You can volunteer at the Zoo as a Conservation Ambassador
Call for Abstracts for Oral Presentations and Posters at the 2023 Chihuahuan Desert Conference
Photo by Gary Nored, Wikimedia Creative Commons
The Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition and the El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens are teaming up to host a third Chihuahuan Desert Conference in El Paso on November 15-17, 2023. To learn more about the meeting visit the conference website at http://chihuahuandesertconference.org. The Conference Committee is now accepting abstracts for both oral presentations and posters.
The conference will bring together researchers and conservation advocates from across the Chihuahuan Desert to help facilitate collaboration in the region and learn of new programs that have been completed or are underway.
The first conference hosted by the Zoo in 2019 featured the Zoo’s new $16M Chihuahuan Desert exhibit that features the flora and fauna of this amazing region. The exhibit includes an arroyo and a flash flood feature that helps people better understand an important natural force helping to shape the desert landscape, plus common plants and animals including a number of endangered species.
Recognized globally as a hotspot for wildlife conservation, the Chihuahuan Desert surrounding El Paso is one of the most biologically diverse eco-regions in North America. Chihuahuan Desert conservation programs at the Zoo underway include efforts to breed and release critically endangered Mexican wolves in the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona and both field and captive breeding conservation efforts to help save endangered Thick-billed Parrots, peninsular pronghorns and jaguars.
Jaguar by Yannick-turbe Wikimedia Creative Commons
Join the Otero Mesa Action Team
Photo by Hadley Paul Garland, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Otero Mesa is one of the last pristine grasslands in the northern Chihuahuan Desert
The Otero Mesa Action Team, from our El Paso Group territory, is actively participating with the BLM’s Las Cruces District Office in the development of the Resource Management Plan’s Supplement that deals with gas and oil as well as identifying Lands with Wilderness Characteristics on the Mesa. Contact Jerry Kurtyka for more information on Action Team meetings and events at jerrykurtyka@hotmail.com.
Zoo makes plans to host Chihuahuan Desert Conference in 2023
The El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens and the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition are working on plans to host a third Chihuahuan Desert Conference in El Paso in November of 2023. The conference will bring together researchers and conservation advocates from across the Chihuahuan Desert to help facilitate collaboration in the region and learn of new programs recently completed or underway.
This will be the second conference hosted by the Zoo. The first one was held in 2019 and the El Paso Sierra Club group was a sponsor.
Volunteers are needed to help plan the conference and help with all aspects of making it happen. For more information contact Rick LoBello at 915-212-2823/ lobellorl@elpasotexas.gov.
Freeways for the People call on TXDOT to ReImagine Downtown 10
El Pasoans join a Texas coalition against destructive, unneeded, polluting highway projects
Members of a new coalition in El Paso, Freeways for the People, and community leaders will gather to explain their opposition to the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) project known as Downtown 10, and to TXDOT tactics being used here and across the state to ram through urban highway widening projects. Similar news conferences will take place in Austin and Houston, highlighting the call for TXDOT to work with communities to develop better options.
In El Paso, TXDOT is developing a freeway-widening and frontage roads project on a six-mile stretch from Copia to Executive Center. The city already has vehicular-traffic air and noise pollution problems that threaten people’s health— especially children. Studies in El Paso suggest that children’s academic achievement is lowered by the dirty air. A bigger I-10 will simply induce more traffic and more pollution.
Much of this TXDOT project will hurt our neighborhoods in other ways. But TXDOT has so far refused to consider true alternatives to the concept of widening and frontage roads. Further, it’s proposing to partially fund the project, with our community paying for much of it – but only if El Paso accepts the project “as is.” Freeways for the People says No! to this funding scheme. Public comment for this ends Monday, and now is the time to speak up!
We can resist. Other cities are. In Houston, the federal Highway Administration recently ordered TXDOT to stop activities to widen I-45 pending a review. The governments of Houston and Harris County, which encompasses Houston, both oppose the widening, and have proposed community-driven alternatives. TXDOT has responded with a survey addressed to the public. Answers are due by Monday. The survey has a ‘say yes or else’ quality to it: respondents can only vote “yes,” that they want what TXDOT wants, or “no,” in which case no other alternatives for better transportation are suggested. This is not a 21st-century community conversation. TXDOT should work with the Houston community, not force binary choices based on false premises.
