Keith Hall's Nature Program Unique at Parks and Rec

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Parks and Rec's Keith Hall leads a unique program for camping, trailblazing and learning about nature.  More information about the Trailblazers Summer Camps or call 544-0753.

PSB Endorses Use of Conservation Easement

MORE BREAKING NEWS: By a unanimous vote today, the PSB passed a motion made by Mayor John Cook to deed the open space land in the NW Master Plan to the State for inclusion into the Franklin Mountain State Park. There would be deed restrictions which would require the land to revert back to the City if it is not used for passive recreation, etc. Upon reversion, the motion states, a Conservation Easement will be put on the land. As one conservationist has already put it: “Thank you, PSB!” The motion is much better than one sought by the Risher-Adauto presentation which called for no conservation easement at all and rather pushed the concept of a “Utility Green Space”. 

Conservation Strategy - PSB 061312 Ppt


PSB’s recommendation still begs the question why there shouldn’t be a conservation easement put on the land from the very beginning. Now that all of the red herrings have been disposed of and it has been shown that Frontera does have money, a back-up is there as evidenced by a recent letter of support from the Texas Land Conservancy to Frontera, managing the easement is not an expensive proposition and Frontera would be glad to do the job if asked – there is no reason why a CE couldn’t be put on the land in the first place as PSB member, David Nemir, expressed in one of his questions. In fact, Frontera President, Mike Gaglio, praised the idea of deeding the land to the State while at the same time adding the CE. Hired PSB attorney Gilbert argued that a CE shouldn’t be accepted because it would be another layer of protection and bureaucracy. There really isn’t any bureaucracy involved but she is exactly right about the extra layer of protection – exactly the reason for a conservation easement.

A Conservation Easement is the only means by which the land is preserved in its natural open state. The State of Texas can always sell land. With the current expansion of Transmountain by TxDOT and the planned expansion of Paseo del Norte, pressure will begin for commercial development. Look at any frontage road or any major thoroughfare especially in East El Paso.  Look at the shenanigans with Blackie Chesher Park property at the burgeoning corner of I-10 and Zaragoza. No wonder some want to conveniently lose, alter, challenge or whatever deeds that required the land to be used for a park. Had there only been a CE on Blackie Chesher, City Council Representative Eddie Holguin would not have to deal with evasion after evasion.

Additionally, some State of Texas parks have come with conservation easements. There is nothing new or illegal with placing that kind of easement on the land prior to transferring to the State.

The matter now goes to the City Council and is currently scheduled for their July 17^th meeting.


Another critical issue that still needs to be fleshed out is the preservation of the arroyos in their natural state. The arroyos should not be treated simply as stormwater flow paths but as the sensitive riparian corridors that they are. Unless green infrastructure/ low impact development tools are employed in the proposed Dover Kohl development, then the arroyos will have to be modified. The Risher-Adauto presentation doesn’t quite get it and it speaks of trying to save the arroyos as much as possible with hybrid channels and environmentally sensitive infrastructure. It seems that they are still coming from the perspective of maximizing development and doing the best one can with the arroyos. The real approach should be to maximize the preservation of the arroyos which the presentation seems to suggest as well by using LID goals (page 8 of the presentation). If you follow those goals and modify (if necessary) the development plan, then there will be no reason not to keep the arroyos completely natural – no modification. Nothing has happened yet - no bulldozer has scraped natural earth. Now is the time to assure complete protection. Here’s an idea: take a GIS map of the area, draw where the arroyos are and overlay where development structures (e.g., homes) will be. 

Elpasonaturally wants to see that map with the overlays.

Obviously there is much more to be said about all of the above including that today’s vote may be the dawn of a new era. The PSB/EPWU should be a natural ally with the conservation/environmental community. Because of so much animosity and distrust over power issues involving land, this is currently not the case. This vote begins to take us there – a new partnership among conservationists, City Planners and the PSB to conserve our beautiful part of the Chihuahuan Desert. Let us hope.

Finally, with the update of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan in progress much has been said recently about seeing Parks and Recreation in a different way than the current business model of turf, organized recreation and bingo. Parks can be a powerful tool for creating a more walkable community that connects people with Nature and each other. Please read Masters of the Master Plan from this month’s Parks & Recreation magazine. Oh – and I can’t help throwing in one more/last thing: please visit the City of Tucson’s rainwater harvesting page. If only . . .

