Sign the change.org petition if you oppose this project at Big Bend National Park

December 13, 2013. Big Bend National Park staff sometime come up with crazy ideas on how to live up to the National Park Service mission. One employee several years ago was publicly supporting the idea of building a race car track just outside the park. Now someone has decided that the park needs a large structure to display plastic dinosaur bone replicas right in the heart of the park! This is a serious proposal now in the Environmental Assessment stage. One of the park employees leading the effort has said "displaying dinosaurs and other giant fossils, obviously requires a certain amount of space." Yes, that is true and Big Bend has exciting stories to tell, but there is no compelling reason to build a new structure in a largely undeveloped area just because a small group of people have decided to put their money together to make it happen. Big Bend is a national treasure preserving the last large tract of wilderness in Texas. We really need the public to come together and oppose unnecessary projects like this.

You can speak out against this government boondoggle by making an official comment using the Environmental Assessment public review process and/or by signing the new change.org petition. The comment period ends on December 23 - learn more on the park planning website. The change.org petition will be up as long as needed. Encourage your friends to join you by signing the change.org petition now!

Water Wars: U.S. Files Brief in Texas v. New Mexico Lawsuit

Mike Mecke emailed this news brief from Texas Agriculture Law Blog:

Breaking News: US Files Brief in Texas v. New Mexico Lawsuit

Posted: 11 Dec 2013 02:42 PM PST

The Solicitor General, on behalf of the United States, filed a 33-page brief today in the Supreme Court battle over water between Texas and New Mexico. In April, the Supreme Court requested input from the United States on whether it should grant Texas’ motion to file a complaint and hear the case.

Newspapers, including the Albuquerque Journal, are reporting that the brief takes a middle-ground approach by encouraging the Court to hear the case, but also by allowing New Mexico a chance of having the case dismissed early on in the litigation.  [Read article HERE.]  I have been unable to obtain a copy of the United States’ brief today, but will post a link as soon as one is available.

In the proposed lawsuit, Texas claims that New Mexico’s issuance of groundwater permits in southern New Mexico between the Elephant Butte Reservoir and the Texas state line is draining the Rio Grande and depriving Texas of the water that it is owed under the 1938 Rio Grande Compact.  New Mexico claims that the Compact requires only delivery into Elephant Butte, with which New Mexico has complied, and that it does not address groundwater pumping issues, which are a matter of purely state law.  To read a more detailed explanation of the dispute, click HERE.

Environmental Community Gives Thumbs Up with TxDOT Park Entrance Plan

Last evening at Canutillo High School, Regional Engineer Bob Bielek and his staff unveiled their plan for the new park entrance at the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park. You can review the plan on one of my previous blog posts HERE. The plan met with enthusiasm from a small but happy sample of the local outdoors, environmental/conservation, recreation and Master Naturalists community. Almost as soon as the meeting ended last evening the chatter on Facebook began and it is all positive.

During the first thirty minutes of the gathering, people reviewed pictures of the proposed underpass for hikers, bicyclists and animals as well as pictures of the entry and egress configurations for the park. There were a number of TxDOT and design engineers on hand to answer questions. Bielek also was on hand to answer questions and visit. He then informally addressed the gathering and explained safety and wildlife issues and park access issues. 

The point that I really want to make here is how comfortable the situation was. Two years ago the scene was totally different. Former Engineer Chuck Berry of TxDOT had plans and wasn't willing to listen. I remember well that as person after person came to the mike to speak about the need for connectivity between the two sides of the park, a workable animal corridor, etc., etc., Chuck and company sat at front and chatted among themselves. They weren't listening. Not only did Bielek's plans show that they listened and listened to wildlife experts such as Dr. Cesar Mendez and Lois Balin, but that they heard from hikers and mountain bikers and did their homework on safety issues.

Bielek discussed the traffic issues and satisfied the group assembled that a left turn into the park going east on Transmountain would still be safe whereas a left out of the park to go east would not be as safe as requiring a U-Turn of sorts. That U-turn (a right out of the park going west and a U-Turn at Resler) is not the perfect solution - but it sure is safer and it saves the park entrance from having an enormous scar of a concrete and asphalt entryway. The simple U-Turn versus an enormous exchange is, obviously, cheaper.

