Folks, those of you monitoring the Bosque developments....see below there are several meeting and event dates listed From: Richard Barish Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 4:20:45 PM Subject: [RIO-CENTRAL-BOSQUE-ANNOUNCE] BOSQUE UPDATE: The first of the Citys educational forums is set for March 4! Hi everyone: Ive been a bit remiss in posting updates on Bosque developments, but I wanted to get you up to speed on some important events. EDUCATIONAL FORUMS. First, many of you will recall that at the end of last year, the City stated that it would hold a series of educational forums early this year. We were originally skeptical about these forums, but they appear to be shaping up to be balanced presentations. The forums do not appear to be just City personnel trying to sell the Rio Grande Vision. City employees are scheduled as presenters at two of the forums, but two members of the Bosque Action Team, Michael Jensen and I, will be also be presenters. The presenters are comprised largely of independent experts. The first forum will be next Tuesday, March 4. The topic and presenters are: Forum #1 History, Evolution, and Culture of the Bosque Moderator: Dan Shaw, Bosque Ecological Monitoring Program (BEMP) and Bosque School Panelists: Paul Tashjian, US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)/ Hydrology Enrique Lamadrid, University of New Mexico (UNM)/ Culture Yasmeen Najmi, Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District/The Modern Bosque Regis Pecos, Cochiti Pueblo/ Culture (invited, but not confirmed) The forum will be at the Dynatheater in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, 1801 Mountain Road, from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm. The format will be: One half hour: short panelist presentations One half hour: moderated discussion One half hour: questions from audience One half hour: mingling with the panelists Please plan to attend to get informed, ask pertinent questions, and express concerns and opinions where they are pertinent to the discussion. The dates and topics of the other forums are: April 1: Science, Climate Change and Environmental Education May 6: Restoration, Recreation and Land Management June 3: The Future of Rio Grande Valley State Park There will also be walk and talk events in the bosque on the Saturdays after the last three forums, that is, on April 5, May 10, and June 7, from 10:00am to noon. I will pass on more information about these events when it is available. BOSQUE RESOLUTION. On another topic, most of you will recall that City Council President Ken Sanchez introduced a bosque resolution last year. In its current form, among other things, the resolution provides that it is the policy of the City that projects in the Bosque shall comply with the Bosque Biological Management Plan, particularly policies that preserve and enhance the wild character and ecological diversity of the Bosque. The Bosque Biological Management Plan is an outstanding document that is product of federal agencies that presently has no application to the City, so it would be significant if the City agrees that its policies and recommendations must be considered and taken into account . At the February 3 Council meeting, the resolution was deferred until March 3. At present, it is expected that the resolution will be deferred for two more weeks, until March 17. We will keep you advised. We are also pursuing other strategies with City Council. More on that later. Finally, we are interested in identifying Bosque supporters in the southwest part of the City, that is, south of Central and west of the river. If you live in that part of town, can you shoot me an email, richard.barish@gmail? Thanks. Thanks for all that you do for the Bosque! Richard
Posted on: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 23:51:05 +0000