For the love of frogs

by Rick LoBello

The video I have posted this week (click third image from top) features footage of a spadefoot toad and a Texas toad in their natural habitat at Big Bend National Park.

The Centennial Museum at UTEP website (http://museum.utep.edu/chih/chklist/chklist.htm)
includes a series of checklists highlighting animals known to the El Paso/Juarez region. The amphibian list includes thirteen species of frogs and toads. Here in El Paso we have three relatively common species: Couch’s spadefoot toad, Woodhouse’s toad, and the red-spotted toad. The best time to look for them is after summer rains, but even on a semi-humid evening without rain you may encounter one of the more common toads we have, the red-spotted toad.

Amphibians like the red-spotted toad are in big trouble around the world with over 120 species believed to have gone extinct in recent years. Here in El Paso one of the best things we can do is to make our backyards amphibian friendly by planting native plants and making sure there are hiding places for toads to protect themselves from drying out during the heat of the day. We can also avoid using pesticides and make sure that there are no chemicals lying around that could hurt a frog passing by.

I have always liked studying frogs and toads and salamanders. Not far from my home growing up in Western New York I used to find American toads in my backyard and leopard frogs in the ponds and streams nearby. I used to spend a lot of time fishing at 18 mile Creek where I would find a variety of salamanders like the dusky salamander hidden underneath the layers of black slate along the creek.

While working on my undergraduate degree at William Jewell College I met my mentor in nearby Kansas City at the Kansas City Museum of Science. Dr. Richard Baldauf was a well known environmentalist who was the former head of the Wildlife Sciences at Texas A & M. His specialty was frogs and toads and everyone who knew him appreciated his passion for these little guys. Frog and toad artwork including all kinds of little knick knacks filled his office and home. After taking his night course in Herpetology I was hooked.

Not long after taking his course he offered me a job as a Museum Technician and Nature Center Director. When it came time to think about planning for advance biology degree after graduation I soon found myself in Dr. Baldauf's office looking at pictures frogs and toads of Texas in a Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of North America. I was trying to decide whether I should attend Sul Ross State University in Alpine to work on my Masters Degree in Biology. Then Dr. Baldaulf flipped to the page showing pictures of Couch’s spadefoot toads, green toads, red toads and other Chihuahuan Desert creatures. As Dr. Baldauf told me about the natural history of spadefoot toads I was hooked. I wanted to move to Texas so I could see spadefoots in the wild!

I have always believed that if it wasn’t for my fascination for desert amphibians I may not have moved to Texas. Today I find myself concerned about their last remaining habitats and working on a wide variety of efforts to help increase awareness of the Chihuahuan Desert here in El Paso. One of those efforts can be seen at www.chihuahuandesert.org. Join me and others in helping to conserve our natural heritage.

The Last Wild Mexican Wolf

Please help save the Mexican wolf by forwarding this message to others.

Last year I transferred to video an old 8mm movie I took during the late 1970s of what I believe was the last or one of the last wild Mexican wolves captured from northern Mexico before the species went extinct in the wild.

Over the past year over 20,000 people have viewed it on YouTube. As you watch the film keep in mind that this animal, less than a week before I filmed it, was living in the wilds of Mexico. It was one of the last descendants of wild Mexican wolves that had been living in harmony with the land and Native Americans for thousands of years.

Their story almost came to a complete end. Fortunately the United States passed the Endangered Species Act. If it wasn't for that critical piece of legislation I am sure that the Mexican wolf would have gone completely extinct since there were few animals in captivity and virtually none in zoos. I hope that people who watch this 3 minute video will want to learn more about these beautiful animals and get involved in efforts to help with conservation efforts here in the United States and Mexico.

All Mexican wolves surviving in the wilds of Arizona and New Mexico today are the descendants of the progeny of this wolf and four others. The wolf in the film was captured by Roy McBride who was hired by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in cooperation with the Mexican government to rescue the last wild Mexican wolves in Durango and Chihuahua. Roy and I were fellow graduate students at Sul Ross State University in Alpine where the film was made.

At the El Paso Zoo where I work we have three Mexican wolves and are trying to help save this critically endangered species in many ways including supporting the ongoing reintroduction program in the Southwest. If you have been following the story of this project you know that the descendants of the wolf in this video need our continued support.

Please go on the Internet by starting with the El Paso Zoo website at www.elpasozoo.org where you can learn more and get involved. Start with the page we have for the Mexican wolf in the Animals section of Americas. On our site we have a number of important links plus video interviews with members of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Team. A new website at www.mexicanwolves.org is also a great place to learn more.

Ever seen a kit fox?

Kit fox pups by Robert Shantz.

Ever seen a kit fox?

by Rick LoBello

Rarely seen by even the most avid desert hikers, the kit fox is one of two species of foxes living in the Chihuahuan Desert. The larger gray fox is more commonly seen including within the city limits of El Paso and Las Cruces. How do you tell them apart?

Kit foxes are smaller and have larger ears than gray foxes, but the best field mark is the tail. If you see a band of black on the top of the tail then you know you are seeing a gray fox.

During my many years living in Big Bend National Park I saw a few kit foxes and discovered that they prefer more open and sandier areas of the park.

The IUCN has assessed the status of the kit fox in North America and summarizes its status as Least Concern on the Red List as follows:

The Kit Fox inhabits the deserts and arid lands of western North America. The species is common to rare, with population densities fluctuating with annual environmental conditions. Estimation of a population size for Mexico, or even population trends, is not possible with current information. However, because natural habitats occupied by the Kit Fox are being transformed, it is safe to assume that, overall, populations in Mexico are declining. The species currently does not meet any of the thresholds for the threatened categories, and is presently assessed as Least Concern.

Can we come together and stop the killing of unwanted pets?

