Mule Deer on Stanton

It's always good to see our Mule Deer friends. The picture above was taken by Marshall Carter-Tripp on North Stanton last Wednesday. I'm sure that the deer are seeking water. Wouldn't it be great if the City or the State could install some stock tanks for them and other animals. Such a suggestion was made by Dr. Rick Bonart for the wildlife corridor at Tom Mays. A pump can keep the tank full and the tank should be shallow enough so that smaller animals don't drown.

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