In El Paso, TXDOT started with the worst project proposal for neighborhoods, local commuters, environment, and economy. But individuals and groups now part of Freeways for the People engaged with the community evaluation process, and as a result the project is now “less worse” than when it started. For example, it no longer contemplates destroying over 100 properties north of I-10 and east of Downtown. But it still does propose to destroy other property. And it induces traffic – especially heavy trucks – onto I-10. Overall, it worsens the conditions and quality of life for all neighborhoods adjacent to the highway. We need to focus on solutions that work for the entire community, and get that heavy traffic out of the heart of the City.
The public may submit public comment to TXDOT by 3 pm El Paso time on Monday (Aug. 9, 2021), in two ways:●
Go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2022UTP, fill out the comment field, and click no on both questions.
● Send an email to UTP-PublicComments@txdot.gov
We can do so much more for our community than accepting “less worse.” We can demand no-holds-barred better. Freeways for the People is here for better.
● What: News Conference with members of Freeways for the People and community leaders about the Downtown 10 freeway widening and frontage road project
● When: 10 a.m. Saturday (Aug. 7, 2021)
● Where: Karr Park in Sunset Heights
●Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/groups/freewaysforthepeople
Nature conservation effort underway in Juarez
by Rick LoBello, President
Sierra Club, Big Bend Group
Earlier this year after reading a number of Facebook posts on the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition group page, I met Ray Aguilar and his friend Nestor Acosta from Juarez on Zoom. Ray and his friends are working to protect the Sierra de Juarez mountain range and other desert mountain areas in northern Chihuahua, Mexico.
Very few people are aware of the biodiversity of the Sierra de Juarez overlooking the city which according to Ray is very vulnerable to urbanization. The mountain range is located within the same Rio Grande Valley as the Franklin Mountains in El Paso and the Organ Mountains in Las Cruces. Unfortunately, expanding developments in the city combined with the impact of the border wall are a major impediment to wildlife corridors that historically connected the mountain ranges.
For the most part the Sierra de Juarez has been abandoned by the Mexican government and today people drop their trash around the area, illegally remove plants and animals that are often sold, drive off road vehicles all over while companies destroy natural resources as they develop the area and use the mountains as one giant dumping ground.
Ray and his group called Defensa De La Sierra de Cuidad Juarez hope to change all that. He often posts pictures of the area’s biodiversity and helps to call attention to other conservation issues threatening the desert mountain region in the Samalayuca Dune Fields area and the Sierra Presidio.
Defensa De La Sierra de Cuidad Juarez wants to distribute as much information as possible on why this region is important to the area while encouraging the government to take all necessary steps to stop the uncontrolled destruction of wildlife habitat. A new website is in development and anyone who wants to help can contact the group by email at Sierradeciudadjuarez@gmail.com or text at 011 52 656 214 4109.
Ray Aguilar
Spadefoot Toad – Jasper Nance, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Cover and bottom – Simon Foot, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Can wolves be returned to the wilderness of Texas?
Sign up to Join the Texas Wolf Pack
Click Here to Join
by Rick LoBello, Education Curator
Less than 200 yards from my office I am often reminded of one of the most important missing links in the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion. An apex predator often thought of as a symbol of wilderness, the Mexican wolf or lobo (Canis lupus baileyi), has been systematically eradicated from the landscape. Because of conflicts with the ranching industry wolves that historically were living in harmony with the natural environment were no match for wolf hunters and trappers until they no longer remained.
In the minds of many people here in Texas and other states, its ok for wolves to live in Zoos, but not ok for wolves to live in the wild where they survived for thousands of years before the coming of the European settler. It’s also important that we not blame the extinction of the wolf in Texas solely on the ranching industry. Everyone who eats meat is contributing in a small way by supporting agricultural practices that are not always managed in the best interest of the ecosystem, something that few of us think about.
