A monumental success out west
Castner Range is home to 6,672 acres of West Texas beauty and has historical significance that dates back thousands of years. And now it is permanently protected as a national monument.
The Frontera Land Alliance was created by dedicated volunteers in 2004 with the focus to conserve Castner Range. The conservation effort for Castner Range started long before Frontera became involved, but once Frontera was established, there was now a go-to organization that could take the lead and partner with community groups. And we proudly support the recent designation of Castner Range National Monument by the Biden administration.
Castner Range in El Paso, Texas, is a 7,081-acre mountainous and alluvial fan Army property that has been closed to artillery and munitions training since 1966, and is kept off-limits to visitors due to the presence of scattered residual military ordnance and explosives beneath its surface.
Because Castner Range has remained in its natural state since live-fire exercises ceased in 1966, the Range now supports a diverse Chihuahuan desert ecosystem. The area provides habitat for an extremely diverse collection of wildlife, from bobcats, mountain lions, mule deer and badgers, to turkey vultures, four types of hawks, the western diamondback rattlesnake, and a whole host of lizards including such exotics as the Chihuahuan spotted whiptail, the Southwestern earless lizard and the Texas horned lizard. Twenty-seven wildlife or plant species listed as “threatened or endangered” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may be present on the Range, including the ferruginous hawk, the Texas horned lizard, the Franklin Mountains talus snail and the desert night-blooming cereus.
Frontera received a grant in 2009 to conduct a study funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment (now Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation) on the various ways Castner Range could be conserved. By that point, approximately 1,200 acers of Castner Range had already been sold and lost, and by 2014 we started looking at the possibility of a national monument.
The members of Frontera Land Alliance’s board of directors continued their investment in land preservation by continuing to lead the Castner Range National Monument Partnership — a sample of its partner organizations includes the El Paso Community Foundation, the El Paso Zoo and the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project. Frontera worked with local, regional and national groups to educate and advocate, and to stay in front of the decision makers for national monuments in Washington, D.C.
With the designation of the Castner Range National Monument earlier this year, the south side of the mountain now adjoins conservation easements on Knapp Land Nature Preserve and the Franklin Mountains State Park, connecting with the west side of the mountain called Lost Dog Nature Preserve — the positive result being increased connectivity between conserved lands here in El Paso.
As a land trust, it is important to know your community members and understand what is important to them, not only from the biological standpoint, but from a cultural values standpoint as well since they likely overlap. For Castner Range, for example, there is great overlap in the vegetation traditionally used by Indigenous peoples and the Mexican poppies today that from year to year may carpet the landscape.
Frontera continues to work in very close partnership with El Paso Community Foundation and other local, regional and national organizations as we seek to share the scientific, historical and cultural significance of Castner Range throughout our region. And as we move forward, we look forward to future collaboration with the U.S. Army to identify specific restoration and public access planning, and much more!
By Frontera being open-minded and thinking outside the box, the opportunity presented by a national monument designation became reality. And the great thing about a land trust like ours is that we work with all types of people and projects, with the community, the natural environment and the future in mind.