I have spoken to a number of people about an idea I have on how American cities can solve the nationwide problem of unwanted pets. Like many of you I am very saddened by the fact that thousands of pets are being euthanized in the city where I live every year. I have sent the following plan to elected officials, the media, and community leaders. As of today I have not heard back from a soul. One lady who is helping to find homes for unwanted pets told me the other day that my plan was unrealistic, but yet no one seems to be proposing other ideas. If you are one who cares then please look it over and send any and all comments to rickllobello@cs.com. You can also express your opinon by posting a comment on this blog. Since few plans that address America’s growing problem with unwanted pets seem to be working, I believe that now is the time for a new way of thinking.

What does this topic have to do with my website and parks? Think about it, how can we respect and take care of the natural world if we can't take care of living creatures like dogs and cats living in our homes.

Sincerely,
Rick LoBello
915-474-1456

“Stop the madness and save unwanted pets”

SUMMARY

This plan calls for the adoption of a pet ordinance that regulates the number of dogs and cats that are sold within city limits so that the number of pets available stays in balance with the overall demand for pets. For such a plan to be adopted by any community many issues will need to be addressed including Spaying and Neutering, pet population levels in shelters, budget, etc. What follows is an outline written in paragraph form and the document is far from being complete.


DRAFT Strategic Plan Outline

This plan was inspired by all the dogs I have rescued. To think that if I had not come along they would have been put to sleep is unimaginable.

Mission

The mission of this plan is to establish a publicly supported and achievable plan that will dramatically decrease the number of unwanted pets euthanized in any American city.

Objectives

1. Dramatically decrease the number of unwanted pets that are euthanized by creating partnerships with neighborhood associations, the media, animal shelters, pet owners, schools, businesses and other institutions across the city where people of all walks of life can sign on to a new city wide plan (see strategy below). The big goal of the plan is to dramatically decrease the number of unwanted pets that are euthanized to the lowest number possible, realizing that some pets are very difficult to find homes for because of behavior and health problems.

2. Create an enforceable ordinance that will control the number of pets sold using a licensing/permit system tied into a city-wide database of pets waiting to be adopted and people wanting permits to sell.

Resources

Political body directing the future of the City/Community
Non-profit groups
Churches
Pet owner groups
Pet Stores
Schools and institutions of higher learning
Media outlets

Strategy

A new ordinance could be adopted that protects unwanted pets (dogs and cats) using common sense and the concept of supply and demand. As long as the supply of pets is higher than the demand there will always be a problem of pet overpopulation. Every city needs an effective plan that controls the number of pets available for sale and adoption at a level that provides for a continuous supply of pets, but also is in harmony with the overall demand for those pets by responsible pet owners. To help insure the plan’s success all new pet owners would be required to sign a legally binding license/permit outlining the expectations of all pet owners living and working in the city. A legally binding license/permit would help all people living in the city understand how the city values responsible pet guardians.

If a strategy can be implemented that decreases the number of pets available to a point below the demand, the city over time should be able to see the day when people have to get on a waiting list to both buy, adopt and breed pets. Achieving this goal will no doubt also mean a major change in how people in the city value pet ownership.

Measures of Success

Two important measures of the success of the plan are the number of pets that are euthanized and the number of people who have to wait to adopt/purchase pets within city limits. This kind of radical approach could have a measure of success if a city wide education outreach effort is also implemented that explains how the plan would work and asks people, groups, and organizations to sign on as sponsors/supporters. The strategy requires a long term commitment by the community where current and reliable pet population information is made available to planners and managers.

To help insure a high level of communication the strategy involves using the Internet as a tool to help the city regulate the number of pets sold by both pet stores and private individuals. A new ordinance would protect all adoptable and healthy pets and in the long term result in a very low number of pets being euthanized each year. Non-adoptable pets that would need to be euthanized (guidelines to be determined by a team of veterinarians) would include those with terminal illnesses or with serious behavioral problems.

The plan would require that no pet be sold or breeding operation allowed to operate within the city’s limits until all city certified animal shelters have a combined total population of 50 or fewer adoptable pets and at least 100 pre-qualified people are in line who have signed up and paid adoption fees in advance to adopt a pet. The plan would also require that pets transported into the city from outside city limits be licensed within 30 days and not be sold without a city permit. An ordinance could impose fines to anyone not following the city plan with funds received being put back into the operation of the program.

How permits to sell or breed pets could be regulated

As long as the city can maintain a list of at least 100 pre-qualified and pre-paid people ready to adopt an animal shelter pet, and certified shelters have a total population of 50 or fewer adoptable pets, the city will allow pets to be sold by pet stores and private individuals on a first come first serve basis. All pet sales would be regulated by a “pet sale license” system available to businesses and private individuals. For example, if the number of pets in shelters goes down to 25 and there are at least 100 pre-qualified people ready to adopt the city could issue 25 permits to pet stores or other individuals with pets to sell.

Some pet stores that depend on the sale of dogs and cats at current retail levels would no doubt go out of business if they could not adapt to the new ordinance, but the upside would be a tremendous decrease in the number of pets being euthanized each year.

The AZA Species Survival Plan – learning from the experts

A suggested methodology to guide a new controlled breeding and retail program could be modeled in part after the highly successful Species Survival Program (SSP) being used by Association of Zoos and Aquaiums across the US to control the breeding of animals of all kinds. The SSP plan requires that all participants control the breeding of their animals and that breeding take place only when there is space available to hold additional animals or replace animals that have died. SSP plans work because individuals and institutions agree to the guidelines set forth. Similar guidelines could be adopted by almost any city in the US.

Tools for Success

This plan calls for the creation of a regularly updated bilingual City website managed by Animal Control or a local non-profit organization where anyone can access all the information needed to make the plan work including adoption information, applications to adopt, breeding guidelines, city wide inventories of pets needing adoption, education resources for schools, individuals and groups, license to sell information etc. A phone number people can call for more information would need to be widely distributed especially for those who are not online or have questions. People should also be able to access all information regarding the plan by visiting the City Animal Control Office or the local non-profit organization.

