative, Carl Robinson, Bielek says that the project will begin in Fall 2014, take 3 months and cost $1 Million.

October 3, 2014 - Bielek says that the project is still in design.

March 17, 2015 - in a presentation to City Council it is announced that the project will cost $3 Million and that the estimated let date is 2016.

May 15, 2015 - again at a Carl Robinson breakfast, Bielek announces that the project will let in 2 to 3 months and that funding will be from Proposition 1 Funds. (Previously it had been from his discretionary account and then "Denial of Access" funds.)

As you can see, dates keep moving up, estimated costs keep changing as well as funding sources. It's June 2015, when will this corridor, which should have begun in Fall of 2014, really begin - if at all?

The Photography of Benny Pol: Discovering the Natural Beauty of the El Paso Region

Texas Antelope Squirrel at the Nature Trail. Photo by Benny Pol reprinted without any permission whatsoever. (Thanks Benny. I'll send you royalties from elpasonaturally.)

Benny Pol is an electronics technician, an American citizen from Holland, retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer, a Master Naturalist (Grand Master would be the more appropriate title) and one helluva photographer. 

If you are a part of the Facebook community, get to know his work. He posts frequently on the Nature Walk Trail, an area (middle of this map) in the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park recently upgraded by the Trans-Pecos Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists.

You can see many of his nature albums HERE including photos taken in the Franklin Mountains, the Organ Mountains and on the Otero Mesa.

Benny was one of the event leaders for this year's very successful Celebration of Our Mountains.

What Benny is doing sui generis is documenting the abundant wildlife of our region of the Chihuahuan Desert. As you look at his photos of plant and animal life, you realize that what we have here is worth conserving and preserving. As more El Pasoans see the beauty and value of and in our natural open spaces, they will be less in favor of scraping the earth and sprawling the City. Master Plans such as Plan El Paso will make much more sense.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Benny!

By the way, the next Master Naturalist class is scheduled to start January 29, 2014. Information is below:

Click on image to enlarge.

The Friday Video: Mine Exploration Hike at Tom Mays Unit of the FMSP

Always watch for opportunities to explore the mine on the Cottonwood Springs Trail at the Tom Mays Unit of the FMSP. Here is a video of a mine hike led by renowned geologist, Eric Kappus, and FMSP Interpretive Ranger, Adrianna Weickhardt. 


The January 2014 Franklin Mountain State Park Hiking and Event schedule is posted on our Volunteering and Events page.

Get outdoors. There's so much to see and do in our region. Become a member of the El Paso Hiking Group and the Jornada Hiking & Outdoor Club.

Plan for Animal Corridor and Access to Tom Mays Coming Together

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) El Paso District will hold an open house for a proposed project to maintain connectivity at the Franklin Mountains State Park on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Canutillo High School, 6675 South Desert Boulevard. Map

The key word in this announcement is "connectivity" as District Engineer Bob Bielek explained at a meeting with conservationists, State Park and wildlife officials yesterday. I was among those in attendance.

Backed up with research and experience, Bielek showed sensitivity for concerns about an animal corridor, a pathway for hikers and mountain bikers and safe access in and out of the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park. The plan met with positive reactions from those in attendance.

A huge concern resulting from the expansion of Transmountain has been the loss of ability to get from one side of the park to the next. Hikers and mountain bikers alike have been anxious to get the kind of connectivity that is needed for recreation and the expansion of such events as the international bike races sponsored by the Borderland Mountain Bike Association. Connectivity is also essential to the expansion of new eco-tourist businesses in the El Paso region.

Those concerned about wildlife have been calling for an animal corridor for years. 

Finally, the need for safe entrance and egress from the park has been important for all who see the growth in park attendance, recreational programs and events such as the yearly Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta (which doubled attendance this year from last) and future chili cook-offs as preliminaries for Terlingua.  

Impatience to see a plan has grown recently and even led to a quick acceptance of what was called Alternative 4 - a plan with interchanges and a shared animal and motorist corridor - something Bielek pointed out was a very bad idea. Besides, Alternative 4 would have required excessive excavation on the north side of the highway. What do preservationists/conservationists want? Well...preservation and conservation. Alternative 4 wasn't that nor was a new road into the park across critical archaeological areas. 

Bielek is the man with the plan and here is a rough draft of that plan:

 Bird's eye view of the project. Click image to enlarge.

 The animal, hiker, mountain biker corridor. Click image to enlarge. Note deer.

