Economic Prosperity IS an Ecosystem Service

When speaking about ecosystem services, we often emphasize how preserving natural spaces means less disease for us and habitat protection for flora and fauna. It's hard to put a price tag on such benefits. However, ecosystem services also include more economically measurable advantages such as economic growth, rising wages, ecotourist dollars and an expanding tourism sector, and the attraction of new residents and businesses.

Take time to read a study by Headwaters Economics, Doña Ana County’s Public Lands and Economic Prosperity. According to their website, "Headwaters Economics is an independent, nonprofit research group that works to improve community development and land management decisions in the West."

The summary of the Doña Ana County study says it all:

"Doña Ana County’s public lands give it a competitive advantage compared to many other western communities. These lands today make important contributions to the region’s immigration, economic growth, and rising salaries and wages.

"Doña Ana County’s pristine and culturally rich public lands also are an important economic foundation for future prosperity. They support a growing travel and tourism sector, and will help attract new residents and businesses across a range of industries.


"Protecting these resources is a smart decision that capitalizes on the competitive benefits of distinctive public lands in today’s modern economy."

You could substitute "El Paso County" every time that it reads "Doña Ana County". The difference is that Las Cruces recognizes the connection between land preservation and prosperity. El Paso still doesn't get it. In El Paso the cry for preservation comes from the environmental/conservation community and not from the Chamber of Commerce and many developers. They need to recognize the hard cash value of land preservation.

People and businesses site "quality of life" as a reason for moving to a particular place. Recreational opportunities and scenic vistas are parts of this quality of life. Ecotourists look for a variety of experiences: hiking, mountain biking, birding, river walks, etc. 

"Protected public lands are a competitive economic advantage in southern New Mexico and Doña Ana County. These lands safeguard important natural assets and cultural landmarks, stimulate tourism and recreation jobs, and attract new people and businesses." 

"People are moving to the region because of its high quality of life. Services industries that employ a wide range of people—from doctors and engineers to teachers and accountants—are driving economic growth and make up the large majority of jobs today. These industries are raising wages and, along with rapid increases in non-labor income from investment and retirement sources, are helping to elevate per capita income.

"Looking ahead, protecting the world-class public lands that surround Las Cruces should be an important part of any economic development strategy for the region." (Headwaters Doña Ana study, emphases mine)

Again, just substitute El Paso County for Doña County.

Apparently the El Paso County Commissioners get "it". County Commissioners are developing an economic plan which emphasizes heritage tourism and a county-line to county-line trail system which will give more recreation opportunities for residents to walk, bike and enjoy the great outdoor assets El Paso has to offer.  One of those assets is the Rio Grande River.

With all of its squabbling, backbiting and commitments to sprawlers, City Council doesn't and can't get the connection between preservation of its natural assets and economic prosperity.

What the Headwaters Study shows us is that preserving natural assets has measurable, positive economic results. Now that's an ecosystem service.

Sprawl is Bad for Business and the Environment

[The following is a post by Rick LoBello also posted at ricklobello.wordpress.com. Rick has written several posts for elpasonaturally. Bookmark his site. It's an encyclopedia of conservation information.]

A new wave of development along Loop 375 in El Paso is destroying lower elevation habitats adjacent to Franklin Mountains State Park and much of the wilderness scenery El Pasoans have cherished for years.  Where once there was a feeling of remoteness and an overall wilderness experience, there is now a 4 lane highway, new bridges connecting the road to Interstate 10 plus a multitude of new residential and business developments.

The current wave of development in cities around the world threatens both businesses and quality of life.  Here in El Paso when two men spotted a bulldozer blading a road across a pristine part of the Franklin Mountains in 1978, they inspired citizens across the community to take action to help stop the ravenous rampage of suburbia.   Today, a new conservation effort is underway as new bridges are built, roads are widened and more developments break ground.  Many El Pasoans are saddened by what they see and feel hopeless in doing anything about it.  Not so fast says the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition.   A new citizen’s petition with over 6000 signatures calls upon the city to preserve undeveloped public lands on both sides of the mountains.