Don't Adjourn Fort Bliss RAB

In an email this past Monday to conservationists, Dr. Richard Teschner urged people to write the Zia Corporation in an effort to stop the adjournment of the Fort Bliss RAB (Restoration Advisory Board) whose main concern is Castner Range and its clean-up. Dr. Teschner wrote:

Dear everyone— This is a strictly information-only mailing. No organizational action or even consideration of the fate of the Fort Bliss RAB (Restoration Advisory Board) is being solicited here. Instead, I am simply letting you know what’s now going on anent the Fort Bliss RAB, whose main concern is Castner Range. In a nutshell, the Fort Bliss Environmental Division and the Fort Bliss Garrison Commander are recommending that the RAB be “adjourned” for at least the next two years, i.e., no more RAB meetings until the post decides to start them up again. I oppose this. See my letter attached. Justification of the “adjournment” recommendation appears in an April 23, 2012 e-mail from Joel Reyes, Restoration Program Manager etc., Environmental Division, Fort Bliss: the Garrison Commander will “consult the Environmental Protection Agency, state, tribes, Fort Bliss RAB members and the local community to recommend the adjournment of the fort Bliss RAB. At this moment, Fort Bliss does not have any restoration projects to justify the need of the RAB … [T]his does not mean the RAB will be permanently dissolved. … As required, Fort Bliss will continue to move forward with the Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) process at the two sites currently under investigation [including Castner Range], as required under … CERCLA, and support the Technical Project Planning and public meetings that are an important component of this process.” And indeed, a few TPP meetings have been held since 2008. All public meetings however have been held under the aegis of the RAB. No other venues have been realized or proposed. What exactly is “the RAB”? The following comes from the first page of www.epa.gov/fedfac/documents/rab.htm : “Department of Defense (DoD) policy calls for Restoration Advisory Boards (RABs) to be formed at all closing installations and at non-closing installations where the local community expresses interest. RABs are an expansion of DoD’s Technical Review committee (TRC) concept. The boards are a forum for exchange of information and partnership among citizens, the installation, the EPA and the state. Most importantly, they offer an opportunity for communities to provide input to the cleanup process. It is our view that RABs will improve DoD’s cleanup program by increasing community understanding and support for cleanup efforts, improving the soundness of government decision, and ensuring cleanups are responsive to community needs.” If you personally support my opposition to the adjournment of the RAB, please write Zia Engineering (see attachment) as I myself have done. (I was elected to the RAB in early 2011 and my term of office runs into 2014.)
 Best regards, Richard Teschner

Here is Teschner's letter to Zia Engineering:

Click image to enlarge.

Why a Conservation Easement Still Makes Sense

Frontera Hugs Its Cactuses but Also Lugs Its Load

Many people think of the Frontera Land Alliance as just another little cactus-hugging group. “Oh those people mean well, but …” It’s true of course that the current members of the Frontera Board of Directors—Mike Gaglio (president), Richard Teschner (vice president), Scott Winton (secretary), Charlie Wakeem (treasurer), Scott Cutler (at large), Doug Echlin, John Moses and Kevin von Finger, and our Executive Director Janaé Reneaud Field—never forget to hug their front-yard ocotillos as they head for work each day. But Frontera itself is somewhat more than passing prickly hugs. Thanks to the generosity of our donors and the wisdom of our investments, with $100,000 in the bank we are not “broke” (as our critics have contended). Thanks to on-going supplementary donations we routinely consult with our traditional law firm and also hire attorneys from smaller firms as the need arises. We are engaging in partnership with the Texas Land Conservancy for “back-up” and continuity in the hyper-unlikely event that Frontera blows away in the winds of April. Our fees for managing a conservation easement are not “exorbitant”; in fact, and as Janaé pointed out at one of the meetings of the Joint City-PSB Committee she was invited to speak and interact at, easement management costs depend entirely on the details of the easement, which she is asking the City to provide—such things as appraisal, survey, title, Environmental Phase One and so forth. To quote Janaé, “the direct cost to Frontera to hold a conservation easement is just the annual site visit, which on the average is $500. And if any violations occur then we’re also dealing with legal fees and staff time.” Janaé continues: “If Frontera were to manage the Scenic Corridor as a park for public use, the City must tell us what it wants—restrooms? Parking? Trails? Campgrounds? Picnic sites? Barbeque grills? Swings and slides, sandboxes and teeter totters? The City hasn’t told us that. That is why a partnership with Texas Parks and Wildlife is best: Frontera holds the conservation easement (thus guaranteeing that the 837-acre Scenic Corridor property remains conserved in perpetuity), while the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) manages and/or owns the land.”

And in light of the report (presented to OSAB just yesterday—June 6—by staffer Carlos Gallinar of the City Development Department) from the Joint City-PSB Committee, that’s what Frontera supports: a combination of Plan One (whereby the City enters into a partnership with the TPWD, dedicating and/or selling the 837 acres to TPWD for incorporation into the Franklin Mountains State Park) and Plan Four, which deploys a conservation easement to Frontera [the El Paso area’s only 501(c)3 non-profit land trust] so the land can be conserved in perpetuity. The problem with not deploying a conservation easement is that TPWD has sometimes sold its park land to private concerns, and this would set a bad precedent for the 837 acres. The problem with the Joint City-PSB Committee’s fall-back recommendation—that the land be dedicated as a city park—can be summed up in just two words: “Blackie Chesher.” That city park’s history is well known. Gifted to the City in the early 1960s with several deed restrictions, the Blackie Chesher Regional Park (of the City of El Paso) is now the home to several uses that the deed restrictions don’t permit. Had a conservation easement been applied to Blackie Chesher, none of that would have happened. Instead, the land would be preserved in perpetuity. As we insist the 837 acres be.

