CDEC to Re-Landscape City Hall

Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition to launch Healthy Families Live Outside the Box education initiative with wildscape project at El Paso City Hall

Volunteers needed Friday and Saturday May 11 and 12

The Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition (CDEC) is in need of dozens of volunteers to help with a new native plant wildscape at El Paso City Hall. (Map) CDEC Director Dr. Gertrud Konings has been working with a small committee and city officials in planning the wildscape since late 2011. The project is part of a City of El Paso’s Think Tank project called "Healthy Families Live Outside the Box" presented to the City Manager by El Paso Zoo Education Curator Rick LoBello in March of 2011. 

This educational initiative is designed to get people outside while encouraging them to help restore wildlife habitat loss by development.  The idea is to get people outside planting backyard desert landscapes in hopes that in doing so they will connect with our desert by learning about plants that use little water and provide habitat for wildlife.  People who invest in a few desert plants will help (1) to provide habitat for wildlife like birds and butterflies that have displaced by development, (2) experience lower water bills and (3) hopefully become more active outdoors by discovering natural areas like Franklin Mountains State Park and Rio Bosque.

The first step in launching this important community project is putting in a demonstration habitat on the front steps of El Paso City Hall.  What a great idea thanks to the input from one of our education partners.  He said to me that if you want the community to get on board with this effort you need to start in the heart of the city where our elected representatives work.  I hope you will agree that this effort is an important step in helping our community become more aware of our natural environment.  We need your help in volunteering on Friday and Saturday morning, May 11 and 12.   You can learn more online at www.chihuahuandesert.org. 

Volunteers are needed for two hour shifts on Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12 to help replace non-native plants in the current landscape with native plants of the Chihuahuan Desert. Details for the two day project are below.

Friday and Saturday, May 11-12, 2012
8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Volunteers will remove shrubs and weeds and replant some plants in a different area. Soil and rocks will be moved to a cactus garden.

Volunteers need to bring shovels or a pickax, knippers, gloves, plastic bags, buckets and have a hat and water.  Volunteers who can provide a pickup truck are also needed to go to the plant recycling location on Doniphan Drive and pick up plants at a local nursery.

Once the landscape has been completed, plant ID graphics will be added and a new webpage will be launched with information on how residents can landscape their front and back yards with drought-tolerant native plants. For more information and to sign up to volunteer, contact Rick LoBello at lobellorl@elpasotexas.gov or by phone at 915-217-4233. 

Sierra Club Needs Your Help Fighting TxDOT

Here is an update on the TxDOT lawsuit from Laurence Gibson, the Chair of the El Paso Group of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter:

Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter El Paso Groupnmsierraclub.org/elpasoDear El Paso Sierrans, For over a year now most of your Executive Committee’s energy has gone into fighting Texas Department of Transportation’s overblown plan for Transmountain Road. We regard the planned expansion as the linchpin that will release a flood of development on the western slopes of our beloved Franklin Mountains, labeling El Paso forever as a second-rate city that values the short-term gains of sprawl over respect for our natural heritage. We have a vision for El Paso that would put us in a class with Tucson or Boulder, or even Austin! First, we hired Texas’ foremost environmental law firm, Lowerre, Frederick, Perales, Allmon and Rockwell, for an unsuccessful protest of the TxDot plan where we asked for a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) instead of their “quick and dirty” Environmental Analysis. This is the same firm that brought our ASARCO suit to a successful end. We do not often seek legal help. Then, we filed suit against TxDot and the Federal Highway Administration in hopes of forcing that EIS. In the meantime, the contractor has begun work down by I-10. By the time you read this, we may have an injunction in force to halt construction while the court rules on our case. As you know, lawyers do not work gratis. The final bill for this effort could reach $75,000! Your response to our financial pleas has been remarkable: Our environmental partners have really “stepped up” with large commitments, like Franklin Mountain Wilderness Coalition’s $3,000, the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter’s $2,700 and your El Paso Group treasury’s $4,000. The fight for clean energy is taking almost all of the national club’s legal resources, so we have nothing there. Individual donations have ranged all the way from $25 to $1,000, for a total now of around $2,500. We need your gift to reach our goal. We’d be happy to add your name to the list or respect your desire to remain anonymous. Just mail your check in the enclosed envelope. [See mailing address below.] Your donation could mean the difference between endless sprawl and an El Paso future generations can be proud of. Thank you,Laurence GibsonChair, El Paso Group of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter
P.S.: Please be generous. Your gift might determine what El Paso looks like next year and in 100 years!