Earlier this year National Geographic magazine characterized similar business and environmental challenges asking this question – “why do many reasonable people doubt science?  We live in an age when all manner of scientific knowledge—from climate change to vaccinations—faces furious opposition. Some even have doubts about the moon landing.”

It is shocking to learn that most of the people responsible for mapping out our future have no clue as to the scientific value of protecting natural landscapes to local businesses and people.

Ecological services are free and include purification of the air we breathe and the water we drink, protecting wildlife biodiversity, soil and vegetation regeneration, seed dispersal, and pollination of crops and natural vegetation.  These services also help to sustain aesthetically pleasing landscapes important to enhancing our sense of wellbeing and fighting off nature deficit disorder.

When ecological services are lost, taxpayers, businesses and governments incur significant costs to replace these services. Some services can be only be partially replaced, and some can never be replaced by any amount of dollar investment.  

Here in El Paso one of the drivers of rising health care costs is the quality of the air we breathe.   Desert plants help to maintain our air quality by capturing dust particles during dust storms. When bulldozers destroy what nature has spent thousands of years creating, businesses have to incur rising health care costs when people get sick and can’t make it into work.  People suffering from respiratory problems also experience a lower quality of life.

Another example is how the Franklin Mountains landscape is a significant driver for ecotourism and in encouraging people to live here and move here.  The value of that driver may be very comparable if not higher than the ecotourism potential of the newly established Organ Mountains - Desert Peaks National Monument a few miles north in New Mexico.  The protected mountain range is now estimated to contribute more than $7.4 million in additional annual economic activity in Las Cruces.   Every day that development in El Paso continues at its current rate, the potential of ecotourism as an economic driver decreases. 

Perhaps the current movement to protect natural resources in El Paso will trigger a new way of thinking about our future.   Let’s hope that local businesses and the community will demand change.  For more information on how you help visit franklinmountains.org. 

The Friday Video: Ecosystem Services

This should really be called Ecosystem Services 101. After watching this simple video, think about all the ways that El Paso compromises its ecosystem services and, thus, leaving a poorer world to our children and grand-children and our grand-children's grand-children. That's far too many generations to grasp for sprawlers and City Council members who want to short-sightedly sell land now managed by the PSB for a short-term fix to their budget problems. The video:

The Monday Links: Francis, Fracking, Foam and More

Friday (most of the time) is video day here on elpasonaturally. Daily I'm either running into interesting and informative pages or sites online or I receive links to online info and articles from many of you. So, Monday is going to become (most of the time) "Links Day" with links gathered over the past week (or so) to online "stuff" to read and sites to surf.

Please feel free to send me links to any conservation, environmental, simple living, city planning, energy and water, etc. stories that you have come across online. 

Here's the first batch:

Two stories on fracking:

Pope Francis Says No to Fracking
26 Earthquakes Later, Fracking's Smoking Gun Is in Texas


Ecology and Ecosystems:

Wetlands Ecosystem Services (cool EPA slide show in pdf form especially good for understanding why preserving and watering the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park is so critical for the El Paso region)


The Environment:

Rejoice! New York is the biggest city to ban foam packaging


Water:

What America's nutty demand for almonds is doing to California (not to mention what growing water guzzling pecan orchards and cotton in the Rio Grande valleys of El Paso is doing to us)


Add to Your Bookmarks:

YES! Magazine
On the Commons

Call for Action: Help the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park

Below is a letter from Sal Quintanilla, President of the Friends of the Rio Bosque. He is asking us to email PSB members and/or attend the PSB meeting on Wednesday, November 13. At issue is building a pipeline from the Bustamante treatment plant to the Rio Bosque in order to provide much needed irrigation. 


Dear Friends of the Rio Bosque,

You know what a wonderful place we have in the City of El Paso’s largest park – the 372-acre Rio Bosque Wetlands Park.   In 1997, a project intended to create wetland habitat was launched at this park to mitigate for impacts associated with building and operating the concrete-lined American Canal Extension next to the Rio Grande in El Paso.  The Rio Bosque is a tremendous asset to El Paso and could be more so, IF it only had water.  The El Paso Public Service Board (PSB) will decide whether to build a pipeline to bring effluent from the Bustamante Waste Water Treatment Plant (BWWTP) to water the Park.  You can check the PSB website on Friday 8 Nov for the agenda.  Please plan to attend the PSB meeting on Wednesday 13 Nov, starting at 8 am at 1154 Hawkins Blvd, El Paso, Texas and sign up to make public comments.  Also, please contact all PSB members to explain why El Paso should have a wet Rio Bosque Wetlands Park and urge them to vote “Yes”.  PSB members’ e-mails are below and additional background information is attached.

