Bill Could Nullify Tree Ordinance and Dozens More

A radical bill has been filed that will dismantle our power to protect San Antonio's environment and enact policies that benefit our citizens. Called the “Texas Regulatory Consistency Act” (TRCA), SB 814 is backed by an array of powerful business groups. Because the bill is a priority for Governor Abbott, it is likely to become law.

If you live in the district of Sen. Donna Campbell, Sen. José Menéndez, or Sen. Judith Zaffirini, please contact them today with your concerns. They all serve on the Senate committee that will be hearing the bill.

Background

The TRCA will work by nullifying ordinances enacted by our local City Councils. For example, our Tree Preservation Ordinance could be abolished along with other environmental rules governing things like:

• Water conservation
• Hazardous waste storage
• Burn bans
• Fracking and oil/gas pipelines

Because the bill is broadly drafted and sweeping, its full impact is still unknown, but it would likely invalidate a wide range of other local ordinances dealing with:

• Sale of puppy mill dogs
• Payday lenders
• Minimum wage/sick leave for city employees/contractors
• Employment discrimination
• Heavy trucks

Ultimately, the bill will take power away from people in our local community – particularly black, Indigenous, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people, women, and working folks. I urge all Sierrans to follow this legislation and contact your State Rep and Senator in opposition.

For more, see the Express-News story Texas GOP targets ‘local authority’.

Support Energy Efficiency at the Texas Legislature!

Gov. Abbott and our Texas Legislature are pushing to subsidize more polluting fossil fuel plants - a big giveaway to wealthy utilities and investors - while telling hard-working Texans it’s going to strengthen our grid. Meanwhile, other interests are promoting state financing of gas plants as the way to fix our grid. Yeah right.

Texans are still paying for the failures of these same utilities and power companies during Winter Storm Uri. We are too dependent on gas plants to supply power to our grid, and we should not have to sacrifice our environment or more of our hard-earned pay to keep the lights on.

Join the Sierra Club in calling on the Texas Legislature to focus on the best people-first solution to stabilizing the grid and controlling the cost of electricity: weatherizing people’s homes and small businesses!

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You'll get updates to our bill tracker, new factsheets and testimony, and more information on how to get involved in fighting for good policy this session delivered to your inbox throughout the legislative session. Our communities and environment need all the voices they can get!

Trampas Lakes in Pecos Wilderness, New Mexico

Another great hike in Carson National Forest, late May 2021. In the March 2021 issue of this newsletter there was an article about a couple other hikes in this national forest.

Going to Trampas Lakes out-and-back from the trailhead is 11.6 miles RT, gain 3650'. The trail was very pleasant though the snowdrifts just below the lakes were educational, poles with at least summer baskets certainly advised, would better have had snow baskets. I was post holing 2'-3' deep, so a little tired when got to the nice vista at the western lake, first picture.

The western Trampas lake, looking southeast. This is what we first encounter after getting up the trail. A route to Sheepshead Peak climbs the ridge (notes in "Visiting" below).

Then I walked a short distance east to the other lake and the sun came out, second picture. What a change!

There is also Hidden Lake, a little detour north uphill of Trampas Lakes. Being tired from the post holing I decided not to bother. Regretting that now.

The eastern Trampas lake, looking southwest from the outlet. The flow from the two lakes join in a meadow, which turns into a creek, which is a raging torrent (next picture) before getting back to the trailhead.

A map says this is Rio de las Trampas. About 1/3 of the way from the campground to the lakes. Some nice at-large campspots are nearby.

The talus slopes the trail crosses in the picture below is quartzite (Wikipedia article). This likely started as metamorphosed quartz sandstone, which probably started as a sand dune, which started as igneous quartz or maybe eroded quartzite millions of years older. In the April 2017 issue there was an article with pictures from the summit of Mt. Wheeler in Great Basin National Park, Nevada. Climbing that peak is about following the route across quartzite talus much of the way.

Visiting

The trailhead is at Trampas Medio campground, 8 miles southeast from NM hwy 76 along FR 207, not far southwest of Taos. The forest road is maintained but a bit rough the last few miles; sedans can do it but care and high clearance are advised. The "campground" is a bunch of campspots and one vault toilet; no potable water. There is an article on hiking to various of New Mexico's alpine lakes, including these, in New Mexico Magazine.

There is also the out-and-back to San Leonardo Lakes from the campground, 7.5 miles RT, 2440' gain. There is a foot bridge to the Trampas Lakes trail, but we have to wade across the creek for the San Leonardo Lakes route. Therefore change to water shoes and back to boots. Various webpages say this hike is less fun than Trampas Lakes.

And, there is a loop including both Trampas and San Leonardo Lakes and Sheepshead Peak. I was thinking could do that but didn't have enough food and water. If I were younger might be going back to do it.

A page at AllTrails.com has a map and pictures; this is 13 miles and 3900' gain. This route continues from the lakes in the 1st and 2nd pictures above beginning with climbing the ridge on the far side of the lakes. And another AllTrails.com page with a route just to Sheepshead Peak, so we can see where on the ridge in the photos is the 12,680' peak.

Here's another page with excellent pictures of this loop including alpine vistas and much additional info, at StavIsLost.com. This guy did additional serious masochism with a south leg, including some class 3 climbing to couple more peaks, making it 14.6 miles, gain 5300'.

33^rd Annual Earthwise Living Day

You're invited to attend Leon Valley's annual Earthwise Living Day event. Admission is free and this year's theme is "Combating Climate Change One Household At A Time!"

