Go Birding This Saturday

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Our El Paso/Trans-Pecos Audubon Society has scheduled another birding outing for this coming Saturday, July 8, 2017. Join them for a field trip to the Animas Creek Area west of Caballo Lake. This area contains the only Arizona Sycamores east of the Continental Divide. The Brown-crested Flycatcher nests here. You may also see Summer Tanagers, Yellow-breasted Chats and Cassin's Kingbird. 

Bring a lunch and plenty of water.  They will depart at 6:00AM from the southwest corner of the parking lot at the El Paso Outlet Mall at I10 and Transmountain (Talbot Rd. entrance to the Mall).  Contact Mark Perkins at 915-637-03521 for more information.

Arizona Sycamore

Elpasonaturally will continue promoting the El Paso Auduboners and their outings. There are many benefits to birding besides just getting outdoors and observing animal behavior rather than electronic behavior. It also means interacting with other people. Oh my! I Googled Benefits of Birdwatching and got this long list of entries.

From HealthFitnessRevolution there are 10 listed:

1. Appreciation for Nature
2. Patience
3. Contemplation and Introspection
4. Quick Reflexes
5. Mental Alertness
6. Cardiovascular Health
7. Sense of Community
8. Acceptance
9. Travel
10. Increases Upper Arm Strength

The El Paso/Trans-Pecos Audubon Society goes birding around El Paso and on field trips such as the one this Saturday.

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.

More Mule Deer Sightings

I love these animals. A reader who lives near Temple Mt. Sinai just north of Crazy Cat mountain took these pictures. These are probably the same mule deer that were recently spotted at the Palisades. 

Mule deer are browsers who like lower branches of trees, grasses and shrubbery. They need range which is why it is so critical that any development around the Franklins respects their and other animal's habitat. By the way, their mating season is about to begin.

Click image to enlarge.

At the very right hand bottom of the map is the Palisades. About 45° northwest of there is the Synagogue and just below that is Canterbury Dr. along an arroyo. The animals have also been seen at the Camelot Condominiums just to the north of Temple Mt. Sinai.

Our Franklin Mountains are the home of an abundance of animal (and plant) species. Tomorrow, the local Audubon Society is leading a birding trip from the Museum of Archaeology as part of Celebration of Our Mountains. Join them. You may see more than just birds.

Get outside!

Just Don't Tell Chuy

Click on images to enlarge.

This past Friday Mark Perkins saw a Swallow-tailed Kite around 8:00 a.m. across the street from his house in El Paso's Upper Valley.  Janet Perkins says: "We have been told this is the 2nd confirmed sighting of this species in El Paso County.  It is being seen by others in the Upper Valley on Westside Drive and Gomez Rd. flying with Mississippi Kites.  When flying, it is black and white with a beautiful swallow tail." Pictures are courtesy of Mark and Janet Perkins.

For further reading:

Swallow-tailed Kite

El Paso/Trans-Pecos Audubon Society

Rick LoBello Receives Audubon Conservation Award

El Paso Zoo Animal Curator, John Kiseda, presents Conservation Award to Rick LoBello

Last Saturday, Rick LoBello received the El Paso/Trans-Pecos Audubon Society Conservation Award.  The citation reads:

Be it known that
Rick LoBello
has richly earned this certificate of conservation achievement in recognition of his tireless, dedicated work to conserve wildlife locally, nationally and internationally; to foster greater public awareness and appreciation of the Paso del Norte environment; and to promote protection of lands that possess, in their natural state, high human and ecological value.

Rick is the Education Curator at the El Paso Zoo.  He is also a prolific promoter of environmental and conservation efforts in and around El Paso and the Trans-Pecos region as well as the world.  Rick has been a park ranger and a research scientist and administrator.  He has worked in the Big Bend National Park and North Luangwa National Park in Zambia.  

Visit I Love Parks.com and join Rick's Conservation Action Network (CAN). Also visit and like Share El Paso with Native Plants and Animals and Rick LoBello on Facebook.

Return to the Bedrock Mortars

Check out  El Paso Hiking Group for a number of great upcoming hikes including three this weekend. Also go to Guadalupe Mountains National Park Meetup Group.  Remember also the Las Cruces & El Paso Adventurists.