Bielek also explained the need to go after Denial of Access funds. The modificaitons at the entry are really not transportation issues but right of way issues. There is funding for ROW work and that is separate from the discretionary funds that he seemed to think would work earlier. The cost will be $1.5-2 Million. Some of the local politicians on hand seemed to think that there might be a way to get funding sooner than later. Whatever, Bielek now projects that the project can be done in 15 to 18 months from today or March to June 2015. 

Because of our previous experience with TxDOT and the former Engineer, it has been easy to expect the same level of duplicity and arrogance from Bielek. Bielek is a guy who likes to wear cowboy boots, visit with folks, get feedback while at the same time possessing the maddening trait that comes from believing that we are all subject to the laws of the Universe, Nature, physics, what have you. He's not a person who cares so much about policy. He's the kind of person who takes current policy as a given in the equation. Basically it is "here is what I can do for you folks - what we can do based on natural law and what the laws of the land will currently let me do." When at first he said that discretionary funds would do the trick, he wasn't trying to deceive just trying to figure out how it could work for the folks he serves.

The plans unveiled last night and the informal straight-talk of the Regional Engineer went a long way to heal a very fractured relationship between conservationists along with outdoors recreationalists and TxDOT here in El Paso. There are still serious institutional issues and there will always be that struggle for balance between environmental and economic values. But one thing is for sure - Bielek's TxDOT office knows what a real animal corridor looks like and knows that people enjoy hiking and bicycling in our beautiful Franklin Mountains. Now if we can just do something to convince them to be a bit more pro-bicycle . . . 

By the way, your comments are needed. At issue is what most of us have been saying all along: We need connectivity. The Transmountain expansion has cut off access between the two sides of the park. Hikers, bicyclists and animals need safe, attractive corridors. Right of way to the park must be safe. This plan does it. Email your comments to ELP-FMSParkEntrance@txdot.gov. If you prefer snail mail - okay - here it is:

Blanton & Associates
Attn: Connectivity at the Franklin Mountains State Park
5 Lakeway Centre Court
Suite 200 
Austin, TX 78734

El Paso Zoo sounds alarm about palm oil

Many people around the world are talking about palm oil and its negative effects on the environment.

Palm plantations like those in Southeast Asia are destroying rain forests at a very rapid rate to grow more palm trees.

As a result of this destruction, thousands of plant and animal species may be threatened with extinction including orangutans, tigers, rhinos and elephants.

The El Paso Zoo has been involved in educating the public about this threat for many years and most recently developed a palm oil guide and scanner application for smart phones and other iOS devices (http://elpasozoo.org/Press-Release-68.php).

The free Palm Oil Guide and Scanner app, sponsored by the El Paso Zoological Society, helps consumers in the United States find out what products contain palm oil so that they can make an informed decision, buying a product containing palm oil or a similar product without palm oil.

Organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace also are sounding the alarm about palm oil production and climate change.

Forest fires used to clear vegetation in the establishment of palm oil plantations are a source of carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change.

Now that the Food and Drug Administration is making steps to ban artificial trans fats from our food supply, many are predicting that the amount of palm oil in food products will increase because it is readily available to food manufacturers and is cheaper than other oils.

The American Heart Association is one of the groups that has pressured the FDA to move in the direction of banning artificial trans fats.

They also state on their website that there is a health concern with palm oil. The AHA website states, "When you must use oils for cooking, baking or in dressings or spreads, choose the ones lowest in saturated fats, trans fats and cholesterol -- including canola oil, corn oil, olive oil, safflower oil, sesame oil, soybean oil and sunflower oil. Stay away from palm oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil and cocoa butter. Even though they are vegetable oils and have no cholesterol, they're high in saturated fats."

The palm oil industry is trying to become sustainable, but should we also alert the public about the saturated fat health concern? If banning palm oil is not possible, we should at least require that products be labeled with a health warning as well as information indicating if the oil comes from a rainforest friendly and sustainable palm plantation where 100 percent of the oil is traceable.

Unfortunately, not all products today are clearly marked with the words "palm oil" or "palmitate" because of the nearly 50 other names used to describe how the oil is included in products (http://elpasozoo.org/docs/appfaq.pdf).

This fact makes it difficult for the consumer to remember all these names for palm oil and then choose to stay away from it.

The El Paso Zoo palm oil guide and scanner app helps to identify palm oil in many products, but not all products with palm oil are in the database.

If we can't avoid palm oil as an ingredient, how can we choose not to eat it?

Rick LoBello is education coordinator at the El Paso Zoo.

Personal Vendettas Toss Bonart from the PSB

City Council continues to be dominated by politics over policy. The reactionaries are in control. Democracy and progressivism continue to lose out. 

