The Franklin Mountains / Big Bend Connection

by Rick LoBello

Many of you are aware of the change.org petition I created in December to gather support for
convincing the National Park Service to stop plans to build a new Fossil Bone Exhibit in a largely
undeveloped area of the park.  I want to thank all of you for your help and if you have not signed
yet I have an Take Action Page set up at www.iloveparks.com.   Please check it out.  I also want to thank the El Paso Times and KFOX for running stories on this effort.  

I have never written about any connection between the Franklin Mountains and Big Bend and
now is as good a time as any. We are connected to the Big Bend region by many mountain ranges where animals such as mountain lions in the Franklins could very well be connected genetically to lions living in Big bend mountain ranges.  The same can be said about genetic connections to lions living in mountain ranges to the north, west, and south.  Other wide ranging animals such as raptors like the Golden Eagle could also have genetic conditions.  The Franklin Mountain desert ecology has many obvious plant connections as well. When we encourage our friends to visit Big Bend and get involved with conservation issues in the area, we are also encouraging people in El Paso to become active as conservation advocates. Therefore there is a Franklin Mountains Big Bend Connection.

We should be more involved with this area and encourage Big Bend conservation advocates to
support Franklin Mountain conservation efforts too.

Organizations like the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute (www.cdri.org) have encouraged
scientists and conservationists to work together in this region for years and the Department of the
Interior is working on implementing a new Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative in the
southwest that includes not only our area and the Bend Bend, but the entire desert region (http://www.usbr.gov/dlcc/).

2014 will be another challenging year for the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition.  I wish
everyone involved in FMWC all the best and would be happy to work with anyone who wants to
help improve the FMWC facebook presence and the website at www.franklinmountains.org.