Untruths Continue to Circulate about Conservation Easements

From a story (Saving water, preserving land) by Colin McDonald in today's San Antonio Express-News, is this strategy for ensuring clean water:

"Levels of a colorless solvent that the Environmental Protection Agency links to liver damage and possibly cancer recently spiked in a monitoring well of the Edwards Aquifer on San Antonio's North Side.

"San Antonio's only defense against this and other pollution reaching its production wells is dilution from the clean water flowing into the aquifer from the rural land west of the city.

"To ensure that there is clean water entering the aquifer, the city's Edwards Aquifer Protection Program is about to spend an additional $90 million from a voter-approved one-eighth-cent sales tax to buy conservation easements over the aquifer's recharge zone. So far, the program has spent $135 million from the tax, protecting more than 90,000 acres."

The italicized letters are my emphasis.


San Antonio has had this enlightened, progressive program going for a number of years now. When the President of El Paso's Frontera Land Alliance, Mike Gaglio, urged Mayor John Cook and EPWU/PSB CEO Ed Archuleta to consider a similar approach in El Paso, his response was no response. Gaglio tells us:

"A few years ago I sent an email to Ed Archuleta and Mayor Cook about San Antonio's Conservation Easement Purchase Program and urged them to consider something similarly progressive in El Paso.  I never received a response.   It would be nice to talk to them about this and use it to demonstrate the excellent use of CEs by public entities for the purposes of water protection.  Frontera has contacts and maintains regular dialogue with the folks that actually put this program into place."

Again, emphasis is mine.

One of the principal stumbling blocks for finally bringing the protection of the Scenic Corridor to completion is the issue of a conservation easement. Petitioners asked that land in the NW Master Plan be preserved in perpetuity as natural open space along with some other requests. Many, but not all, petitioners are at least willing to see a scenario presented by Dover Kohl and approved by City Council as a compromise plan just as long as arroyos are preserved and natural open space (including the arroyos) are preserved in perpetuity. 

From the very beginning of working out "compromise" there has been a steady misrepresentation of conservation easements by PSB (and elpasonaturally believes) City attorneys. Hired PSB gun, Risher Gilbert, made some inaccurate claims publicly especially that municipally owned lands can never be under a conservation easement. In fact there are examples of such all over the country and in Texas and in El Paso: Thunder Canyon.

Now there are a new set of blatant untruths about the conservation easement process making the rounds in an effort to assure that the final legal product employed is one by which the City and/or PSB maintains control enough over the land to take it out of preservation at a time of its own choosing. 

The lies (and let's not mince words) go like this: Frontera Land Alliance is broke. Their management fees are too high. They have no back-up plan should  they indeed go broke. In an email, Charlie Wakeem, Treasurer of Frontera, repied:

1. Frontera "isn't" in the red!!!!  I should know.  I'm the Treasurer.  There's over $100k in the bank and no liabilities.   
2. Frontera has no management fee for CEs.  There are costs associated with starting up the CE, such as a survey, appraisal, attorney's fees, title search, and an environmental assessment.  Those costs can be negotiated between the Grantor and Grantee.  After the conservation easement is in place, the land trust solicits donations for an endowment to manage the terms of the CE, and not management of the land.  The property owner may or may not choose to donate to the endowment.
3. What happens to the CE if Frontera folds?  The CE runs with the land and another land trust would take over, and could be specified in the CE document, but is optional.

That's the truth. The question is whether members of City Council will hear it or be led by those who really don't want to give up control of the natural open space in question. Just look at Blackie Chesher Park - land given with the clear, unequivocal understanding that the land be used as a public park. In attempt to undermine that perpetual desire, the PSB and the City seem to have problems coming up with a proper deed and cannot even answer Rep. Eddie Holguin's questions. 

One more question: what possibly can be accomplished by spending tens of thousands of taxpayer and rate payer dollars to come up with something that a conservation easement already does? Answer: the top brass will spend your money ad infinitum to get their bloody way.

