July 2006

FRANKLIN MOUNTAINS NOTES
Newsletter of the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition
July, 2006

Next Meeting: July 19, 2006

The next meeting of the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition is Wednesday, July 19th at 7 p.m. It takes place in Room 411, Burgess Hall on the UTEP campus. Burgess Hall is at the intersection of Sun Bowl Drive and University Ave. on the west side of the campus. Please be prompt. The building entrance locks automatically in the evenings. If you arrive late and no one is at the door, call 861-4361 and someone will come to let you in. For more information contact Scott Cutler (581-6071).

MARK YOUR CALENDARS…
Thanks to Maria Trunk
“Save Our Arroyos” opens Thursday, July 27th, 7 to 9 PM. The Hal Marcus Gallery and The Frontera Land Alliance are partnering to host a grassroots exhibit which will be on display through Friday, September 1st. A Gallery Talk will be given on Thursday, August 24th from 7 to 9 PM.

The Frontera Land Alliance is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the special places and wide-open spaces of West Texas and Southern New Mexico forever. Arroyos are distinctive natural features in El Paso, carved into the slopes of our beloved Franklin Mountains by the flowing water of many years. Many stretch and wind like ribbons through established neighborhoods, offering havens of peace and beauty in the urban setting. Residents often assume these areas will remain in their natural state forever, so they’re surprised when a plan is put forth for a new development in an arroyo. Overwhelmingly, the citizen response has been: Save Our Arroyos!

Artists in the exhibit include Bill Rakocy, Barbara Howe, Candy Mayer, Jeniffer Stapher-Thomas, Jim Andrew, Margaret Tumey, Bob Adams, Kristina Freeman, Dee Olga Min-Young Phillips, Krystyna Robbins, Natalie Baca, Jane Friedman, Gerie Muchinkoff, Jim Quinnan, Lelaroy Williams, Barbara Armijo, Ramie McIntosh-Scully, Ann Mitchell, Jean McGee, John Ryno, Roxanne Shroeder, Susan Frary, Pat Olchefski-Winston and many others. For more information, please call the gallery at 533-9090.

Public Meetings - The New El Paso Open Space Plan: The City of El Paso is taking the first steps in creating a “Green Infrastructure Plan”, the first of its kind in our area. The idea is to consider all open spaces, parks, trails and greenways and integrate them into an organized, interconnected system to be assembled over the next 30 years. Just as a network of roadways, utilities and buildings forms the urban or “gray” infrastructure of a city, the “green” infrastructure network will weave a web of recreational and undeveloped areas to harmonize with the natural landscape, enhance neighborhoods and make El Paso an even better place to live.

The City’s Development Services Department is inviting every interested citizen to contribute input to the plan. Several public meetings will be held to gather input on open space and trail needs, opportunities and desires. Franklin Mountains State Park is sure to play a pivotal role in the layout of surrounding trails, pocket parks and access points, so members of FMWC are especially welcome to attend. If you have a favorite place or route that you’d like to see included in the plan, try to make it to one of the meetings, each of which is scheduled from 6 to 8 PM.

Tues., July 25 at City Council Chambers, City Hall
Wed., July 26 at El Paso Community College, Northwest Campus, 6701 South Desert
Thurs., July 27 at Father Martinez Senior Center, 9311 Alameda
Tues., Aug. 1 at Auxiliary Gym, Eastwood Recreation Center, 3001 Parkwood
Wed., Aug. 2 at El Paso Community College, Transmountain Campus, 9570 Gateway North

For more info contact Chuck Kooshian, Lead Planner, 915-541-4632


Notes from John Sproul

As El Paso continues to grow, the need to conserve significant open space is becoming ever more apparent and urgent. The City of El Paso has recognized this need and is starting work on a comprehensive open-space plan. The first step: five public meetings aimed at getting your input on where significant areas of open space are and how they should be conserved. The plan will address open space throughout the City. Needless to say, it will have important implications for the Franklin Mountains, including Castner Range. Is this the birth of a new era of meaningful open-space protection in El Paso? Your active participation in the planning process can help make it happen.

