by Rick LoBello, Education Programs Manager

When I first moved to El Paso in 2000 after spending 25 years living and working in some of our wildest and most remote national parks, one of the first questions I asked of my city representative was if El Paso had a strategic plan for wildlife conservation in protecting habitat especially in undeveloped areas.   The answer I received then is pretty much the same today, not really.   We have plans for development, plans for open space and city parks, Texas Parks and Wildlife has plans for Franklin Mountains State Park, but there is no wildlife conservation plan adopted by our City, County and State to help conserve wildlife within city limits outside of protected areas.   Some cities have wildlife conservation plans especially if there is significant habitat in its natural state.   Cities with notable conservation plans include Austin, Atlanta, Portland, Seattle and Washington DC.   In Austin the city promotes native planting and landscaping through its “Wildlife Austin” program in concert with its affiliation with “Bee City USA” and “Bird City” affiliate.  Cities around the world are also working on plans to enhance urban biodiversity.  

Here at the Zoo, we have been focusing on wildlife conservation in El Paso, plus projects regionally and internationally.   We have hosted meetings helping to bring together wildlife biologists and researchers at the Chihuahuan Desert Conference and other meetings on international wildlife corridors.    We still have a long way to go in El Paso especially if we are going to protect wildlife corridors important to many species that can get genetically isolated when natural open spaces are developed. The City’s Open Space Plan of 2007 states that the amount of undeveloped land is rapidly decreasing. The good news is that since the plan was published there has been notable progress in protecting habitat especially with the designation of Castner Range National Monument. El Pasoans are very supportive of wildlife conservation and non-profit organizations like Frontera Land Alliance are making positive contributions.

All around the world scientists and conservation advocates are sounding the alarm about the biodiversity crisis and how habitat loss, direct exploitation of species, climate change, pollution, and invasive species are major threats to the diversity of life on planet earth. Nearly every species in some way is connected to the health of humanity and if we don’t sound the alarm often and take action our quality of life is threatened in a myriad of ways.

Take Action

You can your family and friends can join the effort to help protect habitats for wildlife by supporting the Zoo’s Conservation Fund and local environmental groups that we partner with including the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition, the Texas Lobo Coalition, Frontera Land Alliance, Keystone Heritage Park, Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, Franklin Mountains State Park, the El Paso Rock and Cactus Club and the El Paso Trans Pecos Audubon Society.

Photos by Rick LoBello
Cover – Castner Range National Monument
Feature – Javelina
Top – Mule deer