Saturday, March 4th
9:30 am - 1:30 pm
Leon Valley Community Center & Conference Center • 6427 Evers Road

• 9:30 am     Welcome from Mayor Chris Riley & Earthwise Living Committee
• 9:35 am     Native American Blessing of the Mother Earth
• 9:45 am     Rain Barrel Give-Away & Door Prizes
• 10:15 am   Driggers/Oak Hills Elementary Choir Performance
• 10:45 am   Rain Barrel Give-Away & Door Prizes
• 11:00 am   Earth Dancer
• 11:40 am   Rain Barrel Give-Away & Door Prizes
• 11:45 am   Leon Valley Elementary Percussion Performance
• 12:30 pm  Jay Rockn’ Stringz Performance
• 1:00 pm    Grand Door Prize

See their website for more information. There is additional parking at DPS Center on Huebner and Evers.

Sierra Club Questions City Council Candidates

The Alamo Group's Political Committee has sent a questionnaire to all City Council candidates to determine their stances on environmental issues. We are polling them on issues such as climate change, water policy, growth policy, air quality, plastics and parks.

Read the 2023 City Council Environmental Questionnaire.

From the e-Mailbag

From time-to-time, the Alamo Group receives messages concerning local environmental issues. If you have thoughts to share on any of these issues, send us a message and we'll forward it to the writer.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors individually and do not reflect the views or opinions of the Alamo Group or its members.

Sierran re-elected to SAWS committee

Congratulations to Alamo Group Chairman Alan Montemayor for being re-elected, by his fellow members, to serve a third term as vice chairman of the Community Conservation Committee (CCC) of San Antonio Water System (SAWS). SAWS trustees appoint someone to chair the CCC. The vice chairperson is elected each year by CCC members.

submitted by Rachel C.

A Bit About Wildlife and Fishhooks

Read Our Wild Calling: How Connecting With Animals Can Transform Our Lives - and Save Theirs by Richard Louv. Excellent. In one chapter he mentions a friend of his at age 16 finding a goose hung up on a fishing line with the hook down it's throat. The friend couldn't get at the hook and couldn't break the line, cut his hands trying. Had to give up.

July 2022, summering near the easternmost spot in the US, was visiting friends in Eastport, Maine. Their house has a grand vista across the southern end of the Bay of Fundy to Canada; picture below. I was walking along the shore at low tide, below and right of the picture; a bunch of posts there remaining from a sardine factory wharf. Between the posts I found an osprey carcass with a fishhook in a leg and the line tangled in the posts.

Looking east from Eastport, evening. The usual crowd of seagulls and cormorants on Clark's Ledge, foreground, is absent due to the eagle on the radar reflector. The islands are in Canada, with Campobello Island on the horizon right. Picture reprinted from this newsletter, November 2016.

When kayaking I have found fishing lines with hooks attached tangled in trees and removed them. I am not a fisher-person, but I wish those folks would think more about the problems these stray lines/hooks cause for wildlife, in addition to the inconvenience for themselves. I guess may be hard to retrieve without a boat.

If I had come across the goose I couldn't have done anything useful either. But if that osprey had been alive? Would it have let me cut the hook with my multi-tool? Think I would have tried. Maybe put my jacket over it's head for a start.

Bunch of times have been off on a walk or hike and forgot to take my multi-tool. Now realizing, dumb SOB. Didn't even have a knife, much less pliers. Now maybe I'll remember these little stories and not forget my tool.

There are many resources with info about this topic; a good page is at wildforprospectpark.com with a bunch of pictures, the context being Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York. Another is at wildlifecenter.org, by the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro.

Melnick at 10: Reflecting on Climate Progress, Frustrations at San Antonio's Sustainability Office

Climate emissions are trending down in San Antonio—though far from fast enough. Since CPS Energy’s pledge to transition away from coal power, the City’s chief sustainability officer sees glimmers of hope (and a new bike master plan) ahead

Next month, Doug Melnick begins his tenth year as San Antonio’s chief sustainability officer. He came to San Antonio in March of 2014, after serving as the director of the Office of Energy and Sustainability in Albany, New York.

From 2017 to 2019, Melnick helped guide the development of a climate action plan for San Antonio—a process that involved roughly 90 volunteers and was propelled by local community organizing efforts and a then newly-elected Mayor Ron Nirenberg. While recent reductions in climate emissions—now trending downward at a couple percentage points per year at 16.65 million metric tons per year—are not near the level required to hit our climate goals by 2030, Melnick spoke with Deceleration about wins he sees taking shape.

He also discussed some ongoing frustrations—noting a decision to further idle on the climate plan’s focus on energy use in buildings by heavy users. He closed our brief conversation with an invitation for stronger community efforts to exert more pressure on elected leaders and entrenched bureaucracy (OK, a bit of our spin here), to “push the envelope” (his words) to achieve the deeper changes needed to meet the challenges of our moment.

Read the rest of this article on Deceleration.news.

Outings: The Call of the Wild

Visit the Alamo Sierra Club Outings page on Meetup for detailed information about all of our upcoming Sierra Club Outings.

The Alamo Sierran Newsletter

Richard Alles, Editor
Published by the Alamo Group of the Sierra Club, P.O. Box 6443, San Antonio, TX 78209, AlamoSierraClub.org.
The Alamo Group is one of 13 regional groups within the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.

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