Even as River Water Returns, EPWU Urges Conservation

The El Paso Water Utilities/Public Service Board just issued this press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                    June 5, 2012 Even as river water returns, EPWU urges conservation Utility calls on customers to resume two-day-a-week voluntary watering schedule

EL PASO – El Paso Water Utilities has resumed treatment of river water at two plants that were shut down when the Rio Grande ran dry in May. “El Pasoans worked together to answer our call for conservation and avoided mandatory water restrictions during a critical two-week period,” said EPWU President and CEO Ed Archuleta, “but we mustn’t let our guard down. Even though there’s water in the river, it’s not going to be nearly as much as we get in a typical year.” EPWU is asking residential customers to resume voluntary outdoor watering on only two days per week and only on designated days. •    Even-numbered addresses: Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. •     Odd-numbered addresses: Wednesday, Friday or Sunday. •     Before 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m. Additionally, EPWU has adjusted its goal for daily water use. The utility is seeking to keep city-wide use below 145 million gallons per day. Daily updates can be found on the front page of the El Paso Times, at Facebook.com/EPWater and by following @EPWater on Twitter. “While this critical period has passed, drought conditions continue across the Rio Grande watershed,” Archuleta said. “Since the drought is not expected to end anytime soon, now is the time to adopt the ‘Less is the New More’ lifestyle. “It’s about conserving water, saving money and living more responsibly in the Chihuahuan Desert.” El Paso Water Utilities has a complete water conservation guide at LessIsMoreEP.org. A similar “Less is the New More” guide was mailed to EPWU customers with the May bill. ###

More Austinites drilling private wells to water lawns

More Austinites drilling private wells to water lawns

CoCoRaHS - Join the Rain Gauge Brigade

"Storm" copyright by and courtesy of Mike Hardiman, NOAA

If you have an interest in rain and drought -- and the effects they have on our environment here in the Borderland, then CoCoRaHS is for you!  CoCoRaHS is the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow network, essentially a network of volunteer precipitation observers.  Armed with standardized 4" diameter rain gauges, these volunteers take daily measurements of precipitation in their own backyards, and share their data via the internet.  The data is then used by meteorologists and hydrologists to assess Flash Flooding potential, initialize river forecast models, and map out and study regional rainfall patterns.  During dry weather, even "zero precipitation reports" are useful for assessing the areal extent of drought and its impacts. To join, all you need is daily access to the internet, and a standardized rain gauge.  The gauges can be purchased for about $28 through the cocorahs.org website.  Occasionally, the regional coordinator has a few gauges to give away to serious observers.  CoCoRaHS is volunteer-friendly -- if you're out-of-town, you can send in multi-day accumulation reports when you return.  The goal is to create a spatially-dense network of observations so that a few missing reports are more tolerable.  

"CoCoRaHS people"

For more information on joining CoCoRaHS, you can visit the El Paso Area CoCoRaHS Page (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/epz/?n=cocorahsEPZ), or the national CoCoRaHS page (http://www.cocorahs.org/).  Or, you can send an email to one of the regional coordinators: Mike Hardiman in West Texas (mike.hardiman@noaa.gov), and Dave DuBois (dwdubois@nmsu.edu) or Alberta  Morgan (mitzisami@yahoo.com) in New Mexico.

San Antonio ‘Tree Guy’ Michael Nentwich: We Need to Plant One Million Trees

San Antonio ‘Tree Guy’ Michael Nentwich: We Need to Plant One Million Trees


Please read the article above.  It is just more food for thought as we get ready for the El Paso Parks and Recreation Master Plan update meetings:

The City of El Paso is updating the Department of Parks & Recreation’s Parks Master Plan, which is their main guide for what they do. The current leadership at Parks and Recreation is narrow minded and focused primarily on turf, club sports and senior citizen bingo. Conservation, preservation of eco-systems, learning about nature and natural open space are nether regions of monsters and abyss beyond their flat earth thinking.  There will be two meetings to present recommendations and receive public input on the Parks Master Plan. Please make plans to attend either meeting and provided your input for parks in El Paso.  Meetings are this Thursday, June 7^th at 6 p.m. and Saturday, June 9^th at 10 a.m. Both will be held at the El Paso Museum of Art, 1 Arts Festival Plaza, off Santa Fe Street downtown. (Map) Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition President Scott Cutler says, “In addition to more natural open space parks for people to participate in and learn about nature, there are a number of other new concepts for parks that the Parks and Recreation Department should consider.”  Dave Wilson of the Borderland Mountain Bike Association wrote: “I'll be attending the one on Thursday evening.  Hopefully I'll be able to present some ideas for Chuck Heinrich Park in regards to safe access, more parking, etc. for the mountain bikers and hikers trying to access the state park.” Please read some thoughts about the Master Plan at elpasonaturally.  Also read a great article from the April 2012 Parks and Recreation magazine. You can see the current Master Plan online.