Critical to Success – City wide support

Enforcement of this plan will be difficult without city wide support. This plan proposes that prior to adopting a new city pet selling/adoption ordinance in support of this plan, the resources of the city be used to publicize a place on the Internet and a place off the Internet (for those not online) where citizens can sign on to and demonstrate their support. The city should also consider including the plan on the next city wide ballot to provide another way citizens can show their support. Once the city has gathered the support of a significant percentage of the public in support of the plan, the plan should then be voted on as a new ordinance and then implemented.

There is a good possibility that such a new strategy could work under the leadership of a City government and a coalition of citizen groups who support the new approach.

SAMPLE timeline:

1. By Date to be determined form a working group to design an achievable plan that can be presented for approval by City Council and County Government by Date to be determined. This plan would ask city and county leaders to buy into a plan that focuses on the supply and demand approach and city-wide buy in by the citizens. It would not involve any changes in law or ordinances until city buy in can be achieved.
2. Implement the education component of the plan using all city and county education resources with media support by Date to be determined.
3. Evaluate the success of the educational initiative by Date to be determined.
4. Present a draft new ordinance to the City by Date to be determined.

End Note

Please note that this is a draft outline of a plan that the author believes has some merit and should be considered by any community wanting to finally end the problem of unwanted pets. Please help spread the word about this and comment on how the plan can be improved.

Carlsbad bats "free-tail it" back from Mexico

Photo credit: Copyright Gautam Shah

Carlsbad bats "free-tail it" back from Mexico

by Rick LoBello, iloveparks.com

Second only to the marvel of the caverns themselves, Carlsbad Caverns National Park's sunset bat flight ranks as one of the most fascinating wildlife spectacles in North America. Although the bats are miniscule in size compared to larger mammals like Alaska's caribou and the Pacific Coast's humpback whales, few wildlife dramas can compare to Carlsbad's "main event."

Every evening from early May through October, swarms of nearly 800,000 Brazilian free-tailed bats exit the cave's natural entrance to feed on night flying insects like moths and mosquitoes. Park visitors packing the amphitheater are amazed at the sight. This is definitely the place to be on a New Mexico summer night.

In grand fashion the National Park Service seizes nature's exceptional moment as park rangers present bat fight amphitheater programs. Every evening rangers answer dozens of questions while correcting popular myths about bats. For example many people believe that bats are blind. Actually all bats can see, some better than others depending on their feeding habits. A bat hunting on insects at night does not need to see as well as a fruit eating bat in the tropics.

As the audience patiently awaits the rising curtain on the Cavern's big show, vociferous cave swallows fly overhead in search of their last meals for the day. These dive-bombing acrobats must know that soon they will be forced out of the way by an imminent barrage of bats taking over their air space above the entrance to the caverns.

Few people realize that the park's cave swallow colony, about two thousand strong, also has the distinction of being the largest such colony known to the United States. Nesting along the walls of the natural entrance these beautiful birds, more typical of Mexico, are often at first glance mistaken for bats. But in stark contrast to the squeaking sounds of the swallows, the near silent exiting of bats is a completely different picture.

As the flight develops, a large black cloud appears in the summertime sky, the same cloud that first attracted early Carlsbad explorer Jim White to the cave in the early 1900s. Come September Carlsbad's bat colony begins to migrate south to spend the winter months in Mexico. The migration extends into October and sometimes early November as the maternity colony departs the area in smaller groups. Although much is still unknown about their travel route, we do know that the migration extends at least 800 miles. Information on Carlsbad free-tailed bats was first obtained during the 1950s when more than 100,000 bats were tagged with wing bands. Three Carlsbad individuals were eventually recovered. One traveled to Central Mexico covering over 800 miles in 68 days.

Despite extensive studies in search of banded bats, little is known about the break-up of the colony during the winter months. Do some of the larger groups migrating from Carlsbad stay together or do most of them break up into smaller groups or separate as individuals?

Learn more about Carlsbad's bat colony on the Carlsbad Caverns National Park website. You can also support conservation and research on bats by Adopting a Bat from the Carlsbad Caverns Guadalupe Mountains Association.

Sharing the earth with nature and surviving pandemics

Obama has 8 or 9 big problems, not 7 or 8

by Rick LoBello, iloveparks.com

Yesterday when I learned the news of how the World Health Organization was raising the level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5, I came across a picture I took several weeks ago near my home in West El Paso. It is a picture of another construction site where like most construction sites in El Paso the earth was leveled and desert habitat completely destroyed. I will never understand why developers cannot find ways to save more of the habitat they are destroying so that native plants and animals still have a chance of surviving. So few people in our community seem to care about what is happening to desert animals like the roadrunners, rock squirrels, whiptail lizards and kangaroo rats, yet alone the great diversity of desert plants, who live in these places.

If more of us only knew, if more of us were connected to the natural world that surrounds us, the situation we are in would be much different. How can we survive this pandemic and future pandemics without protecting the natural world we share the planet with? Even our new President seems to be missing the point. He said in his 100 day news conference that he has about seven or eight big problems to deal with including the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, getting health care passed, figuring out how to deal with energy independence, deal with Iran, and a pandemic flu. He should have said 8 or 9 big problems and added to his list how human activities are increasingly threatening the world’s biodiversity.

Yes, it is a very big problem and when historians look back on this century they will no doubt be able to see how our 7 or 8 big problems were just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to the greatest threat to this country and the rest of the world, the continuing loss of biodiversity.