One great place to find trail maps is at the Borderland Mountain Bike Association site. Many of the trails that we enjoy hiking were “constructed” by the BMBA. Also go to GeoBetty.com for great maps. While at GeoBetty, check out the Peak Fitness Challenge and sign up. Several of the hikes at FMSP are official peak challenge hikes. Check out the August schedule.

Speaking of BMBA trails, on Thursday, August 9, at 7 p.m. sharp we will do the Bedrock Mortars Hike. This hike includes following a lovely, narrow arroyo farther into the Franklin Mountain State Park and looping back to where we started. A bedrock mortar is a circular depression in rock used by ancient people to grind grain or other food products. The number of such mortars at this location suggests that the grinding was a communal activity. Very easy, scenic and fun. Bring at least a liter of water. Remember sunscreen and a hat.  Meet in the parking lot on the south end of Chuck Heinrich Park at the end of Jon Cunningham just off MLK in NE El Paso.  Plan to be there before 7 a.m. We will leave promptly and not wait for anyone after 7.

Since we will be in the Franklin Mountains State Park there is a $5 per person fee collected at the Iron Ranger at the trail head. The fee goes to the maintenance and program of the park and is well worth it. You can purchase a Texas State Parks Pass but it requires a visit to the FMSP headquarters in McKelligon Canyon. The TPWD has yet to learn that there is such a thing as purchasing conveniently online and probably could collect much, much more if they became just a tad more technologically savvy.

Join the El Paso Trans-Pecos Audubon Society tomorrow,  Saturday, August 4, 2012 for a trip to the Reservoirs Down the Valley.  You will travel down I10 east to visit the Reservoirs of McNary, Ft. Hancock and Tornillo.  Possible sightings will be Western & Clark's Grebes, Eared Grebes, pelicans, gulls, egrets, sandpipers, cormorants, herons and ducks of many species.  Meet at 6:30 a.m. at the parking lot at Burlington Coat Factory, at 1144 N. Yarbrough.  Exit at Yarbrough.  At the light, turn left under I10.  Burlington is on the right.  Bring a lunch, water and sun block.  Open to the public.  For more information contact Mark at 637-3521.

Finally, if you like this e-letter, please forward to all your friends. The El Paso Hiker tries to present in one place what you can get only by visiting multiple sites or receiving multiple emails. If you aren’t  a subscriber, please reply to this email and ask to be added to the list. Please also visit elpasonaturally and join that email list too.

Excelsior!

Jim H. Tolbert

Publisher, Elpasonaturally and the El Paso Hiker

Leading the way for sustainable living in the El Paso Southwest

jimhtolbert@elp.rr.com
www.elpasonaturally.blogspot.com

Get your friends and family outdoors in this beautiful part of the Chihuahuan Desert. Forward this message to them and suggest that they subscribe.

This email message is written and published by Jim Tolbert who takes sole responsibility for the content of the letter. To subscribe or unsubscribe, just reply to jimhtolbert@elp.rr.com and say “Unsubscribe Hikers”.

"A million tax-free dollars would probably tempt me to divulge your email address.

However, know that your privacy is safe with me . . . Nobody has offered me the million yet.”

The El Paso Hiker E-Letter Volume 2, No. 22, August 3, 2012

Join the Peak Fitness Challenge

Tomorrow, June 20^th, 5:09 p.m. the sun will be as far north as it will be for 2012. It’s the solstice – the sun stillness – as it seems to hover above for a couple more days in this northernmost reach. On Thursday, June 21, sunrise will occur at 6:01 a.m. Go outside just before that time and mark how far north of Cerro Alto the sun rises. Mark that spot and remember it. Perhaps like Naturalist, Donald Culross Peattie “[o]n this, the summer solstice [you] would enjoy lighting bonfires to the sun. . .”

On Thursday something very special is set to begin: Peak Fitness Challenge! Along with the Franklin Mountains State Park, the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and GeoBetty.com, Texas Mountain Trail is launching a fun hiking challenge called the PEAK FITNESS CHALLENGE! Learn more at their web site as well as on their special Facebook page. Participate!

