KEEPING THE FAITH

 

This week we celebrate a victory that’s been a long time coming.

There is a stretch of Chihuahuan Desert wilderness in northeast El Paso known as Castner Range. Briefly used as an Army artillery proving ground, it sits in the middle of a binational metroplex of more than two million people undeveloped and in much the same natural state that the first humans who came to this part of the world found it 10,000 years ago.

Castner is more than 6,600 acres of high desert drama. Beginning at its gently rolling base on the desert floor, the escarpment steeply rises to reveal magnificent cathedral peaks of stone that seem to touch the sky. Giant arroyos course down from the highest reaches, ready to carry the rains that hit during our brief monsoon season. The oldest rock in Texas, Precambrian that formed more than a billion years ago, keeps company with the incredible flora and fauna that dispel any notion that the desert is somehow lacking in life.

Ocotillo, yucca, sumac, creosote bush, mesquite trees and the beautifully blooming Mexican Poppy support and shelter mule deer, coyote, mountain lion, and more than a hundred species of birds, including peregrine falcons.

Castner’s human history goes back 10,000 years. Ancient indigenous people left their impressions of the physical and metaphysical world in rock art that is still preserved thousands of years later. Those early humans were followed over the millennia by Apache, Pueblo, Comanche, Hopi and Kiowa. And now Castner is surrounded by a vibrant modern city that is home to people who can trace their ancestry to every part of the planet.

It’s truly a magical place.

When the Army stopped using Castner as a training range in 1966, a few visionary souls began to advocate for its protection and preservation. Over the years, activists like Judy Ackerman, a retired Sergeant Major from Fort Bliss, raised awareness about Castner in the community and enlisted the help of those in public office. They successfully stopped various efforts to develop the range for commercial or industrial use.

Days after I was elected to Congress in 2012, I met with Judy and other Castner advocates to work on a plan to secure federal protection. Their leadership and push guided my work with the Obama administration, where, though we gave it everything we had, we were unable to secure a National Monument designation. But failure was not an option for the team that Judy helped lead. We pursued a different tack, successfully working through the National Defense Authorization Act to protect Castner Range in perpetuity within the Department of the Army.

Judy and groups like the El Paso Community Foundation and the Frontera Land Alliance continued their work with my successor in Congress, Veronica Escobar. They built on the efforts of the previous five decades, once again marshaling all of the facts, arguments and political power of our community to push for monument designation. They helped Escobar in her masterful effort to convince the Biden administration that in addition to protection against development, Castner needed to be opened to the public so that the story of the land, and the people who have called it home, could be told to this and future generations.

Their perseverance finally paid off when President Biden named Castner Range a national monument on Tuesday.

In making the announcement at the White House, the President said of Castner and people like Judy who had fought so long to protect it:

It’s a place of incredible beauty. And right now — right now, as winter gives way to spring, Mexican gold poppies are bursting into bloom… [W]hen you see it, it’s just breathtaking. Transforming desert plains and hills into a sea of vibrant yellow and oranges, framed with the rugged mountains and the blue sky.

The people of El Paso have fought to protect this for 50 years. Their work has finally paid off… Castner Range will be preserved for future generations.

Sadly, Judy Ackerman wasn’t at the White House for the announcement. She passed away in November after a long fight with cancer.

But I’m confident she’s smiling down on us.

Her example shows that persistence, perseverance and faith -- faith that our work will ultimately lead us to our goal -- is critical to any final victory. We may not always be there to celebrate the fruit of our labor, but the work is worth it.

Whether it’s a 50-year fight to protect public lands and secure a national monument… whether it’s the struggle to confront climate change before it’s too late or end gun violence or restore voting rights in Texas… the work is always worth it.

Keep the faith,

Beto