Send $ to:

El Paso Group, Sierra Club

PO Box 9191 El Paso 79995

FMSP May 2012 Hiking Schedule

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Castner Range: Two Important Meetings

Judy Ackerman sent me this very important reminder:

CASTNER RANGE: TWO IMPORTANT MEETINGS
Please plan to attend.  It is crucial to show visible public concern about Castner Range. The final meeting  for the Castner Range Wide Area Assessment Technical Project Planning (WAA TPP) will take place on Wednesday, 25 April 2012 at 9:00AM, at the Marriott Hotel, 1600 Airway Blvd., near the El Paso International Airport.  (Map)  This project deals with assessing the hazards on Castner Range.
The next Ft Bliss Restoration Authority Board (RAB) meeting will take place on April 25th, 6:30PM at the Chaparral Community Center, which is located at 132 County Line Road. (More information)

The Wide Area Assessment Technical Project Planning is more important than the RAB meeting because it is sponsored by the U.S. Army and not just Fort Bliss. It is also the more convenient of the two meetings to make unless you are only available in the evening.

FloraFEST Speaker April 27 with Native Plant Sale April 28 and 29

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

18 April 2012

Museum Contact: John White, Curator

Email: jmwhite@utep.edu

Phone: 915-747-5335

Dr. David Anderson to Speak at Annual Native Plant Sale, FloraFEST

El Paso, Texas – Area gardeners are awaiting the chance to purchase plants for desert landscaping naturally.  FloraFEST, the annual plant sale, features hundreds of plants native to the Chihuahuan Desert or plants that are desert adapted.  Proceeds from the annual sale support the operation of the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens.  This botanic collection, displaying some 700 different species and horticultural cultivars, is dedicated to the flora of the Chihuahuan Desert region.  The collection represents the largest public assemblage of Chihuahuan desert plants in the world.

Guest speaker, Dr. David Anderson will be featured at this year’s FloraFEST Lecture Series.  David Lee Anderson is Land Manager and botanist at White Sands Missile Range since 1990.  He completed his PhD in Range Ecology in 1989 at New Mexico State University.  Prior to that, he worked in Argentina as national coordinator of range research for 20 years. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Idaho, Utah and New Mexico on and off between 1956 and 1963.

Dr. Anderson will speak on Friday, April 27, 2012 at 7 pm in Room 116 of the Undergraduate Learning Center on the University of Texas at El Paso campus.  A reception will follow at the Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens located at the corner of University Ave. and Wiggins Rd. on the UTEP campus.  The El Paso Native Plant Society, The West Texas Urban Forestry Council, and the Centennial Museum sponsor this event.

Regular museum hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm. For more information, contact the Centennial Museum at 915-747-5565 or www.museum.utep.edu.

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UTEP Campus Map

Caring for the Environment and Conservation is Personal with Beto O'Rourke

Beto O'Rourke with friend, David Guinn, on a hike 

at Smuggler's Gap in the Franklins

(Click on each image to enlarge.)

Democratic U.S. Congressional candidate, Beto O'Rourke, has always been one of the great heroes to El Paso's conservation and environmental community. As he says below, "I understand at a personal level that these issues are deeply connected to quality of life for me, my family and this community."

Here is Beto O'Rourke on his love and work for conservation in the El Paso region:

"As a life-long El Pasoan I've spent countless hours hiking and walking in the Franklin Mountain State Park as well as in the arroyos, levees and open desert areas around town. I'm an avid back-packer and regularly take trips into the Gila and the Lincoln National Forest. Conservation and environment protection are not abstractions and working on these issues is not political gesture; I understand at a personal level that these issues are deeply connected to quality of life for me, my family and this community.

Beto and Amy with children 

at Celebration of Our Mountains Scenic Sunday event

Before I was elected to Council I joined neighborhood and community efforts to stop the re-permitting of ASARCO, and once I was on Council I did everything in my power to ensure that the smelter did not re-open. 

On Council I was the beneficiary of time spent with people like Charlie Wakeem and Rick Bonart who made sure I understood the importance of preserving arroyos, of favoring natural irrigation channels vs. concrete, and of preserving the greatest natural assets this community has. 

Conservation and environment protection are not abstractions and working on these issues is not political gesture; I understand at a personal level that these issues are deeply connected to quality of life for me, my family and this community.

I worked with them and others to preserve arroyos, protect important natural open space and push the envelope in the planning and development process to stop sprawl development. I also did my best to make sure that the Open Space Advisory Board kept its power to influence the direction that development took in El Paso in a positive way.