Mara Burney, a research associate at the American Council on Science and Health, wrote a report published in 2002 by Harvard Medical School on why biodiversity is a public health issue. She said “Biodiversity -- the variety of life, ecosystems, species, populations, and genes -- may at first seem like an issue merely for the environmentalists and hippies, far removed from the medical community. But if you think that the recent flurry of deadly emergent diseases such as SARS, Ebola, bird flu, West Nile, and even AIDS are unrelated to environmental issues -- think again. “

If we don’t get serious about the loss of biodiversity, and getting serious starts in our own backyard, we will no doubt lose an incredible wealth of potential medical treatments. Some of these treatments could possibly help scientists develop cures for pandemic diseases and new ways to help with disease prevention.

To quote Burney again “Consider the cancer drug Taxol, made from the Pacific yew tree; which was initially derived from poppies; and Artemisia, which yielded treatments for resistant strains of malaria. In addition, microbes -- the most diverse organisms on the planet -- also hold promise: aminoglycosides, a group of antibiotics used in the treatment of severe infections, were derived from a bacterium found in tropical soil. Animal species too are treasure troves of medicines: the cone snail yields a toxin (recently FDA-approved under the name "Prialt") that is a thousand times more potent than morphine as a painkiller but does not lead to tolerance or addiction. That same snail also yields a broad-spectrum anti-epileptic used for the treatment of intractable epilepsy. It should go without saying that the destruction of species such as these means that potential cures are lost forever. Even species that may seem inconsequential to human life (like soil microbes or cone snails) actually have the potential to improve human life greatly -- if they are not driven to extinction.

Who is to say that potential cures for this pandemic and future pandemics are waiting to be discovered right here in our own backyard, the Chihuahuan Desert? Do we have the wisdom and the will to turn things around before it is too late?

Here are four steps that every community, every nation needs to take to deal with one the biggest problems facing our world today:

1. Launch a full blown education campaign where every member of the community is engaged with information on why protecting biodiversity is important the survival of the human race and how they can take action in their daily lives.

2. Establish new laws and regulations to protect the biodiversity that remains in our communities and surrounding habitats paying close attention to current threats to habitat loss and the decline in native plant and animal populations.

3. Enact full or partial moratoriums on all new developments where wild habitats are being destroyed. At the same time develop strategic plans on how developments can continue that provide for both people and native plants and animals.

4. Develop plans designed to restore native habitats where plants and animals have been seriously impacted and need our help to recover to sustainable population levels.

We need to start seriously thinking about not only the “change we can believe in” but also the “changes we must take” to survive the environmental situation we are living in. If we don’t then nothing else will matter, not wars, not energy independence, not the economy, or much of anything else.

Will the dream of a giant park on the border be revived after Obama's visit to Mexico?

by Rick LoBello, iloveparks.com/peaceparks

This area is just four hours east of El Paso and the creation of the international park would greatly enhance ecotourism in the West Texas.

(El Paso, Texas, April 19, 2009 Update) Earlier this month I learned that a new effort is underway in Mexico that could re-open US/Mexico talks on the long proposed international park in the Big Bend National Park region of West Texas. Two sources in Acuna, Coahuila and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon confirm that the Governor of Coahuila was working on a presentation for President Obama and President Calderon proposing that Mexico and the US once again seriously consider the creation of what once was reported on in El Paso as the "Giant Park Proposal" (see 1936 article below).

It is unclear at this time if the park proposal was discussed. An article posted on yesterday's El Universal.com indicates that the two presidents did discuss numerous projects on the border that could help with Mexico's economy opening that the possibility the park was discussed as a ecotourism initiative.

The originally proposed international park needs to be completed and I hope that President Obama and President Calderon will find time to discuss the proposal.

An international park combining Big Bend National Park with protected areas across the border in Coahuila and Chihuahua will:

(1) help to call international attention to the transboundary protected areas and the need to promote the long term protection of the region's fascinating flora and fauna including a number of rare and endangered species,
(2) become a permanent monument and symbol of peace between the US and Mexico, one that President Roosevelt said would celebrate the friendship between the two countries and be a meeting ground where the people of both countries and citizens from all parts of the world could come together to learn about each other’s culture while coming to better understand the natural world that they all share.
(3) help to call the region's attention to the needs of people living in rural areas without adequate running water, electricity, sanitation and educational opportunities. The people living in the area cannot be expected to support the long term protection of the region if their needs are not also taken care of.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry Truman were strong advocates of the US/Mexico international park and Roosevelt proclaimed six months before his death that “"I do not believe that this undertaking in the Big Bend will be complete until the entire park area in this region on both sides of the Rio Grande forms one great international park."
I want to see Big Bend made complete because I love the park where I lived and worked for nearly 17 years. I hope you will join me and others in helping to make this dream for both countries and the world finally come true.

rickllobello@cs.com

Read the Story from the El Paso Herald Post in 1936

El Paso Herald Post, November 6, 1936

Will Discuss Big Bend Park

Arno M. Cammerer, director of the National Park Service, will be in El Paso, Sunday, to discuss with Mexican officials boundaries of a proposed International Park, the American half which would be in Brewster County.

PROPOSED PARK GIANT PROJECT

Officials Will Arrive Here Sunday for Parley On Recreation Site

The proposed Big Bend International Park will be one of the biggest developments ever undertaken by the National Park Service, according to Assistant Director Conrad L. Wirth, who is enroute here with other Washington officials of the National Park Service to attend a two-day conference opening Sunday with representatives of the Mexican government. 'Boundaries of the park will be discussed.

In my opinion," said Mr. Wirth, "the Big Bend International Park will be one of the greatest recreational and educational ventures ever undertaken by the National Park Service. The benefits to the people of Mexico and the United States will be almost unlimited."

Director Arno B. Cammerer and Assistant Directors Wirth and G. A. Moskey will arrive here Sunday morning with Herbert Maier of Oklahoma City, regional officer of the National Park Service, in charge of cooperative development of state parks in Texas. and other Southwestern States.

They will be met here by representatives of the U. S. Biological Survey and the International Boundary Commission, to confer with Daniel F. Galicia and other from the. Department of Forestry; Fish and Game of Mexico.