The corridor will be for animals, hikers, pedestrians and mountain bikers only. No motorists and that change from Alternative 4 is most welcome. There will be fencing to channel larger mammals such as deer into the corridor and away from the highway. The corridor will be 10 feet in height and 40 to 50 feet wide. 15 feet will be dedicated to hikers, etc.

Access into the Tom Mays Unit. Click image to enlarge.

Bielek unequivocally said that there is no safety issue. He refuted the video posted twice at elpasonaturally. The video suggests that with a car coming every second almost, accidents will be unavoidable when turning left across two lanes of highway traffic. Bielek explained that traffic behaves just the way kids do in a kick ball game on the school play ground. They bunch together. People drive or come in "quantum" packages as they do when grabbing that extra six pack at 7-11s only to find numerous people have the same idea at the same time. Thus left turns into the park are safe for the foreseeable future. However, eliminating the left turn out of the park will decrease potential conflicts and thus is safer. "There is no question that permitting left turns from the park would be less safe than what is currently being constructed," District Engineer Bielek told me in an email. The turnaround for those exiting the park but wanting to go east on Transmountain will be the easternmost interchange with the Texas turnarounds - about a 2.5 mile "detour" - but a safe one to be sure and one that won't mean a costly interchange at the park.

TxDOT will provide the "brown" signs to indicate entrance to the park. Hopefully in time the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and/or the City of El Paso will create a more attractive way to welcome people to the park.

The creation of the corridor would be a separate project from the current TxDOT expansion and not a change order to the current project. Bielek anticipates finishing the expansion in April or May of 2014. Putting together final plans, demonstrating denial of access and the need for right of way for people (read "connectivity"), obtaining funding ($1 Million or less) and beginning the new project could start next fall and be done in early 2015. 

Please make plans to come to the meeting on December 11th. Let TxDOT know that you want connectivity from one side of the park to the other.

More, of course, later

State Park Entrance Still Top Issue

Houdini, the Harris Hawk, was a big hit at the Fiesta

(Photo courtesy of Benny Pol)

In spite of the construction on Transmountain Road, this past Saturday's Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta was well-attended. The unofficial guestimate of attendance is now 500. The buzz at the Fiesta though was the park entrance. Many had a hard time finding their way into the park. Some who came from the east side missed the turn and then, in spite of no real left turns allowed at this time, made a left turn anyway into the park after turning around and heading back east. 

The question on everyone's mind was "What will be done with the entrance?"

Elpasonaturally has learned today from TxDOT Engineer, Bob Bielek, that, before November 1, the public can expect another meeting concerning the entrance and the alternatives that TxDOT believes now to be viable. Bielek said that TxDOT has heard loud and clear that the public wants a safe animal corridor under the highway and safe passage for hikers and bicyclists. To do an animal corridor would probably be less than $300,000 - chump change for a project as expensive and extensive as the west side segment of Transmountain.

So, look for a public meeting soon and look for some real discussion on safe alternatives that include making entrance to the largest urban park in the United State quite attractive.

Bielek affirmed that the project and entrance considerations are on-schedule.

New Proposal for Entrance to State Park

Altenative 4. Click on image to enlarge.

Last July, the PSB proposed and recommended to City Council an alternative route into the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park.  I published a blog post about this. There was another alternative entrance which the environmental community seemed to favor – an underpass with exchanges near the current park entrance. I voiced two concerns about that proposal: what it might do to the view shed and whether animals would really use a trafficked road for a corridor.  It turns out that that proposal (#4 in the TxDOT menu of options) was the one preferred by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department although that endorsement was not apparent at the time.

Last Friday, Special Parks and Wildlife Assistant Kevin Good was in El Paso to promote the alternative (#4) preferred by his department. He presented a proposal to gift 8 acres of Franklin Mountains State Park to TxDOT.  This land runs along Transmountain Road and includes the current entrance into the park.  The transfer will allow TxDOT to build an underpass with exchanges into the park.  It does not compromise the view shed and the underpass will be wide enough for traffic, bicyclists and, yes, animals. In addition, the 3 existing culverts just east of the park entrance will be preserved and the 8 foot drop-off on the south end of the culverts will be fixed so that there will be yet another corridor for animals.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission will consider an action item (number 18 on the agenda) transferring the land at its January 24, 2013 meeting in Austin. 

The proposal by Texas Parks and Wildlife seemed to catch everyone off guard. PSB representatives at the Good presentation were concerned that this alternative proposal would mean changing how they are envisioning development north of Transmountain (an interesting but not surprising revelation.) I asked if a road to the planned resort could still be constructed and keep a trail from there into the park. (The trail already exists as part of the Lower Sunset hiking trail.) There seemed to be no objection. Alternative #4 would not prevent plans for development above Transmountain.  Note that one of the disadvantages of paving an alternative entrance from a future Paseo del Norte into the park is the fact that valuable archaeological sites would be destroyed or damaged. Parks is reluctant to say much about the existence, whereabouts or artifacts of the site. However, I have learned that there may be a burial site making preservation a must.

Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition Board member, Judy Ackerman, is sending out the following to FMWC members to encourage them to voice their approval to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission no later than January 23^rd:

The entrance to the Tom May’s Section of the Franklin Mountains State Park (FMSP) desperately needs improvement! 

Please support TX Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) desire to transfer 8 acres to TxDOT so that TxDOT can build a safe, entrance, with a wildlife crossing and minimal environmental and view shed destruction.  Send your comments in support of this transfer to:  Corky Kuhlmann, Land Conservation, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, Texas  78744 or corky.kuhlmann@tpwd.state.tx.us, not later than 23 Jan 2013.  

A direct entrance to FMSP from Transmountain Rd with an underpass under Transmountain Rd is the best option.  Unfortunately, in July 2012, several El Paso institutions voted to support a Back Door entrance that is NOT supported by TPWD.  The Back Door requires building many miles of roads through pristine Chihuahuan Desert terrain, causes massive habitat destruction and fragmentation, damages archaeological sites and creates NO wildlife corridor. 

Reasons to support TPWD transfer of  8 acres to TxDOT for a new FMSP Entrance:

#1.  Who knows what is best for the Park?  TPWD and FMSP personnel!  What they support, we should support.

#2.  Ensures SAFE access to FMSP for vehicles, pedestrians, bikes and wildlife. 

#3.  Leaves FMSP’s richest archaeological site undisturbed.

#4.  We need a world class entrance to a world class Park, NOT a Back Door.

Finally, keep up with the water wars. Texas has now filed a complaint against New Mexico regarding how New Mexico is tapping into Rio Grande water north of El Paso. We are affected. So are our friends and families in Mexico.

Melodies Under the Milky Way

Click on image to enlarge. 

The public is invited to “Melodies Under the Milky Way” for an evening of music in the mountains and a mini-program of presentations and activities about the sun, moon, and light pollution.  

Park Ranger Adrianna Weickhardt adds: "We are pleased to be hosting Travis Manning, a musician from Las Cruces, New Mexico, who will be providing musical entertainment including tunes from the classic rock era as well as some surprise 'astro-tunes'.  Hot cocoa and coffee will be available, as well as a few astronomically decadent treats such as Mars bars, Milky Way bars, and Starbursts.  We’ll have at least one telescope out to use after the program concludes to observe Jupiter and the crescent moon.  

This program is presented to you by your park rangers from Hueco Tanks SP&HS and Franklin Mountains SP, and astronomers from the El Paso and Las Cruces astronomy clubs.

After entering the Tom Mays Unit, drive all the way to the end of the park. (Map)

February Hikes at Franklin Mountains State Park

Click to enlarge image.

North Loop of the New Lower Sunset Trail

Click image to enlarge.

Judy Ackerman led a small group of hikers along the north loop of the new Lower Sunset Trail yesterday. The trail is one of many great hikes at the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park.

Judy reported: "We hiked the north loop of the new Lower Sunset trail today.  I am constantly impressed with all the improvements in FMSP.  Wasn’t it less than 2 years ago that trail did not exist?  It is a beautiful trail and would be appropriate for beginners."

Here is her data:

Distance:  2.8 miles

Time:  2.5 hrs – very slowly with lunch break

Elevation Change:   447 ft.

WayPoint	Lat Lon	Elevation
7	N31 56.272 W106 31.653	4584 ft
42	N31 56.351 W106 31.342	4633 ft
Intersect1	N31 56.337 W106 31.527	4554 ft
Lunch	N31 56.038 W106 31.522	4738 ft
Start	N31 55.858 W106 30.784	4959 ft
Turn	N31 55.943 W106 31.050	4880 ft

Click image to enlarge.

Park Superintendent, Cesar Mendez, Ph.D., said: "It was about 2 years ago when the trail did not exist. This new section has been in place for a little more than a year. With the shortcut to the group picnic site, this new section of the trail creates a number of options for park users."

Mendez also said that "the new trail over Hitt and Sotol Canyons is almost finished. It should be completed before the end of this month. Then we will be working on other improvements re-routes and brand new trails."

The Park can always use volunteers to help build and maintain trails. Call 915-566-6441 if you are interested.

New Year's Day Hike in Tom Mays

Click to enlarge.