When the Chamber of Commerce and REDCO floated an idea to develop Castner Range, I helped ensure that the Council came out strongly against the proposal and strongly for preserving Castner in its entirety. 

I worked with Steve Ortega to write into ordinance that a percentage of all revenues from Stormwater fees were dedicated to open space preservation. This helped lead to the purchase of the Palisades trail system in the Crazy Cat area of the Franklins. 

I did my best to work with John Sproul and others who were trying to get additional water resources for Rio Bosque, even though it was not in my Council district. 

My dedication to open space preservation, to encouraging sustainable development, to protecting and promoting our natural assets will continue if I am elected to represent El Paso in the U.S. Congress." 

Backpacking to Hillsboro Peak in the Gila Wilderness

 Visit BetoforCongress.com. 

My dedication to open space preservation, to encouraging sustainable development, to protecting and promoting our natural assets will continue if I am elected to represent El Paso in the U.S. Congress." - Beto O'Rourke

May 9 Water Quality Program to Focus on Paso del Norte Watershed

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May 9, 2012 water quality training in El Paso to focus on the Paso del Norte Watershed

Training to address issues of water quality

Galen Roberts, 979-862-8070 or groberts@ag.tamu.edu

Brian Hanson, 575-646-2642 or BHanson@nmda.nmsu.edu

EL PASO – A free Texas-New Mexico Watershed Steward Workshop on water quality issues related to the Paso del Norte watershed will be held from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. May 9 at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center, 1380 A&M Circle in El Paso.

The training is open to anyone interested in improving water quality in the Paso del Norte region, said program coordinators. Participants are encouraged to pre-register at http://tws.tamu.edu

The workshop is sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board as part of the Texas Watershed Steward program. It is being held in coordination with the New Mexico Environment Department, New Mexico Cooperative Extension, and the Paso del Norte Watershed Council.

“The workshop is designed to help watershed residents improve and protect their water resources and gain a better understanding of how water quality  in the Rio Grande is managed in Texas and New Mexico,” said Galen Roberts, AgriLife Extension program specialist and coordinator for the Texas Watershed Steward Program.

Roberts said the workshop will include an overview of water quality and watershed management in both states, but primarily will focus on water quality issues relating to the Paso del Norte watershed, including current efforts to help improve and protect this important water body.

“The Paso del Norte watershed extends from Elephant Butte Reservoir in southern New Mexico about 340 miles along the Rio Grande to Presidio, Texas,” said Dr. Conrad Keyes, Jr., Chair of the Paso del Norte Watershed Council . “The Rio Grande is a source for irrigation and municipal drinking water, as well as  wildlife habitat for many species.”

The training will include a discussion of watershed systems, types and sources of water pollution, and ways to improve and protect water quality. There also will be a group discussion on community-driven watershed protection and management.

This workshop is being held in conjunction with ongoing protection efforts in the Paso del Norte watershed. In 2006, the Paso del Norte Watershed Council, in coordination with the New Mexico Environment Department, initiated development of a watershed-based plan.
“In New Mexico, the Rio Grande from the international boundary with Mexico upstream to just above the city of Las Cruces was listed as impaired in 2004,” said Chris Canavan, Project Officer for the New Mexico Environment Department. “The plan being developed for the Paso del Norte will outline a strategy for reducing pollutant levels in the river.”

Canavan encourages stakeholders to attend the Texas-New Mexico Watershed Steward Workshop and to become more engaged in these efforts.

Along with the free training, participants receive a copy of the Texas Watershed Steward Handbook and a certificate of completion. The program also offers seven continuing education units in soil and water management for certified crop advisors, seven units for professional engineers and certified planners, and seven continuing education credits for certified teachers.

It also offers three general continuing education units for Texas Department of Agriculture pesticide license holders, seven for certified landscape architects and three for certified floodplain managers.

Pre-registration is open through the Texas Watershed Steward website, http://tws.tamu.edu.

“Participating in the Texas-New Mexico Watershed Steward training is a great opportunity to get involved and make a difference in your watershed,” Roberts said.

For more information and to pre-register, go to http://tws.tamu.edu or contact Galen Roberts at 979-862-8070, groberts@ag.tamu.edu.

For more information about the Paso del Norte watershed and the watershed restoration efforts, contact Brian Hanson at 575-646-2642, BHanson@nmda.nmsu.edu.

The Texas Watershed Steward program is funded through a Clean Water Act §319(h) nonpoint source grant from the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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Here is the flier for the program:
Texas Watershed Steward Program