Tentative boundaries have been agreed upon at previous joint meetings of the two commissions.
The sessions here are expected to result in final determination for presentation to the respective governments. It is probable these boundaries will include about 788,000 acres for the Big Bend National Park of Texas—all in Brewster County- and approximately 400,000 acres for the Mexican National Park in the States of Chihuahua and Coahuila.

The two-parks would be linked by a bridge across the Rio Grande at Boquillas.

Discover local parks

by Rick LoBello, iloveparks.com/elpaso

You may have read my post from March 9th on nature deficit disorder (NDD). I would be remiss if I did not write something about how to prevent it. Symptoms of nature deficit disorder include diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.

The easiest way to help prevent NDD is to head for a local park. Most parks have pathways and some have native plants and animals. I recommend that you find a natural area where you can get to know trees and shrubs, wildflowers and birds. When it comes to connecting with native wildlife you can almost always count on seeing desert birds like Mourning Doves, White-winged Doves and several species of seed-eaters like House Finches, Rufous-crowned Sparrows and Canyon Towhees. Actually we have over a 100 species of nesting birds in the area including non-native species like House Sparrows and pigeons. Want to learn more? Go to the library and check out a field guide to North America birds or connect with the Trans Pecos Audubon Society.

As for our native plants they are a lot easier to learn since they don’t fly away when you find them and we have so many species identified for us with ID signs at places like UTEP’s Centennial Museum, Keystone Heritage Park and the City’s Archaeological Museum. Soon we will be seeing desert willow flowers, yuccas and prickly-pear cactus. When the rains come in summer look for the pink flowers of ceniza and the yellow flowers of creosote bush. One of the most spectacular plants to watch for grows a flowering stalk often reaching 13 feet in height. Watch for the giant flowering stalks of sotol. On some years sotol stalks dramatically dominate the mountain slopes along the Trans Mountain Road through Franklin Mountains State Park.

Most city parks are landscaped with multiple use grassy areas for picnicking and sports. If you prefer these kinds of parks over natural areas go for it. Your main goal should be to get you and your family into the outdoors.

For a whole list of local and regional outdoor hot spots visit the desert links page at http://www.chihuahuandesert.org/. While you’re there check out some of El Paso’s conservation groups like the Native Plant Society and the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition.

Getting outside is your first step so make plans to visit a local park. Discover what El Paso has to offer on your days off or on your way home from work. Once you find your favorite parks visit them often and look for changes during the four seasons. Right now spring is in the air and many species of birds are singing and building nests.
Can’t find what you are looking for? Speak out for parks. Your representative in Congress, the State of Texas, El Paso County and the City would appreciate hearing from you. If you keep sitting in front of the TV or a computer monitor the symptoms of nature deficit disorder will continue to set in. Head for the desert. Head for the mountains. Head for a local park, just get outside today.

Do you have Nature Deficit Disorder?

By Rick LoBello, iloveparks.com/elpaso

In his acclaimed book Last Child in the Woods (2005) Richard Louv describes a condition affecting people of all ages called “nature deficit disorder.” A recent study found that children spend an average of 6 hours a day in front of a TV or computer screen, but less than 4 minutes a day in unstructured outdoor play. The American Medical Association reports that unstructured free play in the out-of-doors brings a host of benefits to children—from being smarter to more cooperative to healthier overall.

I know of many adults who probably spend that many hours a day or more in front of a TV or computer who could also benefit from more time outdoors. Imagine what our world might be like if more people spent time in the outdoors gardening, going for walks, hiking, camping and playing sports. If we lived in a world that was more outdoors oriented perhaps we would all be smarter, more cooperative and healthier. We might not need to worry about an international economy falling apart, the need for a national health care program and perhaps fewer people would suffer and die from the horrors of war.

In reading the headlines in today’s Newspaper Tree I saw stories like Manhunt Monday and Kidnapper Arrested. On CNN.com there was news about China harassing a US ship and how a suspect has been charged in a pastor’s shooting death. I wonder how many of these problems and conflicts have been influenced in some way by nature deficit disorder.

Nature deficit disorder is real and everyone who has an opportunity to help others understand it should do so. School administrators can help students experience nature by creating habitats for wildlife on school grounds and by creating opportunities for classes to learn about nature at local parks during the school day and with their families on weekends. Community leaders and the media can make a difference too by encouraging people to take time away from technology and to spend time connecting with nature.

Most of us have grandparents and great grandparents who were much closer to the earth than we are today. Some of us have great memories of spending time in the outdoors. If only those who planned our city had an opportunity to read Richard Louv’s book. If they had El Paso would look much different from what we see today. There would be more parks filled with native plants and animals, larger expanses of natural areas providing wildlife corridors for large animals like deer to travel through, and children growing up in our neighborhoods would have a much clearer understanding of our natural heritage and how sharing our planet with the wild creatures is as important as getting an education.

Unfortunately for many the outdoors has been so sensationalized that many are afraid to venture past their backyards or outside the confines of a playground. Take a moment to reconsider your connections with nature and look into the many opportunities to connect here in El Paso. Start by checking the Desert Links page at chihuahuandesert.org and if you are going beyond El Paso check out some of the parks on my site at iloveparks.com.


Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. John Muir

Why should we care about saving the poppies and the Castner Range?

By Rick LoBello

For me this is an easy question to answer. Prior to moving to El Paso I spent seventeen years working at Big Bend National Park, the world’s largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert. It was there working as a park ranger and on a variety of research projects that I came to know this desert ecosystem so well. Today I am very concerned about its future and the threats of development that endanger the desert on both sides of the border. Since the first day I put on a park ranger badge in 1975 I have dedicated my life to helping people connect with and understand this amazing land.

