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CDRI Desert NewsFlash
January 2025
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What can we say? Our winter, so far, has been much warmer than we've seen before with temperatures in the 70s. It looks like the Mexican Redbud (Cercis mexicana) feels the warmth too. Photo by Jim Fissel.
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Thank you for a Fabulous 2024!
As we wrap up 2024, we want to express our sincere gratitude to each of you for your friendship, support, and love for nature and all it encompasses.
It was a joy to welcome you to the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens. We shared insights about the hiking trails and cactus museum collection, provided information about the latest trail in the Botanical Gardens, and celebrated the dedication of the Native Grasses Exhibit.
Another project involved working with Bat Conservation International, where we planted 140 Agave havardiana in the Botanical Gardens. The accompanying story is printed in full in this issue of the Desert NewsFlash.
Meeting the 6:00 a.m. deadline for the Desert NewsFlash on the 1st of each month was fun and sometimes challenging, but we did it! We also appreciate the comments and responses we receive from our readers each month. Thank you!
You made our fundraisers—the Cactus & Succulent Sale and the BBQ & Auction—the most successful yet! You truly brought the "fun" to fundraising.
You also helped make our Conant Lectures among the best-attended programs yet. The lectures featuring Chris Ritzi and Jesse Kelsch, directors at CDRI and professors at SRSU, sparked vital conversations about our natural world.
Our kindergarten through eighth-grade educational programs were bigger and better than ever. We owe this success to our talented staff and outstanding volunteers.
Speaking of staff, we are incredibly fortunate to work with such an exceptional team. Special thanks to Ivory, Kipp, Faith, and Mady; they feel like family. Our amazing volunteers, who contribute their time, energy, and expertise, are also an irreplaceable part of our family.
Everything you see and experience at CDRI is made possible by our phenomenal team, which includes our staff, Board of Directors, and volunteers. Thank you all!
Let's go into the new year and make 2025 even more remarkable!
Wishing you a Happy New Year!
Lisa Gordon
Executive Director
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The CDRI Board welcomes new Directors
The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute has one of the best Board of Directors a nonprofit organization could wish for. And although we’re losing three of those directors due to term limits, we’re welcoming three new directors starting January 1, 2025.
Anne Adams, who has been with us for nine years, will be sorely missed. However, she and her Jack Russell Terrier, Sweet Pea, will be back as volunteers. Debbie Murphy and Chris Ritzi have served for six years. All three have been exceptional and have contributed much to CDRI.
We are introducing the three new directors below.
Jesse Moore Kelsch
Jesse is an Assistant Professor of Geology at Sul Ross State University (SRSU). Her primary field of research and teaching is Structural Geology, or the deformation (stretching, breaking, and folding) recorded in the rocks of Earth’s outer later resulting from plate-tectonic stresses. She received her PhD in 2023 from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), where she researched faults in the southern segment of the Rio-Grande Rift in the Trans-Pecos Region and northern Chihuahua.
Jesse was the Roger Conant Distinguished Guest Lecturer in October 2024. Her lecture, “The (almost) Neverending Story: Landscape Evolution in the Big Bend,” is available to view here.
Pete Szilagi
Pete has worked as a writer, editor, and publisher. He was a Marfa Public Radio producer, interview and music host, and served as interim general manager. His news and long-form feature writing has appeared in most major US newspapers. Pete was the restaurant reviewer for Austin American Statesman and Texas Monthly and spent 35 years as the Cox News Service and NY Times News Service auto columnist. Pete also worked as a certified interpretive hiking guide at the Nature Conservancy and trained as a Naturalist and Trail Guide in Boulder, Colorado.
Pam Hall Duerr
Pam is a board-certified physician who specializes in Family Practice. Before moving to San Antonio, she was an Emergency Center Physician at the Hospitality Health ER in Tyler, Texas. Pam served on the Board of Directors of the Big Bend Conservancy for nine years. In that capacity, she led the fundraiser for the Terlingua Creek project and other projects that support Big Bend National Park.
We’re thrilled to welcome Jesse, Pete, and Pam to CDRI’s Board of Directors and grateful for all the great people on the Board. Thank you.