--Richard Teschner

Public Meetings on Parks Master Plan Update + Breaking News on NW Master Plan

Elpasonaturally readers, please pay close attention: The City of El Paso is updating the Department of Parks & Recreation’s Master Plan, which is their main guide for what they do. The current leadership at Parks and Recreation is narrowly focused primarily on turf, club sports and senior citizen bingo.  These are good things BUT conservation, preservation of eco-systems, learning about nature and using 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 and a great article about planting more trees. You can see the current Master Plan online.

Sample questions to ask and/or things to look for in the updated Master Plan: How much focus is there on conservation and conservation education? How well does the new plan connect people with Nature? Is bicycling, walking and hiking main considerations? What kind of connections are made between parks, neighborhoods and natural open space? What is being done to build the urban tree canopy? Do birds and other animals have a place in the plan? Are natural open space parks being given proper attention? (There are actually several of these properties in the Parks inventory and most are ignored.) How are Seniors and others connected with the outdoors and plant and animal studies? Any mention of parks programs with emphasis on the natural sciences? What about organic maintenance of our parks and recreational facilities, the use of rainwater harvesting? BTW, the Department of General Services now maintains our parks, ball fields and recreational facilities. What role have they played in shaping the new Master Plan? How will our parks program participate in the City’s new comprehensive plan, Plan El Paso? Will it help promote Smart Growth and Green Infrastructure/Low Impact Development? Will it seek to protect the environment, ecosystems and habitats?

Please make an effort to attend at least one of these meetings.

BREAKING NEWS: The City/PSB Committee charged with making final recommendations for the NW Master Plan has unanimously decided that the best way to preserve land in the NW Master Plan in perpetuity is through a partnership with the Franklin Mountains State Park. Their fallback position is to dedicate that land as a City Park. Mr. Carlos Gallinar of City Planning gave the presentation just this afternoon to the Open Space Advisory Board on behalf of a joint City-PSB Committee that has been charged to make recommendations to City Council regarding the NW Master Plan especially in the light of a successful petition drive that calls for preserving land in its natural state in perpetuity.  When asked about the “negatives” for choosing a conservation easement, Mr. Gallinar would not elaborate.

There have been recent attempts to undermine conservation easements based on falsehoodsabout Frontera Land Alliance: Frontera is broke, their fees for managing a conservation easement are exorbitant, and that there is no back-up should Frontera not be able to fulfill its duties as land trustees. All of these statements are false as an email from Frontera Treasurer Charlie Wakeem explains. (Link directly above.) 

No matter the committee has unanimously recommended a partnership with the State Park. You can see the presentation to OSAB.  I will post more at elpasonaturally and through this e-letter as I learn more.

Charlie Wakeem gave an excellent Annual Report about the Open Space Advisory Board to City Council yesterday. See the presentation.

Now that O’Rourke has ousted eight-term Representative Silvestre Reyes, what is next for the conservation of Castner Range?  This is an important question since Reyes’ office had worked closely with the Castner Conservation Conveyance Committee (“4-C’s” crafted from Frontera Land Alliance and the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition) and had engineered a $300,000 earmark that funded a critical study essential for conveyance and a work in progress, the Castner CLUP (Conceptual Land Use Plan). It will take anywhere from 32 to 64 million dollars to clean up unexploded ordnance (UXO) on the Range. However, it isn’t all just a matter of money. Castner is somewhere in the middle of a Department of Defense list of properties that not only need this kind of clean-up but are actively seeking it. O’Rourke has made it clear that he supports the clean-up and preservation of Castner Range so that the natural open space can be enjoyed by all. A political-insider has said that O’Rourke “understands the wonders of the Chihuahua Desert ecosystem.”

Finally, if you have an interest in weather and would like to help your local community as well as scientists and others interested in precipitation, then there is a fun program for you: CoCoRaHS (the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network). Learn how you can get involved by becoming part of the backyard rain gauge brigade.

Joint City-PSB Committee Says NO to Conservation Easements

Below is a presentation given by Mr. Carlos Gallinar of the City of El Paso Planning Department to the Open Space Advisory Board this afternoon giving recommendations from a joint PSB/City Committee to City Council regarding going forward on the NW Master Plan. A critical component of their recommendations is to preserve land in the NW Master Plan area in its natural state through a partnership with the Franklin Mountains State Park. I will be discussing this matter more in depth probably in a post tomorrow. For now, here is the presentation:

NW Master Plan Presentation to OSAB with Recommendations 060512

Open Space Advisory Board - 2012 Annual Report

Osab City Council Report 6-5-12