We need the poppies and the adjoining Castner Range like we need water flowing into our homes and food in our stomachs. Nature is life and without it we simply cannot survive. Imagine what our world would be like if all we knew were buildings, super highways and concrete. Ever try eating a rock? Do you think you could live very long without water? All of the natural resources that we need to survive are limited. Unfortunately for our children and their children’s children many if not most of the decision makers approving plans for urban sprawl, one of the main threats to the desert, have little understanding of why keeping the desert ecosystem intact is so important to our future. Still others have some understanding, but do not know how to stop the wave of development currently underway. As a result thousands of species of animals and plants here and around the world have gone extinct or are on the road to extinction.

Most of the animals that live in the Castner Range are valuable in helping to maintain the desert’s complex biodiversity. For example, the foraging behavior of mule deer, small mammals and birds helps to disperse seeds of numerous plants important to their own survival and the survival of countless other species. Writing for the US Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Bulletin, Jim Lyzer brings this important understanding into focus: “We are destroying or wiping out species before we know what their value might be. That in itself should justify the time and expense that it takes to help them avert extinction. Beyond that we have an ethical obligation to all the species that share this planet. When we lose anything, we’re really losing a figurative encyclopedia. And we might be losing a page with enormous benefits to mankind. Unfortunately, today most people around the world either are unaware or unconcerned about the consequences that will surely affect the survival of our own species in the near future.”

Looking at the “big picture for El Paso’s future” the most valuable resource we have is not anything we have built or we are about to build, it is the people who live here and the natural ecosystem with its complex biodiversity. The Castner Range helps to protect that biodiversity and the last thing we need to do is to allow the current threat of urban sprawl to spread any further into the Franklins. Already we can see that we are about to lose the magnificent wilderness vistas on the west side to the developers who have recently announced the coming of their army of bulldozers and another chapter of destruction along Trans Mountain Road.

The Castners offer hope for our community and the Chihuahuan Desert in this part of North America. Can’t we learn to share the earth with native animals and plants?

I encourage you to learn more about efforts to protect the Castner Range by attending the Poppies Celebration, visiting http://www.franklinmountains.org/ and by becoming a member of the Franklin Mountains Coalition.

Make plans to attend the Poppies Celebration on Saturday, March 14

FREE Event with Free Parking and shuttle at Cohen Stadium

The Franklin Mountains Poppies Celebration on Castner Range is being planned again this year on Saturday March 14 from 10 am to 6 pm at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology, 4301 Transmountain Road. The day's activities will include nature talks, wildlife displays, educational exhibits, demonstrations, crafts, music and refreshments. Educational Speakers will be in the Gazebo from 10 am to 3 pm and there will be music, entertainment and tequila tasting from 3 - 6 pm. Please note that even if the poppies do not bloom this year, we celebrate the only place in El Paso where poppies can bloom.

Speakers at the Gazebo
10am - John Kiseda, Birds of the Franklin Mountains
11am - John White, Plants of the Franklin Mountains
Noon - Rick LoBello, Mammals of the Franklin Mountains
1pm - Sal Quintanilla, Venomous Animals of the Desert
2pm - Leon Metz, History of El Paso

The Celebration will also include Leyton Cougar with Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in Ramah, New Mexico and a socialized live wolf, videos by local documentarian and producer Jackson Polk, puppet shows, a magician, and raffle prizes. Everyone is welcome to come out and enjoy the beauty of the mountains and the poppies during this FREE Family Fun event.

Capstone Productions Inc. will show many of their El Paso Gold Heritage TV series films FOR FREE at this year's Poppy Festival in the auditorium at the Museum of Archaeology. It is called Poppy Fest Film Fest and will feature ten years of videos that El Paso TV producer Jackson Polk has produced about the history and heritage of the El Paso area.

Poppy Film Festival schedule of films for March 14, 2009 at the Museum of Archaeology
10:00am El Paso’s Magoffin Home Update 2008
11:00am El Paso’s Historic Sites and Markers
Noon Mexican Revolution Sites in El Paso
1:00pm Legends of El Paso’s Mountains
2:00pm Gunfights of the Old West
2:45pm El Paso’s Mount Cristo Rey
3:45pm Ghost Stories of El Paso Vol.1

Sponsors include El Paso Archaeological Society, http://epas.com/ , El Paso Museum of Archeology, http://www.elpasotexas.gov/arch_museum/ , Franklin Mountains State Park, http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/franklin/ , and Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition, http://franklinmountains.org/

The Poppy Film Fest ENDS at 5:00pm

Can we learn to share natural habitats with wild animals in El Paso?

By Rick LoBello, www.iloveparks.com/elpaso

Public Meeting planned on Wednesday, February 25 to discuss an Ordinance amending Title 20 (Zoning) to establish a Natural Open Space (NOS) zoning district

Over the past hundred years El Paso’s planners and developers have done an amazing job in clearing out most of the natural habitat that once provided food, water and living space to countless species of animals and plants here in the desert and Rio Grande valley surrounding the Franklin Mountains. What animals remain compete for living space with parking lots, new business developments and neighborhoods. Case in point is the burrowing owl. These small owls need burrows to lay their eggs and nest and increasingly we are hearing of owls trying to nest in drainage pipes where natural burrows have been bulldozed over and eggs end up washing away when the pipes fill with rain water.

Improvements in our city have been made with the overall goal of making the city better with new schools, better roads and a vibrant business community. Back in those days and unfortunately even today, most of the people making the decisions on how land is developed made those decisions with one main guiding focus, to make the human customer happy. Unfortunately for the natural world the customer (that’s means people like you and me) was almost always more interested in the size and appearance of the home or business being built with little concern for the native animals and plants that would be displaced by the project.

Where mule deer, pronghorn, buffalo, wolves, bear and mountain lions once lived, the land in El Paso is now inhabited mainly by people and an infrastructure dominated by streets, parking lots, super highways, business centers, and residential areas. Some native species have found a way to survive in this urban jungle, but most have simply disappeared, especially the larger animals.