Prior to moving to El Paso I was active in wolf restoration efforts in Texas during the 1990s when the Mexican Wolf Coalition of Texas with the support of state and national environmental groups tried to convince government officials to bring back the wolf to the Big Bend area. Big Bend National Park and adjacent state park and wildlife management lands were established to protect the natural environment and livestock ranching on those lands were no longer present. To many the idea of bringing back the wolf to these large protected areas made a lot of sense and efforts were already underway to return the wolf to national parks like Yellowstone National Park. With the endorsement of political leaders like the Governor Richardson of Texas, the proposal gained a lot of media attention. In the end stakeholders were not fully engaged in supporting the effort and interest in helping wolves return to the Big Bend turned to other areas of the country like Arizona and New Mexico.
Prior to the war against the wolf that started in the 1800s and continues to this day, wolves once roamed a large area of West Texas including the Davis Mountains region and the Big Bend region. Unlike the Mexican black bear that was able to naturally reinhabit Big Bend National Park from the adjacent mountains in Mexico after being extirpated during the early 1900s, wolf extermination efforts on both sides of the border resulted in the extinction of the wolf about the same time it was declared endangered on March 11, 1967. The last two wolves known in Texas were killed 50 years ago in 1970 when one was shot on the Cathedral Mountain Ranch south of Alpine and another trapped on the Joe Neal Brown Ranch located at the point where Brewster, Pecos, and Terrell counties meet. Fortunately for the wolf, a population of perhaps less than a hundred wolves remained in northern Mexico.
Today thanks to conservation agencies in Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico, wolves in the region are increasing and the combined wild population is estimated at around 200 animals. Here in Texas many believe that suitable habitat remains on both private and public lands. Unfortunately, the State of Texas and the US Fish and Wildlife Service do not have plans to reintroduce wolves to Texas and there have been no measurable efforts to gain stakeholder support or to work on a restoration plan to return them to the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion. Wildlife officials often quote a Texas Parks and Wildlife Code which states that no one can release a wolf in the State which makes it illegal for anyone to release wolves into the wild, but there is no indication that the code was enacted to prevent wildlife officials from undertaking such a conservation effort in the future.
Hope for the future – new Texas land buyers are committed to protecting the natural environment
On August 8, 1986 in a letter to Regional Director Michael Spear of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Executive Director of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Charles Travis summarized his opposition to returning the wolf in Texas by saying “there is already a history of conflict between stockman and the federal government in both of these areas (Guadalupe Mountains and Big Bend National Parks) concerning mountain lions that appear to range out of the park and kill stock on surrounding land. It is unlikely that Mexican wolves would be viewed any differently and these areas have limited suitability for that reason.”
Thirty-four years later are Travis’s arguments in opposing wolf restoration still valid? Perhaps not, many of the large landowners who opposed predators like wolves and mountain lions are no longer with us or have sold their land. A number of people are now buying up large parcels of land because they love the idea of owning large open spaces and want to help protect the environment. The King Land and Water real estate company refers to these lands as conservation real estate. On their website they describe large areas like this as “special lands for buyers committed to being good stewards of them. These properties frequently feature unique forms of flora and fauna, compelling live water resources, and, often, stunning, one-of-a-kind views.”
A growing number of people believe that wolves are not as polarizing to landowners in West Texas as they were 50 years ago. Former Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Executive Director Andrew Samson stated that he agreed that “the character of private landownership has fundamentally changed and that chances are good that some of the new landowners would have a different perspective on wolf conservation” than was the case years ago.
So what is the big problem?
Then what is the big problem with bringing the wolf back to Texas today? There are large areas of habitat on public and private lands for sure, but in places like Austin, Texas where the headquarters of Texas Parks and Wildlife is located, there simply is not the political will. Just the other day a respected government official told me that there is support among many biologists in Texas, but if anyone ever tries to bring up the subject they would get shot. Is hatred for the wolf really that intense in Texas? In some circles yes, but in reality there are thousands of Texans living across the state who support conserving the environment and all its parts, including wolves.