For walkers, the City of El Paso has begun a program called Move El Paso and has mapped out four short-distance walking courses so far: Downtown, the Segundo Barrio, the Mexican Consulate, and the Medical Center.

Remember that Scenic Drive is closed every Sunday morning from 6 to 11 a.m.  It’s a 4.1 mile hike from one side to the other and back. This walk takes in a dazzling panorama of El Paso and Juarez and a display of 500 million year old fossils! It’s a good recreational walk and can be done in an hour and a half. Join me at 7 a.m. this coming Sunday at the west entrance to the Drive (the intersection of Robinson, Rim and Scenic). Rumor has it that there will be some geology talk along the way.

Due to fires and the closing of some areas in the Glenwood area, the Auduboners are changing their Gila Wilderness trip this weekend (June 22-24).  They will be going to the Silver City area instead and will plan to bird Cherry Creek, Signal Peak, the Lake Roberts area, Gila  River and Cliff Dwellings, Nature Conservatory in Mimbres, the Big Ditch in Silver City, and the Gila River bird habitat area.  Those going may see  Red-faced Warbler, Bridled Titmouse, Painted Redstart, Broad tailed Hummingbird, Western Scrub-Jay, Pinyon Jay, Indigo and Lazuli Buntings, among others.  Field leader, Mark Perkins, will be camping at the Cherry Creek Campground.  The campgrounds are open and fires are allowed in the Forest Service pits or camp stoves.  For those who do not want to camp, there are motels in Silver City and cabins in Pinos Altos.  Those wishing to go on this trip need to let Mark know before this Friday, June 22. Contact Mark Perkins at 637-3521 or mperkins4@elp.rr.com.   They will send you itineraries upon request.

Keep an eye on all hikes posted through the El Paso Hiking Meet up Group and check out the June schedule of hikes in the Franklin Mountains State Park.

Finally, Insights Science Museum now has the Marty Martin fossil exhibit.  Eric Kappus says, “Go check it out!” So . . . go check it out.

Excelsior!

New Hike, Bike and Birding Events

The Sunrise Hikers group of the El Paso Hikers is back (although they are hiking a bit after sunrise).

Join veteran hiking legend, John Moses, on Tuesday, May 15^th, at 7:40 a.m. at the Franklin Mountains State Park headquarters in McKelligon Canyon.  (Map)  We will leave most vehicles there and then carpool to the Stoney Hill Trailhead for a hike up the Stoney Hill Arroyo over the ridge into McKelligon Canyon.

On Thursday, May 17^th, do the Schaeffer Shuffle in the Tom Mays Unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park. Plan to meet at 7:00 a.m. sharp at the park entrance (map). Pay your $2 Sunrise Hiker fee. We will go to the trailhead and do the shuffle. This is a moderate hike on good trails and can be enjoyed by the beginning hiker. Expect 2 hours. The toughest part is ascending the hill back to the parking lot/picnic site at the end of the hike. We will not be in a hurry and nobody will be left behind. Hikers will be able to identify some plant species and perhaps see Mule Deer. Any geocachers may want to do a quick side trip to find the geocache along the way. 

The El Paso Ridgewalkers, the  El Paso Hiking Meet-up and the Las Cruces Hiking Meet-up  have some great hikes coming up as well including a Tramway Trails hike and a Geocache Hike this Saturday as well as a difficult Palisades arroyo hike this Sunday.

By the way, consider purchasing a Texas State Park Pass for just $70. When we return to the park headquarters on Tuesday is a good time to do so. Also consider a donation to help your parks.

Join the Audubon Society this Saturday, May 12^th  for a birding trip to Memorial Park and Arroyo Park.  The Warbler migration is in full swing and Warblers, Vireos and Orioles have been seen at Memorial Park.  Meet at 7:00 a.m. at the Garden Center at 3105 Grant and  bird Memorial Park first.  Then move on to Arroyo Park where you might see Flycatchers, Gambel's Quail and possibly Tanagers.  Nonmembers and beginners are always welcome.  Contact Mark at 637-3521 or mperkins4@elp.rr.com for more information.