Here in El Paso the largest habitat remaining is high in the Franklins. Unfortunately for many species lower elevation habitats are critical to their survival and if it wasn’t for all the unexploded ordinance that keeps people out of the Castner Range, I doubt if we would see many deer and other large animals at all.

This week on Wednesday February 25 a group of people will meet in Council Chambers at 1pm in City Hall at a public meeting to discuss an Ordinance amending Title 20 (Zoning) to establish a Natural Open Space (NOS) zoning district. El Paso’s Ecotourism Committee proposed such an ordinance about a year ago and it is good news to see the proposal on the agenda. The committee which is being spearheaded by Commissioner Escobar, is recommending that the City Council adopt a new Natural Habitat and Open Space Zoning Ordinance for land owned by the City of El Paso and any other land which chooses such designation in an effort to enhance ecotourism opportunities in El Paso. This category would apply to PSB land, open space donations, lands under permanent conservation easements, neighborhood open space like Thunder Canyon, & lands owned by conservation organizations with preservation of the natural space in perpetuity, however does not affect private land that could be developed.

Natural habitat open space is defined as wild land areas that are undeveloped and still in their natural state. Protecting more natural habitat open space in the foothills of the Franklin Mountains and surrounding area will help to protect important habitat for wildlife in the area while enhancing important ecotourism opportunities. The value of protecting natural habitat open space will also help the city create more nature focused outdoor opportunities for children growing up in El Paso, something that is largely lacking due to past emphasis on creating parks that focus on play grounds and playing fields.

All across the country a growing number of educators and psychologists have identified an early childhood and teenage development problem called Nature Deficit Disorder, a behavioral condition resulting from too much time growing up in front of computer screens and TV sets. More natural habitat open space will prevent this condition and help children growing up in the city have more opportunities to connect with nature.

The committee hopes that the new ordinance will both encourage and empower the City Council to protect more natural open space before ongoing development activities cause what remains to completely disappear. The Open Space Master Plan for El Paso recommends the creation of an Open Space Zoning Category (Page 6-2, Recommendation A-2). Cities such as Denver, CO, Boston, MA & Pasadena, CA have already adopted a similar ordinance.

The Eco-tourism committee commends the City for the tremendous progress it has made in addressing natural resources and improving upon sustainable development initiatives. Some of these initiatives include:

-Adoption of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan for El Paso;
-Adoption of the Open Space Master Plan for El Paso;
-Coordinated with El Paso Water Utilities on land preservation opportunities while also actively seeking funding for open space acquisitions;
-Adoption of a rewrite of the City’s Subdivision and Zoning Code;
-And adoption of Landscape Regulations

These benchmarks would be complimented with the adoption of an Open Space Zoning Ordinance. There is a clear need for this ordinance; note that Resler Canyon, now preserved in perpetuity in its natural state by the Frontera Land Alliance land trust, is still zoned for apartments. A Natural Habitat and Open Space Zoning Ordinance on city owned and other property seeking the designation will allow the city to preserve the publicly owned arroyos and other ecologically and aesthetically important areas (e.g. PSB lands) and create scenic corridors, such as along Trans Mountain Road, which will enhance our quality of life and promote ecotourism opportunities. Ecotourism has the potential to have a major impact on the City both economically and in enhancing quality of life if natural open space can be protected for future generations.

For further information, please contact Kevin Von Finger at (915) 581-2555.

Will we turn off the lights on March 28?

Scroll down for recent posts about Keystone and the National Park Service


Want to be a part of a worldwide event to help call attention to the need for decisive action on climate change?

On Saturday, March 28th at 8:30pm in the US, millions of people around the globe will unite for one hour and switch off their lights to show that they care about our living planet. To sign up for the event and receive regular updates click here. http://www.earthhour.org/signup/ To join others in El Paso in promoting this event send an email to rickllobello@cs.com

Watch a video about the event on YouTube.

Cities already listed to participate in Earth Hour 2009 include Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow, Nashville, Oslo, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, and Warsaw.

On this special night, the world will witness some of the most recognizable landmarks on the planet dim the lights in support of decisive action on climate change. Icons switching off include the world’s tallest hotel building in Dubai - the Burj Dubai, the tallest free-standing structure in the Americas - the CN Tower in Toronto, Moscow's Federation Tower and in Rome - Quirinale - the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano.

Auckland's Sky Tower - the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere will go dark, joined by Australia’s iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House and across in Cape Town, South Africa, the iconic Table Mountain will mark Earth Hour by turning off its flood lights.

Why do we need the Federal Government’s help in saving Keystone?

Above: Gambel's quail is one of the Keystone Heritage Park bird species threatened by the proposed developments. US Fish and Wildlife Service Photo.

Note: Scroll down for OPED on National Park Service

Opinion

by Rick LoBello, iloveparks.com/elpaso, February 8, 2009

This past Saturday the El Paso Times published a great editorial supporting local efforts to turn Keystone Heritage Park into a National Monument. Having been involved with efforts to create a national monument in New Mexico, I have some experience and can help, but question why we need to call upon the Federal Government to save the park with our national economy in such a crisis. Why can’t we just learn to get along with nature and why can’t we stop destroying it at every turn? Have we lost our senses? Are we so disconnected from reality to the point that we think that all development and progress is good for future generations? I say that we need a strategic development plan for El Paso NOW and call upon the community to start thinking about the needs of the wild creatures that still survive here before we approve any more natural land to be turned over to bulldozers.

If our leaders need more support from the public to move in this direction I have a suggestion, why not change the time or extend the time of weekly commissioners court and council meetings to a time convenient for working people? Currently these weekly meetings are broadcast on TV in the evenings, but that approach limits the ability for most people to be involved. I would think that if we could make more opportunities for people to speak out on this issue and other issues we would see many more members of the public showing up to present their views. We might even need to move these meetings to larger spaces, who knows.

