Friends of Friends: Frontera Land Alliance
El Paso these days is buzzing with a community-based effort to make Castner Range a National Monument. The Frontera Land Alliance, the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition and The El Paso Community Foundation are leading this effort. El Pasoans are asking President Obama to use his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act to protect Castner Range as a national monument by transferring ownership from the Department of Defense to the Department of the Interior.
The Tigua tribe (also called: Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo) performed at the annual Poppies Fest, 2016 at the Archeological Museum, El Paso, Texas
Creating a National Monument would honor Castner’s cultural, historical, scientific and environmental connections to the region and, most importantly, preserve and protect the land from urban sprawl forever. This monument designation isn’t just about preserving a piece of land in the U.S.’s 19th largest city or Mexico’s 5th largest town; it is about recognizing the world’s largest binational community’s storied past. Instead of talking about building walls, it’s about tearing them down to protect those who surround them.