What would El Pasoans gain by having water in our Wetlands Park?  Instead of giving away 80 to 90 acre feet of effluent each day, for free, we could store that life-sustaining water in our own aquifer (see attached Malcolm Pirnie Arcadis Bullets).  Bird watchers and outdoor recreation enthusiasts would come from far and wide and Elpasonaturally estimates that the Rio Bosque could bring $18 million in Eco-Tourism dollars to El Paso.  Educational opportunities abound in a wetlands park where our youth can experience nature, be inspired to study Science and become more involved with our community.  Graduate level UTEP students could conduct aquatic research at the Park and bring grant money to our area.  El Paso Water Utilities is already world renowned for water conservation and education and could also be a shining example of how to restore wetland and riparian habitat in the desert. Ecosystem services provide a myriad of benefits to mankind including clean air, clean water, and esthetic, cultural and spiritual value.  Services provided by wetlands include stormwater storage, nutrient removal and climate regulation.  Using extremely conservative estimates by highly regarded researchers, Robert Costanza et al, the value of the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park ecosystem services would be over $1.7 million per year.  Please urge PSB members to bring these gains to El Paso by building the pipeline from the BWWTP to the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park enhancing this resource for future generations.

Sincerely,
Sal Quintanilla 
President, Friends of the Rio Bosque
915-778-0274

Name                                                 Email Address

Dr. Richard T. Schoephoerster           rschoephoerster@epwu.org
Ruth Katherine Brennand                   rkbrennand@epwu.org
Dr. David C. Nemir                              dcnemir@epwu.org
Dr. Richard C. Bonart                          rcbonart@epwu.org
Henry Gallardo                                    hgallardo@epwu.org
Terri Garcia                                          tgarcia@epwu.org
Mayor Oscar Leeser                             oleeser@epwu.org
President and CEO John Balliew         jeballiew@EPWU.org


Attachment:
Rio Bosque Bullet Points by Malcolm Pirnie Arcadis

LoBello Calls for Action to Protect El Paso Ecosystem

Rick LoBello

In response to my "Thank You, Supporters", Rick LoBello, El Paso Zoo Curator and author, sent this message to many in the El Paso environmental community about the value of our ecosystem and ecosystem services: 

Very well said Jim and I want to thank you for all you did in running the great race and for encouraging our community to take the next step.  I stand ready to support a petition to protect as much natural open space as possible.  El Paso needs to face up to the reality that we must take critical steps towards a sustainable future.  Those steps include taking necessary actions to help ensure that future generations will have the natural open space and life sustaining resources needed to maintain a high quality of life.  

Growth must be smart for the ecosystem, not just the pocket book.  We need a strong economy, but what kind of economy and quality of life will we have if most of the world surrounding us is devoid of natural landscapes.  We need native plants and soils to absorb the heat of the sun rather than all the new pavement and roads going up everywhere reflecting the heat back into the atmosphere. Native plants are also important to insects that provide pollination services and food for wildlife like nesting birds.  Did you know that few insects important to nesting birds feeding their young survive on exotic plants?

Protecting natural landscapes means helping to maintain fertile soil, filtering and cleaning the air we need to breathe, capturing C02 emissions from our vehicles and energy generation, and producing oxygen that we need to breathe. Simply put a diverse ecosystem cannot function as nature intended without all the parts intact.   

We need to make sure that our elected leaders understand the value of the ecosystem.  Those who create and implement future development plans must include the value of lost ecosystem services when evaluating development projects.  If they don’t know how they need to learn.  Our city and our country needs stronger mandates for the protection of the environment and your advocacy efforts are right on the mark.  As soon as the petition is ready I want to be one of the first to sign and to help others to sign as well.  What you have proposed in your blog is to me one of the most important issues facing our city today, after all, without a healthy natural environment nothing else matters.