Two Beginners Hikes This Week

Hikers, Mountain Bikers, Birders, Conservationists, Etc.: The City of El Paso is updating the Department of Parks & Recreation’s Parks Master Plan, which is their main guide for what they do. The current leadership at Parks and Recreation is narrow minded and focused primarily on turf, club sports and senior citizen bingo. Conservation, preservation of eco-systems, learning about nature and natural open space are nether regions of monsters and abyss beyond their flat earth thinking.  There will be two meetings to present recommendations and receive public input on the Parks Master Plan. Please make plans to attend either meeting and provided your input for parks in El Paso.  Meetings are this Thursday, June 7^th at 6 p.m. and Saturday, June 9^th at 10 a.m. Both will be held at the El Paso Museum of Art, 1 Arts Festival Plaza, off Santa Fe Street downtown. (Map) Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition President Scott Cutler says, “In addition to more natural open space parks for people to participate in and learn about nature, there are a number of other new concepts for parks that the Parks and Recreation Department should consider.”  Dave Wilson of the Borderland Mountain Bike Association wrote: “I'll be attending the one on Thursday evening.  Hopefully I'll be able to present some ideas for Chuck Heinrich Park in regards to safe access, more parking, etc. for the mountain bikers and hikers trying to access the state park.” Please read some thoughts about the Master Plan at elpasonaturally.  Also read a great article from the April 2012 Parks and Recreation magazine. You can see the current Master Plan online.

Here’s a great beginners hike on an easy trail in the NE Franklins: 3 mile North Hills Hike, Thursday, June 7, at 7 a.m. Meet at parking lot of Chuck Heinrich Park (Map). The parking lot is at the end of Jon Cunningham Blvd. just west off of MLK off the Patriot Freeway in NE El Paso. There are a number of good mountain bike/hiking trails in the area including one that goes to the Tin Mines. We will walk along the dam and then take a trail toward the mountain. The elevation gain is a gradual 300-400 foot gain. We will be gone no more than 1.5 to 2 hours. This is an enjoyable walk/hike on good trails with lush vegetation as the result of spring rains. If you are a birder, this is a good event for you as well so plan to bring your binoculars. Everyone should bring good hiking footwear, use sunscreen and wear a hat, and bring plenty of water – at least a liter.

On Saturday, June 9^th, there will be a beginners hike at 7 a.m. We will do the Upper Sunset Trail at the Tom Mays Unit of the FMSP the easy way. Meet at the gate to the Park (map). We will take some cars to the parking lot at the end of the trail and ride together to the north end, top of the trail. This really is a beginners hike with a good trail, not a great elevation gain. It is only a 1.5 mile hike one-way in the easy direction. We will plan to do the Upper Sunset from south to north another time. But for now this is perfect for those of you who have been wanting a beginning hike on a weekend. Also, this will give us all time to get to Ardovino’s Farmers Market for a brunch or a breakfast burrito. Remember your canvas shopping bags for your vegetables, herbs, eggs and such.

Join the local Auduboners for a bird watching trip to Rio Bosque Park, a local 4 to 5 hour trip to El Paso's lower valley.  Possible sightings will be Painted Bunting, Burrowing Owls, Harris's Hawk, White-tailed Kite.  Open to the public.  Meet at 7:00 a.m. at the bridge crossing the Riverside Canal.  Directions from I10: take Americas Avenue, which is Loop 375.  Don't use access road, stay on Loop 375 to Pan American Drive, turn left on Pan American Dr. and go 1-1/2 miles.  Contact Mark Perkins at 637-3521 or mperkins4@elp.rr.com.