Castner Range petitions continue to circulate. Fort Bliss’s decision to suspend indefinitely its land-use planning for Castner Range doesn’t change our focus on educating the public about the importance of protecting the range. Until we can meet with U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes to discuss Castner, we are continuing to circulate our petition urging that he work with Congress and the Army to preserve all of Castner Range in its natural state. For downloadable copies of the petition, an accompanying fact sheet, and a sign-up sheet for people interested in doing more to help protect Castner Range, go to the Conservation Issues page on our website: http://www.iloveparks.com/fmwc/issues.htm

Hitt Canyon Arroyo: Proposed Quarry Impact
By Joel Bay, President
North Hills Neighborhood Pride Association

The Hitt Canyon Arroyo, on the northeastern slope of the Franklin Mountains, is in danger of irreparable damage from a proposed rock quarry being planned for the area. The proposed quarry is part of a lease agreement between the El Paso Water Utilities PSB and Jobe Materials orchestrated in relative secrecy and signed in December, 2005. The area of quarry operation - originally 300 acres, but reduced to 223 acres due to the efforts of Charlie Wakeem and Dr. Rick Bonart - lies directly in the path of the run-off from Hitt Canyon.

It also lies in an area of the Northeast that has been designated for future development as low-density residential housing, a school, a park and a nature walk trail head - all specified in detail in the Master Plan for Northeast El Paso that became part of the Comprehensive Plan for future City development in October, 2005. Initially, PSB officials advised interested groups that the quarry, which according to the lease can operate for 20 years (with a 20 year extension option), would be a “surface mining operation” just taking surface materials for use in road beds and home construction projects. Then, at one of many meetings with city officials, NHNPA learned that the quarry was planned to be a 100-foot-deep excavation operation.

The PSB presented the 100-foot-deep hole as a future flood prevention ponding area planned as part of the area’s development. However, the drainage plans for this Master Plan area, of which 3 options are posted on the PSB website, show no plan nor indicated need for a ponding area anywhere in the vicinity of the quarry site. The “story” got more interesting when we discovered that an “executive session” meeting of the PSB held in late June of this year addressed the need for an earthen dam to be constructed across Hitt Canyon to collect run-off and “prevent potential flooding” of the area.

The effect of a dam blocking the natural run-off from Hitt Canyon (identified by City engineers as a “shadow rainfall area”) could be disastrous to the natural environment in and around the canyon and would permanently alter the nature-scape of the area. Why is there now a need for a dam? The dam isn’t necessary, nor identified in the Master Plan drainage options, to protect future development and home sites, but it sure makes sense when you consider that a 100-foot-deep quarry will be located directly in the path of water run-off from the canyon. It would be very difficult to quarry rock from a flooded hole!

First we went from a Master Planned up-scale residential development to a quarry site; then we went from a surface scraping operation to a 100-foot-hole (said to be “needed” but not included in any existing planning assessments); then we need a dam to protect the future development area…which cannot be developed, as planned, because there is a 100-foot- deep hole where a school and homes were to be! Does it make sense to you? Does it sound like a proper use of public land and a key mountain canyon?

If your answer is NO, join the effort on July 25th to convince City Council to deny the rezoning required to permit the quarry to proceed. Concerns about a shortage of rock and other materials for new construction in the area - used as justification for the quarry - are easily nullified when you learn that Jobe Materials alone has more than 10 other quarry operations in the City, not even counting the resources of other rock and cement companies.

Please visit the North Hills Neighborhood Pride Association’s website at http://www.northhillselpaso.org/ for more information, a pre-worded e-mail, printable letter and petition forms. Send the e-mail to the Mayor, City Reps and planning division personnel. Call your District Representative and voice your opposition. This is not just a Northeast issue. Please join us in voicing opposition at City Council on July 25th!



The Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition
Borderland Mountain Bike Association - - Celebration of Our Mountains - - Chihuahuan Desert Wildlife Rescue - - El Paso Archeological Society - - El Paso Cactus and Rock Club - - El Paso Native Plant Society - - El Paso Regional Group of the Sierra Club - - El Paso/Trans-Pecos Audubon Society - - El Paso Wilderness Preservation Committee - - El Paso Women’s Political Caucus - - Friends of the Franklins - - League of Women Voters of El Paso - - Mesilla Valley Audubon Society - - Mountain Park Community Association - - Photography Enthusiasts of El Paso - - Southern New Mexico Group of the Sierra Club

VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT http://iloveparks.com/fmwc/