So how do we get State and Federal government officials to come to the table to start a conversation on the subject with all the stakeholders? Wolves are being returned to the wild in Mexico and could someday cross the border into Texas like black bears have for years. If that were to happen wolves would be protected by the Endangered Species Act and then the state of Texas would have little to say about it.
Last year the US Fish and Wildlife Service solicited comments from the general public on a Notice of Intent to prepare a supplement to an environmental impact statement for the Mexican wolf. I took the opportunity to outline what I think would be good next steps for a possible wolf reintroduction program in Texas and stated the following:
I have been advocating for the reintroduction of the wolf to Texas since 1978 when my friend Roy McBride invited me to his ranch to see one of the wild wolves he caught in Mexico for the captive breeding program. You may have seen a video of that day on YouTube. The 8mm footage was included in two documentaries on the Mexican wolf, “The Gray Area: Wolves of the Southwest” and the “Right to be Wild”.
I am a member of the Sierra Club in El Paso where we have gathered with the support of the El Paso Zoo over 20,000 hard copies of letters sent to Texas Parks and Wildlife Executive Director Carter Smith and each of the ten TPWD Commissioners asking that they support a plan to return the wolf to Texas. They have disrespected the people of our City by not responding to any of our communications.
We hope that the US Fish and Wildlife Service will help us convince Texas to support putting Texas back on the conservation radar screen for a wolf reintroduction project. Areas believed to have sufficient prey base to support a small population of wolves, pending a comprehensive reintroduction study, include Guadalupe Mountains National Park and surrounding National Forest and BLM lands, protected lands in the Davis Mountains and the Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park areas.
Many of these areas are currently under tremendous ecological pressure from exotic species like feral hogs and aoudads. Bringing back the wolf to Texas could help control these species much more economically than methods like helicopter hunts currently being used by Texas Parks and Wildlife. Wolves can also be controlled to stay away from livestock areas using satellite tracking.
The Next Step for Wolves in Texas
The next step for the wolf in Texas is to assemble a team of biologists to survey habitat in West Texas that can support wolves. During this survey the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Texas Parks and Wildlife should meet with stakeholders who raise livestock near these areas to help identify livestock safe zones. Livestock safe zones are land areas where wolves will not be allowed to live. Buffer zones will be identified as wolf management zones where wolves may roam, but if they stay in these areas and do not move back to wolf reserves, they would be removed from the wild. After meeting with stakeholders and identifying potential habitat, the USFW and TPWD should assemble a team of satellite tracking experts to put together a plan to monitor and control wolves with satellite collars that can inject wolves with tranquilizers if they move away from reintroduction areas.
Let’s hope for the sake of wilderness and the future of humanity that the wolf will be given the chance to reclaim its rightful role in the Chihuahuan Desert.
The reintroduction of the wolf will be a polarizing issue in West Texas for years to come. But in the years since wolves vanished, some of the best wolf habitat in Brewster and Jeff Davis Counties has evolved into something quite different: many large areas of the rugged desert mountain island country are now more dependent on tourism than on ranching. The value of wolves to Texas may not just be ecological in nature; it could have a huge economic impact. Ask the people connected to wolf ecotourism in Yellowstone where visitors who come to Yellowstone to see wolves contribute roughly $35.5 million annually to the regional economy. Imagine the return of the “Grand Opera of Texas” to the dark skies of Texas. Imagine the return of the gray wolf.
Photo credits:
Top two and cover, Rick LoBello
Third from top, Chad Horwedel, Wikimedia Creative Common
Bottom, Don Burkett
Do-it yourself outings
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all Sierra Club outings and in-person events have been cancelled through February 2021. While we’re all disappointed, we understand that everyone’s health and safety are most important. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get out and go for a hike! Our do-it-yourself outings are designed with you in mind and offer a range of difficulties and outdoor experiences. We hope you’ll climb the mountains and receive their good tidings during this challenging time.
So far, most of our do-it-yourself hikes are in the Albuquerque area. If you would like to submit some in other parts, of the state, please contact any member of the Executive Committee.
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