Keep an eye on all hikes posted through the El Paso Hiking Meet up Group including another Palisades Sunset Hike this Wednesday.

Do check out the June schedule of hikes in the Franklin Mountains State Park.

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. 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.

Check out this sensational new El Paso restaurant: Tom’s Folk Café at 204 Boston Avenue in the Cincinnati Entertainment District. Like them on Facebook. It has the El Paso Hikers Five Star rating!

For anyone looking to escape the heat and climb Wheeler Peak and explore the Taos, NM area: there is a former BLM Wilderness Study Area guide who is renting out a room in his 3-BR house in Taos, NM  for June (preferably for June 10 onwards) but would consider one or two weeks at a time in June.  July might work out as well. Visit http://santafe.craigslist.org/roo/3035889724.html.

Finally, Professor Roy Brown alerts us to the fact that “on May 29, 1953, Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit.”  The Venerable Brown says that “El Paso and Sunrise Hikers have time to organize a 60^th Anniversary Celebration Hike!” 

The Petition, Transmountain and the Rio Bosque

Left alone, the natural environment provides us with many benefits including cleaner air and water, carbon sequestration, better soil, greater biodiversity which promotes human health as well. All of these benefits are called ecosystem services – one good reason to preserve open space in its natural state. Other reasons for preservation/conservation include human health and recreation, eco-tourist dollars, and quality of life. Natural open space is good for us mentally, spiritually and emotionally. So where do things stand with three key open space issues in El Paso – the Transmountain West project, the NW Master Plan and the Rio Bosque?

I get more phone calls about the Transmountain West TxDOT project currently than anything else. The extensive and quickening bulldozing is very disconcerting to say the least. So far the Judge overseeing Sierra Club’s lawsuit against TxDOT has not ruled on an injunction to stop work. The contractor plows ahead and many of you have reported the wide devastation including the removal of some foothills.

The NW Master Plan is a separate but related matter. The new plan is the direct result of trying to find a “compromise” with petitioners who seek to preserve in perpetuity 780 acres in the Transmountain Scenic Corridor along with keeping arroyos in their natural state and preventing any major road construction through the area (Paseo del Norte). I authored the petition and coordinated efforts to get the necessary number of signatures to bring it to City Council.  Where do things stand with the petition? Simply put: on-hold as City Planning and Attorneys work out further details of the City Council approval of a Dover Kohl scenario. Understand this: there is no time limit as to when to gather signatures to put the petition language to voters if what the City Council ultimately does is unacceptable. So far, there have been benefits as the City wrestles with the Master Plan so there is reason to be patient.

What are the benefits? First and foremost that a new NW Master Plan was even undertaken with smart growth/smart code in mind is a big benefit. However, smart growth/code is not enough when it comes to preserving arroyos in their natural state. Nature has created ways for water to flow “historically” through arroyos while still maintaining the ecosystem. Any kind of development near or along a development increases that flow rate.  Unless accounted for in some way, the velocity of stormwater can become quite destructive. We all know that rainwater washing off our roofs, sidewalks, asphalt and other impermeable surfaces races downhill. Our urban development has removed many features that can soak-up and otherwise handle stormwater: plants, natural ground, natural swales in the landscape and so forth.  Just like the development that has created urban sprawls of cul-de-sacs and strip malls, smart growth development (although it addresses density and quality of life issues while preserving more natural features) does not address stormwater management. So, whatever the development may be along arroyos, that development impacts water flow in the arroyos and engineers will all tell you that arroyos need to be modified in some way to provide flood control.

A tool for preserving natural features such as arroyos in their natural state is green infrastructure/low impact development which employs more pocket parks and linear parks and shallow depressions to manage stormwater rather than one big drain – the arroyo itself. Such a tool makes all the arroyo modification unnecessary. A benefit of being patient as the City works out issues: the City (at least the Planning Department) is learning about green infrastructure/low impact development. They are learning (as we all are) that before you can Master Plan and long before you can plat, you have to do a drainage study and you have to use your gi/lid toolbox.