I always appreciate learning of local efforts to encourage our community to move in the direction of learning to share our city with the wild creatures that have miraculously survived the past hundred years of city growth and expansion. After all they are part of the complex web of life we call “nature” and without the ecological services they provide here and all over the planet, each in their own special way, we as a species would be hard pressed to survive.Keystone Heritage Park has involved hundreds if not thousands of El Pasoans over the years in a laudable effort to save not just a tiny part of our natural heritage, but a part of our cultural heritage as well. Those who have been involved with Keystone and understand how difficult it can be to protect even small pockets of the natural world in our city, know that the area has long been threatened by current, planned and proposed developments on the edge the park.

No park is an island, not even Big Bend National Park with its 1,100 square miles of Chihuahuan Desert wilderness. What happens outside the park is critical to the animals that live within. Here in El Paso many of the birds that inhabit Keystone are migratory and are here only during the winter months. The Spotted Sandpiper for example breeds in the northern part of our country as far north as Canada. If something were to happen to its breeding grounds it is doubtful that we would have Spotted Sandpipers in El Paso. On the other hand there are many species that nest and raise their young at Keystone that live here year round. For some of these birds the park is not big enough to sustain them and they need to look for food on lands outside the park.

What happens to Keystone Heritage Park is important to not only the animals that inhabit the park, but also to every child in El Paso. For if our city becomes a place that does not share land with native plants and animals it is doubtful that it will be a safe place for people.

We need Keystone. If we cannot save this small spot on the map, one of the last wildlife refuges in the Upper Valley, then there is something seriously wrong with our community. Let’s just do it and let Washington focus on figuring out how they are going to put more people to work. Our leaders need to figure out how we can save the park with local laws and regulations. Yes we can.

National Parks threatened by an unlikely source, the National Park Service

OPINION

By Rick LoBello, iloveparks.com

In 2007 after nearly ten years of study, the National Park Service concluded that so many snowmobiles are incompatible with the preservation of Yellowstone National Park’s natural resources. To those concerned about the future of the world’s first national park and what many have said it the best idea America ever had, one might think that with that research conclusion it would be a given that changes would soon come to how the National Park Service manages the use of snowmobiles in the fragile winter wonderland. Unfortunately the report was only wishful thinking for as soon after the results were announced the country’s “law suit machine” intervened preventing the NPS from moving forward.

Over the years I have seen many instances of how political forces have prevented the National Park Service from living up to its mandate, but now I am seeing examples of a threat even more troublesome. When I worked at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in 1993 the park recommended that the underground lunch room in the Big Room be removed because of its impact on the fragile underground ecology of the cave and because it was is no longer necessary and was incongruent to the “natural visitor experience”. When the Superintendent Frank Deckert tried to implement the change and move the food service up the elevator to the Visitor Center area, Senator Pete Dominici (R-New Mexico) who was a part of the fight against removal, announced that President Bill Clinton had signed the 1995 Interior Appropriations Bill that included a clause to bar removal of the facility. Deckert did the best he could to live up to the National Park Service mandate to preserve and protect the parks, but his efforts were stymied by the political influence forced upon the NPS by Senator Dominici.

That was 1995, today park superintendents like Frank Deckert with the passion to protect the parks have all but retired and many who remain seem more concerned about keeping their jobs than they are about protecting the parks. The other day when I opened up my winter 2009 issue of National Parks, the Magazine of the National Parks and Conservation Association, I was reminded of a new and growing trend in our country’s national parks that few people are talking about. That trend is the growing threat to the parks from within the National Park Service. Yes, you heard that right, I saw it happening when I worked in the national parks over a 25 years period and I see it continuing to happen today. The quality and dedication of the people running our parks is declining and park rangers with the guts to stand up for what is right are rapidly becoming endangered species.

I applaud NPCA for saying it like it is when they criticized the NPS for failing to follow their own science when choosing to allow a daily count of 720 snowmobiles in the park this winter in response to a court order requiring them to provide for snowmobile and snowcoach access in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. Over the past ten years more than a half million Americans have made comments about winter access in the park with four out of five favoring snowcoaches over snowmobiles. According to NPCA, Yellowstone’s Superintendent Suzanne Lewis could have caped the daily limit at 318 snowmobiles this winter, but chose not to by defaulting to the upper limit of 720, a number that NPCA says “flies in the face” of the Park Service’s own science.

Let’s all hope that with the new Administration and President Barack Obama’s call to “restore science to its rightful place,” current and future park rangers will be both encouraged and required to make better choices for the future of our national parks.

What will happen to Rio Bosque Wetlands Park?

When Friends of Rio Bosque Wetlands Park in the Lower Valley area of East El Paso sponsored a special Discover Rio Bosque Free Community Event on November 15, 2008 event planners were concerned about the new Border Wall being constructed at the park's edge. Now that the wall has been built it won't be long before park managers start seeing how the structure will impact the wetland habitat so important to local wildlife species and migratory birds.

Enter the discussion and learn more at www.iloveparks.com/elpaso

Upcoming Discover Rio Bosque Wetlands Park Event

Join in on the discussion about Rio Bosque Wetlands Park. For more information on the Discover the Park event planned for November 15 visit www.iloveparks.com/elpaso. You are invited to make any comments you wish about the park on this blog or ask questions. You can also respond to comments and questions and can remain anonymous if you wish.

Take our US Mexico International Park Poll

Check out our poll question at the bottom of the page: Do you support the 1935 proposal calling upon the United States and Mexico to establish an international park in the Big Bend National Park area of West Texas and northern Mexico? Before you answer you can learn more about the proposal at iloveparks.com. If you would like to learn more about future efforts to create the park send me a message at rickllobello@cs.com and I will add you to the US Mexico International Park Association email list.