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2025
Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute
Board of Directors
Jim Martinez, Marfa, TX President, Executive Committee
Joe Williams, Fort Davis, TX Vice-President, Executive Committee
Rick Gupman, BBNP, TX Secretary, Executive Committee
Rick Herrman, Santa Fe, NM Treasurer, Executive Committee
Ed Pfiester, Los Angeles, CA Executive Committee
Pam Hall Duerr, San Antonio, TX
Jesse Moore Kelsch, Alpine, TX
John Pritchett, Fort Worth, TX
Pete Szilagi, Austin, TX
Julie Webb, Ft. Davis, TX
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In a combined effort to create an agave corridor for Mexican long-nosed bats, 118 Agave havardiana (Havard agaves) were planted inside CDRI's Botanical Gardens site on December 4. Rachel Burke of Bat Conservation International's (BCI) Agave Restoration Initiative, BCI volunteer Lindsey Bredemeyer, Faith Hille-Dishron, Greg and Matthew Brock, Allen Tscheyka, Sarah Madero, Jim Fissel, and Jim Martinez were among the volunteers who helped plant the agaves. This is a long-term project that extends into Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico, and is more fully described in the following, previously published story (December 19, 2024) by Rick LoBello, Education & Conservation Curator at the El Paso Zoo.
By Rick LoBello, Education & Conservation Curator, El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens
Photos by Lisa Gordon, Executive Director, Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute
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Climate change predictions indicate that the Davis Mountains may become important habitat, critical to the long-term survival of Mexican long-nosed bats (Leptonycteris nivalis).Volunteers transplant agave plants adopted at the Zoo in the Davis Mountains at the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center & Botanical Gardens near Fort Davis, Texas.
Climate change is upon us and everything we do and talk about regarding this threat to the future of our planet and human civilization is important. Thanks to Bat Conservation International teaming up with the El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens, hundreds of people are taking action to help endangered species like the Mexican long-nosed bat.
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Adopted agave plants were delivered to the Zoo in November 2024. Photo by Rick LoBello.
Over the past few years nearly 300 people adopted agave plants at the Zoo as part of a hands on conservation effort to help expand critical habitat needed for Mexican long-nosed bats. Agave plants grown from seeds at Sul Ross State University (SRSU) were adopted out at the Zoo last fall and then returned in November. On December 3, Bat Conservation International (BCI) picked up the plants and transported them on a three hour journey eastward to the Davis Mountains. They were then delivered to the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute (CDRI) near Fort Davis to be planted in the foothills of the Davis Mountains at an elevation of 5,100 ft.
Mexican long-nosed bats are under threat from loss and alteration of foraging habitat and the effects of climate change, prompting their inclusion in the Endangered Species Coalition’s 2021 report Last Chance: 10 U.S. Species Already Imperiled by Climate Change.
Through Bat Conservation International’s Agave Restoration Initiative, partners like the El Paso Zoo are protecting and restoring foraging habitat for Mexican long-nosed bats throughout the bats’ migratory range. The Trans-Pecos region of Texas outside of Big Bend National Park is a suspected migratory corridor for the species, and climate change predictions indicate that this region may become even more important in the future, making protection of foraging habitat in this area critical to the long-term survival of the species.
The El Paso Zoo is working with BCI to create a climate-resilient nectar corridor that will support the bats during their time in Texas and along their migratory route now and into the future. Over the past several years, BCI and local partners such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, The Nature Conservancy, SRSU, and private landowners have collected thousands of native Agave havardiana seeds from prime agave habitat across the Trans-Pecos. BCI began renovating greenhouse space in Alpine, Texas with SRSU, and together have propagated 1,000 plants from the collected seeds.
As of earlier this year 140,000 agaves were growing in 18 BCI greenhouses and so far over 107,500 agaves have been planted in Arizona, New Mexico, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sonora, and Zacatecas.
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CDRI Receives GreatNonprofits Seal
We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who shared their positive experiences and reviews from their visits to the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens. Because of your wonderful stories and reviews, CDRI has been honored with the GreatNonprofits Seal.
GreatNonprofits is the leading platform for community-sourced reviews about nonprofit organizations. Stories submitted by individuals who have witnessed the impact of our work firsthand provide invaluable insights for potential donors and volunteers.
Thank you for your support!
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Please join us on Saturday, January 11, 2025, for a hike and a book signing with author Sean Graham. Although he now lives in Australia, Sean will be here to introduce his newly released book, North American Deserts. More information is below.
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Save the Date!
CDRI's Cactus & Succulent Sale
begins on Monday, March 10, 2025.
Look for more information in next month's Desert NewsFlash.
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This Austin, Texas, Scout Troop dropped in to hike Modesta Canyon and Clayton's Overlook for their end-of-year trip to the region.
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From the Team at CDRI,
We wish you a Happy New Year!
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Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, P.O. Box 905, Fort Davis, TX 79734
432.364.2499
www.cdri.org
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