Another benefit for waiting before considering moving the petition forward to the ballot is that the City is learning about conservation easements. The internal conversations have been happening. Unfortunately, elpasonaturally has heard that top City officials are still hoping to find a way to do a so-called “conservation covenant” which would ultimately give them an out with preserving natural open space in perpetuity. In the minds of petitioners, that’s the biggest deal breaker and the one that will send them back into the streets. The fox guarding the chicken coop?! Let’s hope the City gets real.

Seeing a potential for possible City equivocation, many, many petitioners have begun asking whether there shouldn’t be a whole new petition – one that calls for preserving all City owned lands on the west side including the NW Master Plan area and all properties north of it.

So, for now, the petition effort waits. There are benefits to waiting. Nevertheless, with the TxDOT behemoth moving closer to the State Park, pressure is being felt to take the next step with preserving land in its natural state.

Oh – one last goodie about the TxDOT project before moving on. An alternative entrance into the Park that would not create the huge interchange that TxDOT favors would cost $2 million. The TxDOT proposal is $7 million and TxDOT is already saying that is what they will have to spend – no modifications. Why should our government spend $2 million of our money when they could spend $7 million?

So what is happening with the Rio Bosque, a City of El Paso wetlands park managed by UTEP’s Center for Environmental Resource Management with huge eco-tourism potential (not to mention its value as a provider of ecosystem services) that only gets a paltry $10,000 from the City’s Parks and Recreation Department budget?  The Rio Bosque is a wetlands area drying up as Water District #1 pumps more water adjacent to the park while denying the park any access to effluent from the EPWU’s Bustamante Treatment Plant.  Possibly two good things are happening now. First, thanks to Rep. Eddie Holguin in whose district is the Rio Bosque, the City Council next Tuesday, June 5^th, will take up this resolution (Item 10A on the Agenda):

Discussion and action that the Mayor be authorized to send letters on behalf of the El Paso City Council to the President/Chief Executive Officer of El Paso Water Utilities/Public Service Board, (EPWU/PSB) the members of the Public Service Board, the members of the El Paso County Commissioners Court, and the General Manager of El Paso No. 1 expressing the City of El Paso’s appreciation for the efforts of each entity to help find a solution to meeting Rio Bosque’s water needs during the growing season and expressing the City’s strong desire that each continue to work diligently until such a solution is found and fully achieved. 

 Secondly, at the next OSAB meeting, Mr. Rudy Vasquez will present the EPWU’s timeline from a feasibility study that would provide a long-term, sustainable supply of water to the Rio Bosque. That meeting will be held this Wednesday, June 6^th, at 1:30 p.m. in the 8^th Floor Conference Room at City Hall.

Two more things about the Bosque:

I have learned (but have not had confirmed from MCAD/Public Art) that the Heath Satow sculpture intended for the Bosque will now go to the Zoo. The Zoo is a better place to showcase this artwork and, perhaps, it bodes well that the City wants to spend money on the Bosque that will truly benefit the wetlands. As elpasonaturally pointed out before, the City was willing to pay $170,000 for a public arts project but nothing to help with the real issue of water at the Bosque.

Secondly, if you care about the Bosque (and other open space issues), plan to attend one of two public meetings Thursday and Saturday (June 7^th and 9^th) of next week regarding the updating of the City’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan.

Not on our discussion list today but certainly worth mentioning now and later is the space definitely worth preserving: the Vista Del Aguila National Wildlife Refuge Proposed for El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson Counties. See Ramón Rentería’s El Paso Times story about the gathering support for this critical refuge just east of us. 

More later on the newly appointed and what seems to be conservation and environment-unfriendly PSB Land Policy and Revenue Sharing Blue Ribbon Committee in response to City Council’s wanting to review its relationship with PSB as its land manager/land designer.

Note one big thing (and I’m sorry it’s at the bottom of the letter):  Ed Archuleta, the CEO/President of the PSB/EPWU is really doing some good things regarding preserving open space. The El Paso Times editorial alluded to it today.  Elpasonaturally has been a critic of some of his policies and leadership style.  It’s time for praise and all I can say at this time is: “Thank You, Mr. Archuleta!”

Finally, although all of us have different religious convictions or none at all, I do think that you will find the Kabarak Call for Peace and Eco-Justice inspiring. I hope you will take just a moment to read this short but powerful statement.