Today City Council voted 7-1 to keep Herr Shoephoerster on the PSB in spite of the fact that he knows something about pacemakers but not a thing about hydrology and stormwater. (Dr. John Walton, a hydrologist and engineer professor at UTEP would have been the better pick.) Schoephoerster is also the Chairman of the PSB and has been pushing for an anti-First Amendment Communications Policy in reaction to the loss of the boondoggle UTEP water project for the Engineering Department over which he dictates as Dean. It was Dr. Rick Bonart who saved us ratepayers from that boondoggle. (By the way, if you haven't, you should read David Crowder's excellent article in the El Paso Inc. about the Communication Policy. A pro-democratic, pro-constitutional document was agreed upon in committee because of the efforts of Dr. Bonart and Mayor Leeser. The entire PSB will vote on it tomorrow.) Niland moved to appoint Schoephoerster even before public comment. Dr. Walton was allowed to speak but those present reported that the members of City Council weren't even listening.

Then came the shameful vote on Bonart's seat. Emma Acosta led the charge against Dr. Bonart. She zeroed in on Bonart's recent organization of a town hall meeting at which the public could meet and hear from PSB candidates for appointment. The meeting was held at the County Building by permission of County Judge Veronica Escobar for no other reason than the fact that Bonart couldn't get an EPWU or City venue - believe it or not. Acosta hates Escobar. Acosta has no political principals only self-serving twitches. Never mind the fact that Bonart was doing something that should have been done all along - let us, the people of El Paso, meet the candidates and then give our input to our City Council reps. Even the resumes of the candidates were not something published on the EPWU web page (or the City page for that matter.) No matter how important the PSB is to and for the citizens of El Paso the good ol' boys and girls want to control the outcome. They don't want your input, people of El Paso. Reactionaries never do. They like their autocratic control too much. Sadly this is what El Paso voted for this last time around and I believe that Mayor Leeser is now beginning to see that those who grabbed on to his coattails are not worthy of his humanity. 

So Acosta ranted and raved and even those who had told others or Dr. Bonart that they would support him, didn't. They know who they are: Ann Lilly, Cortney Niland, Eddie Holguin and Lily Limon. Shame on every one of you for pledging one thing but doing another. The "L" word applies here and I don't mean "Liberal". They voted for Antcliff.

Say-nothing, do-nothing Romero will vote whichever way Ann Lilly or Bob Hoy or Myrna Deckert tells him to vote. I'm sure that he has his marching orders prior to coming to City Council. His imagination stretches only as far as picking up a coke can in a vacant lot. 

It will be interesting to see what the PSB does tomorrow with the Committee recommendation on the communications policy. Expect them to continue to do what the good ol' boys and girls tell them to do (and I include the entrenched establishment at EPWU) regarding stormwater funds. Money will continue to flow to shrubs and sod for park ponds and never for natural open space. It's lazy engineering and popular politics - but not good policy. Moreover, it will be interesting to see whether John Balliew has really been sincere about the pipeline to the Rio Bosque or whether he and others have been stalling to see if Bonart would be reappointed or not.

It will also be interesting to see whether Antcliff is as good of a person as many tell me that he is. Will he be independent? Will he think on his own? Or will he just do the bidding of the establishment which should be his wont as a Republican.

My gloves are now off and are going to stay off. If El Pasoans think that they were kept out of the decision about the ballpark, they should look very carefully at nearly everything that the establishment good ol' boys and girls do on Council and the PSB - and that establishment includes those who fooled all of you with their self-righteous indignation over the old City Hall building. 

Reactionary governments are not there to sustain communities with sound policy. They are there to scratch their own itches and will their own whims with their closed-door, behind the scenes, anti-democratic politics.

El Paso Can Benefit from Heritage Tourism

El Paso Can Benefit from Heritage Tourism 
by Jackson Polk

Things are changing all over El Paso, including how we market our historic assets.

It's all good, as the saying goes, and it's about to get even better.

Our region's rich and diverse history and heritage can help turn El Paso into a destination city that's world class.

Our history is unique because it is not one story, but many overlapping and interwoven stories, and many of the events that took place here are considered turning points in North American history.

Did you know there are dinosaur tracks near El Paso that were made 100 million years ago?

Have you been to Keystone Heritage Park, where ancient people lived in a village at least 5,000 years ago, making it one of the oldest settlements in North America?