May is National Bike month and the City of El Paso has a number of activities to honor the month. (Fortunately, elpasonaturally has posted these events as you will search in vain on the City web site for anything about it.)

The Adventure Cycling Association has blogged about some great trails in Far West Texas. Be sure to visit Texas Mountain Trails and their daily photo blog and see some great videos. Bicyclers: learn about the El Paso Uplands Loop.

Of course, there is great biking (and walking and jogging) on Scenic Drive since it is closed every Sunday morning from 6 to 11 a.m.  It’s a 4.1 mile hike from one side to the other.

The El Paso Bicycle Club is now a meet-up site.

The Guadalupe Mountains National Park wants your input on enhancing the usage of the Salt Basin Dunes Area.

Check out the American Hiking Society.  They offer Volunteer Vacations – 3 this summer in New Mexico. Get all the facts and details.

Finally, we may need to change the name of this e-letter from El Paso Hikers to something that suggests what we are truly becoming – a publication that gives information about a myriad of ways to enjoy our great El Paso region outdoors including hiking, walking, biking, birding and more. Any suggestions?

Excelsior!

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

Tin Mines Hike Tomorrow

At entrance to Franklin Mountain Tin Mines

There are some really cool hikes coming up.  As always, I suggest that you visit and bookmark El Paso Hiking Meet-up and the Las Cruces Hiking Meet-up as well as the Ocotillo Hikers of Las Cruces for schedules of great hikes. Join the El Paso and Las Cruces meet-up groups so that you receive email about hikes as soon as they are scheduled.

Tomorrow, Saturday, January 7^th plan to hike to the only Tin Mines ever in the United States. They are located in the northeast Franklins. The hike begins at 8 a.m. Get details here including where to meet. The El Paso Tin Mining and Smelting Company operated in the northeast Franklins from 1909 until 1915 when it was shut down for lack of productive ore. 

Also tomorrow is a hike in Fillmore Canyon at Dripping Springs in the Organ Mountains. Go to the El Paso Hiking Meet-up description for the details.

The El Paso/Trans Pecos Audubon Society is planning the annual trip to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge to see ducks, cranes, geese and other birds and wildlife. (Map) Mark and Janet Perkins will be at the Refuge on Friday, January 13^th,  for those who want to join them that day.  Those who arrive on Saturday will meet at 1:00 p.m. at the Refuge Visitor's Center.  There are also plans for a trip to the Sandia Mountains for the Rosy Finch banding (weather permitting).  Beginners and nonmembers are welcome.  Please RSVP as soon as possible.  Reservations are required for this trip.  There is a detailed Itinerary available upon request.  Contact Mark at 637-3521 or mperkins4@elp.rr.com.

Every Sunday is Scenic Sunday at Scenic Drive from 7 a.m. to Noon. Walk, run or bicycle this 4.1 mile round trip of panoramic views and 500 million-year-old fossils. Also, get to know the El Paso Zoo. If you visit all of the exhibits on this fabulous 35 acres, you will walk a mile. Keep track of Zoo Events.

Excelsior!

FeatherFest Saturday!

Click image to enlarge.

Judy Ackerman Receives Audubon's Conservation Award

Judy paraphrases John Sproul's words as she accepts the award: "Every conservation victory is temporary."

Environmental and political activist, Judy Ackerman, received this year's Conservation Award from the El Paso/Trans-Pecos Audubon Society this past Saturday. The award was given during the Society's annual dinner which was held at Jaxon's on Airway. In announcing the award, the Audubon newsletter called Judy a "local human rights activist and conservationist" who was being presented the award "for her dedication and hard work to make El Paso a better place to live and more conservation-minded."

Often I hear understatements and appreciate them. However, Judy is nonpareil in her work to preserve natural open space and habitat in El Paso while, at the same time, speaking out for human justice.

Sunrise Hikers, Judy Ackerman and Tommy Young, enjoy the view from atop Ranger Peak after a climb up the Directissimo and Jackaloop Trails.

I cannot say when I first met Judy or her husband, Jamie. They were just always part of the "conservation/progressive milieu." She was there at Master Naturalists, the Native Plant Society, the Cactus and Rock Club, Celebration of Our Mountains meetings and events, and a regular among our Sunrise Hikers. I probably began using the term "usual suspects" to describe our conservation community because Judy's was the picture on that Most Wanted poster.

