EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Chisos Basin area of Big Bend National Park will be closed off to visitors for approximately two years starting this fall.
The National Parks Service will undertake two construction projects in the area of the park to rebuild a decades-old lodge and to replace aged waterlines throughout the popular campground there.
A wildlife advocate out of El Paso, however, said the Chisos Basin campground is the highlight of the park and that visitors will be robbed of fully experiencing Big Bend. He is urging the NPS to reconsider their plans and analyze how they can proceed with the construction without closing off the entire Chisos Basin area.
“It’s the coolest spot, where the best campground is, the best trails, the most popular area. Even the bears from Mexico came across and moved in there, and they love it up there. It’s only about 40 square miles, the area we’re talking about, but it’s the most scenic area, the most beautiful area. It’s one of the reasons why the park became a national park,” said Rick LoBello, chair of the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition.
According to the NPS, visitor access to the basin road, lodging units, basin campground, NPS visitor center, camper store, and surrounding trails will be closed off. They said park managers will assess what areas will be safe to open as major components of the construction project are completed.
But LoBello said the Chisos Basin area has seen major construction before that did not require a complete closure of the area.
“They just need to rethink this whole project and say to themselves, ‘How can we fix the restaurant? How can we take this $22 million to remake the restaurant and do it without closing off this whole section of the park?’” LoLoBello said.
“NPS has told me that the main reason why they’re going to close that whole area off is because of the danger of cars and trucks going back and forth on the road, carrying materials,” he added.
“But we have people going through El Paso carrying these giant windmill pieces, and we have what we call an escort. We just close off the road for a few minutes. Let the materials go through so it doesn’t justify closing that whole area of the park just because of a minor small construction project,” LoBello said.
Beyond that, LoBello said he’s spoken with local business owners in the area who are concerned that the closure will cause them steep financial losses that they may not be able to recover from.
“They say it will take two years, but we all know from construction going on in our own city that two years can become four years. That all depends on how contracts work and everything else,” LoBello said.
LoBello has created a blog where he is encouraging El Pasoans and other people to join him in urging the NPS to reconsider their plans to close off the Chisos Basin.
He encourages people to contact their elected representatives or call the White House Comment Line, asking them to express their concerns.
KTSM reached out to the NPS and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who represents the district encompassing Big Bend, for comment. We will update the story if we get a response.
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