For the centuries that followed, the riches of the Rio Grande helped sustain life for Native American tribes indigenous to the region.

In 1598, the Spanish came to the El Paso Rio Grande to colonize New Spain.

That event named our city, and set the stage for centuries of Spanish rule, integrating European ways with Native American traditions, building the country's oldest Mission Trail, and ultimately, the cultural foundation of the American Southwest.

El Paso had always been an important north-south route, but it's role in east-west travel grew in the 1840s with the California gold rush, followed by the arrival of the military and then the Indian wars.

But the Pass of the North exploded in the 1880s, when the railroads turned it into a hub of business and transportation.

The railroads also brought gamblers, gunslingers and houses of ill repute, as El Paso became the epicenter of the Wild Old West.

That's just some of our rich treasure trove of history -- so rich that if people knew about it, they would come to visit.

It's almost that easy.

But now we need to start telling them, as we take our rightful place in a growing industry sector called heritage tourism.

Heritage tourists are among the most desirable visitors to any city. And it's not just because they like and seek out locations with history.

It's also because they spend an additional $438 per day, over and above what a typical tourist spends, according to a recent survey by the Texas Historical Commission.

We have the history. Now we need to build and support the services, resources and infrastructure needed to make our rich history and historic treasures available and accessible for tourists.

An important step was taken last March when more than 400 people attended the first El Paso History Summit.

Organized by several local history groups, the summit included a town hall meeting that was streamed live online where people were able to share their views about what's important in El Paso history.

The good news is that another summit with even broader participation is planned for next March, this time called the El Paso Heritage Tourism Summit.

Again the El Paso History Radio Show will partner with the El Paso Heritage Alliance and the El Paso County Historical Commission to organize the summit, joined by the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau.

We are all on a common path to promote El Paso's rich heritage and history.

And there is so much history that I haven't mentioned: architecture, civil rights, Mexican Revolution, Hueco Tanks, geology, the mountains, archaeology.

And El Paso is the gateway to Mexico, as it becomes a good place to visit again.

Imagine what happens when all that is mixed with our world-class art museum, Triple-A baseball and Downtown events.

Tourists will able to choose from a multi-faceted menu of places to go and things to do.

Promoting El Paso's authentic nature can make it a destination city visited by tourists from around the world.

Documentary filmmaker Jackson H. Polk, an El Paso native, hosts a local radio show about El Paso history and makes TV documentaries about the region's history and heritage. www.EPHistory.com

e what a typical tourist spends, according to a recent survey by the Texas Historical Commission.

We have the history. Now we need to build and support the services, resources and infrastructure needed to make our rich history and historic treasures available and accessible for tourists.

An important step was taken last March when more than 400 people attended the first El Paso History Summit.

Organized by several local history groups, the summit included a town hall meeting that was streamed live online where people were able to share their views about what's important in El Paso history.

The good news is that another summit with even broader participation is planned for next March, this time called the El Paso Heritage Tourism Summit.

Again the El Paso History Radio Show will partner with the El Paso Heritage Alliance and the El Paso County Historical Commission to organize the summit, joined by the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau.

We are all on a common path to promote El Paso's rich heritage and history.

And there is so much history that I haven't mentioned: architecture, civil rights, Mexican Revolution, Hueco Tanks, geology, the mountains, archaeology.

And El Paso is the gateway to Mexico, as it becomes a good place to visit again.

Imagine what happens when all that is mixed with our world-class art museum, Triple-A baseball and Downtown events.

Tourists will able to choose from a multi-faceted menu of places to go and things to do.

Promoting El Paso's authentic nature can make it a destination city visited by tourists from around the world.

Documentary filmmaker Jackson H. Polk, an El Paso native, hosts a local radio show about El Paso history and makes TV documentaries about the region's history and heritage. www.EPHistory.com 

Plan a winter trip to Bosque Del Apache NWF

Sunrise at Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge - 3 hours north of El Paso, by Rick LoBello
CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER PICTURE

At the El Paso Zoo a male Sandhill Crane named Frazier lives on the north side of the American Lands Exhibit along with a pair of javelinas and a small colony of bolson tortoises. Frazier is one of nearly 10,000 Sandhill Cranes living within a three hour drive of El Paso. You could say that he is a local “Ambassador for Birds of the North”. Most sand hill cranes live in the far northern and Arctic regions of the continent during the greater part of the year. They migrate south to our warmer climes during the months of November to February.

Continued