Will the Dream of a Giant Park on the Border be revived After Obama’s Visit to Mexico?    

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Earlier this month we learned that a new effort is underway in Mexico that could reopen US/Mexico talks on the long proposed international park in the Big Bend National Park region of West Texas.  Two sources in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon confirm that the Governor of Coahuila was working on a presentation for President Obama and President Calderon proposing that Mexico and the US once again seriously consider the creation of what once was reported on in El Paso as the “Giant Park Proposal.”

It is unclear at this time if the park proposal was discussed. An April 18 article in El Universal.com indicates that the two presidents did discuss numerous border area projects that could help with Mexico's economic opening, and there is a possibility the park was discussed as an ecotourism initiative. 

You can see a historical timeline about the proposal going back to 1935 by clicking here.  During the late 1930s meetings were held about the park in El Paso, Texas, but the international park was never realized even though Big Bend National Park was established nine years later, in 1944.  Today the park is well known in the southwest as one of the crown jewels of the National Park System, but what most people do not know is that half of the original proposed park is missing. 

The originally proposed international park needs to be completed, and I hope that President Obama and President Calderon found time to discuss the proposal. 

An international park combining Big Bend National Park with protected areas across the border in Coahuila and Chihuahua will:

(1) Help to call international attention to the transboundary protected areas and the need to promote the long term protection of the region's fascinating flora and fauna, including a number of rare and endangered species;

(2) Become a permanent monument and symbol of peace between the US and Mexico, one that President Roosevelt said would celebrate the friendship between the two countries and be a meeting ground where the people of both countries, and citizens from all parts of the world, could come together to learn about each other’s culture while coming to better understand the natural world that they all share;

(3) Help to call attention to the needs of the region's people living in rural areas without adequate running water, electricity, sanitation and educational opportunities. The people living in the area cannot be expected to support the long term protection of the region if their needs are not also taken care of.

Both President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry Truman were strong advocates of the US/Mexico international park, and Roosevelt proclaimed six months before his death that, "I do not believe that this undertaking in the Big Bend will be complete until the entire park area in this region on both sides of the Rio Grande forms one great international park."

Rick LoBello has dedicated his life to conservation education. After working and living in national parks as a park ranger, research scientist and administrator, he developed a vision for an educational effort to help promote the conservation of endangered species and related habitats in third world countries.  Over the years he has helped to provide leadership for a number of noteworthy projects including ongoing efforts to help create a binational US/Mexico International Peace Park and sponsoring websites dedicated to conservation education at www.iloveparks.com and www.chihuahuandesert.org.

In 2002 Rick LoBello became the Education Curator of the El Paso Zoo, where he works on a wide variety of conservation projects locally, regionally and around the world.  He may be contacted at rickllobello@cs.com or 915-474-1456.