I was very impressed by the El Paso Matters article on El Paso’s Josie Karam, founder and president of Second Chance Wildlife Rescue, and by the highly important and extremely necessary work that she and the rescue have been doing to save wildlife for the last 23 years.
But one remark has given me concern. Karam writes: “All the cities around us are taking up all the desert. They’re taking over the mountain with building projects. Houses are going up all over …”
Karam’s reference may well exclude El Paso, since she is bound to know about The Frontera Land Alliance, El Paso’s only 501(c)3 land trust organization (founded 2004), which negotiates private, voluntary agreements with landowners to leave land undeveloped and which creates management plans for land restoration.
Frontera partners with the city of El Paso to hold 1,400-plus acres of land in preserves, allowing community access to open space and to host educational events while providing ecological benefits to water, wildlife and health through native plant restoration.
Prominent among Frontera’s conservation lands are the West Side’s 91-acre Wakeem/Teschner Nature Preserve at Resler Canyon (whose main arroyo channels mountain runoff en route to the Rio Grande), the 26-acre Thunder Canyon Conservation Easement on the western slope of the Franklin Mountains, the 14-square-mile Lost Dog Nature Preserve (with 10 miles of trails right alongside the Franklin Mountains State Park’s western boundary) and — most recently — the Knapp Land Easement and Nature Preserve, 353 acres in the eastern part of the mountains, fully forming a part of them and featuring three miles of Franklin hiking trails.
According to the statewide organization Texan by Nature (a nonprofit formed in 2011 by Laura Bush and the sponsor of programs including the Conservation Partner Network, the Texan by Nature Certification and the Texas Water Action Collaborative), 353 acres of the Franklin Mountains are now under conservation easement, thus supplementing the 24,247 acres or 40 square miles of the Franklin Mountains State Park itself.
The Frontera Land Alliance and Texan by Nature worked together to report the environmental and economic return on investment of conservation efforts in the Northern Chihuahuan Desert, promoting participation in and investment from private and public sectors.
The Knapp Land Nature Preserve itself is a key to ensuring that Franklin Mountains land remains open to allow for natural runoff during periods of heavy rain, since by protecting the 105 acres of arroyos the ecosystem more effectively allows rainwater to be absorbed, reducing the chance of downstream flooding and increasing the absorption of water into El Paso’s underground bolsons, which El Pasoans depend on for much of the water we need.
The land also absorbs 700 tons of carbon annually, thereby expanding climate protection.
In sum, El Paso has become a leader in mountain and desert conservation, just as El Paso — under Josie Karam’s strong leadership — has long been outstanding in wildlife protection.
Richard Teschner is a board member of The Frontera Land Alliance.
The post Opinion: El Paso is a leader on mountain and desert conservation appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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