One of my earliest memories of Judy was her fight against the construction of the border wall being built along our precious river - especially where that wall cut off the Rio Bosque from the Rio Grande. It wasn't just a human rights issue that inspired Judy to sit down in front of God, bulldozers and the Texas Rangers, it was betrayal of an ecosystem, a fracture in the gene pool of species who belong as much to this land as we do. Her civil disobedience did not stop the billions of dollars wasted on a fence that people now just climb over. It did bring a whole bunch of us together and inspired us to care more deeply about the borderless Chihuahuan Desert in which we live and move and have our being. (Read more here and here.)

Judy's tireless work makes each annual Poppy Festival more successful than the last.

Judy is the expert about the preservation of Castner Range (map) as natural open space with the goal of eventually incorporating it into the largest North American urban park: the Franklin Mountains State Park. She was a major force in the preservation of Arroyo 41A - the Mountain to River Trail and for bringing together people who held contrasting opinions at FMWC-sponsored Stakeholder meetings. (The City of El Paso Department of Parks and Recreation just never seemed to be able or to desire to put together such meetings to help save that precious arroyo. Judy did it as a one-woman show.) She has worked hard with the petition drives to save the Scenic Transmountain Corridor. She is endlessly teaching others about the flora on our hikes and she is the guardian angel of the poppies that pop all over Castner Range in the spring. Some of us bushwhack from time to time - but she is quick to remind us of the environmental hazards our adventures might cause. A retired Sergeant Major, she once lectured each and every member of an entire platoon of soldiers for their taking an off-trail shortcut up an arroyo in the State Park.

Judy is often there at Open Space Advisory Board meetings, City Council and League of Women Voters - just to mention a few. She is always a willing volunteer at the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Association booth at numerous venues including Ardovino's Desert Crossing Farmers Market. She keeps us all informed in her emails about announcements, events, timely articles and more. She indeed serves to make our City a better place - and I've never heard her despair or complain.

I suggest that the local Audubon Chapter would do well to rename their annual award "the Judy Ackerman Conservation Award". Future recipients will proudly proclaim: "I won the Judy Ackerman!"

Charlie Wakeem Receives Audubon Conservation Award

John Sproul presents the Conservation Award to Charlie Wakeem while Audubon Chapter President, Lucretia Chew, looks on (Photo courtesy of Bob Johnson)

This past Saturday evening (February 20, 2010) Charlie Wakeem received the Conservation Award from the El Paso/Trans-Pecos Audubon Society at their Annual Awards Banquet held at Jaxon's on Airway.

The local chapter of the Audubon Society presents the Conservation Award each year to someone who actively promotes conservation in the El Paso, Texas area. That person is someone who stands out as a "voice of conservation".

Wakeem has been a leading crusader for land conservation and open space in the City of El Paso. He is currently the Chairman of the City of El Paso Open Space Advisory Board - a board that directly advises the Mayor and City Council. Charlie is also on the board of the Frontera Land Alliance. The preserve in Resler Canyon bears his name: the Wakeem-Teschner Nature Preserve at Resler Canyon.

Past recipients have included UTEP professors Wynn Anderson, Richard Teschner and John Sproul. Peter Beste of the El Paso Cactus and Rock Club has also been a recipient.

During Saturday's dinner and ceremony, Audubon member, Janet Perkins, received the Meritorious Service Award in recognition of her service benefiting the Society and nature.

Frontera Land Alliance President Mike Gaglio will speak at the next meeting of the El Paso/Trans Pecos Audubon Society which will be held on Monday, March 22, 2010 at 7 p.m. at the EPCC Rio Grande Campus, 100 West Rio Grande, Building 4010, Room 119. Mike will describe various ways land is conserved and introduce the audience to Frontera - the El Paso area's only 501(c)3 land trust whose mission is to preserve land in West Texas and southern New Mexico.

Clockwise from far left: Charlie Wakeem, Diane Wakeem, Helen Cooke, Jim Tolbert, Jamie Ackerman, Judy Ackerman (Photo courtesy of Bob Johnson)