Franklin Mountains
 Wilderness Coalition
    El Paso, Texas                                                                  February 13, 2010          

This...

...Not this

Sign our petition now and ask all your friends, co-workers and family to join you.  Click Here

Contact your Elected Officials

Get more involved.  Learn More Here:

Mountain to River Trail Petition
Petition Information
Volunteer Sign Up Sheet

Check out our latest newsletter Click Here

Help save the Poppies - Write a Post card and Wear a T-shirt.

Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition has Postcards and T-shirts for sale.  Postcards  are $1 each.  T-shirts are $20 each and come in sizes:  Small, Medium, Large, and X-Large.  If  you are interested in these items, please contact judy Ackerman, 915-755-7371, j.p.ackerman@sbcglobal.net or Scott Cutler, 915-581-6071, scottmcutler@sbcglobal.net

Save the Castner Range

Castner Educational Flyer

I want to do more to help Save
the Castner Range

More Conservation Issues

The Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition is currently working on a Conservation Conveyance to preserve Castner Range as natural open space. 

Castner Range Conservation Conveyance

Castner Educational Flyer

Download the documents above using Acrobat Reader (free software-click on logo below)

Lone Star Legacy Endowment Fund 

Want to make a lasting contribution to the future of Franklin Mountains State Park?  Make a donation to the Park’s Lone Star Legacy Endowment Fund.   

Under the Lone Star Legacy program, the Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Texas has established permanent endowments for every state park, wildlife area, historical site and fish hatchery in Texas.   

When you contribute to the endowment for Franklin Mountains State Park, you help create a stable source of funding for the Park’s future operations and maintenance. Your donation is a secure investment – only the interest can be used. The principal continues to grow, providing a long-term source of income.   

Since the inception of the Lone Star Legacy program in 1998, the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition has contributed annually to the endowment fund for Franklin Mountains State Park.  We encourage our members and anyone who enjoys and appreciates the Franklin Mountains to do likewise.   

How can you make a donation?  Here are two ways: 

1.      You can make a tax-deductible donation to the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition and request that your donation be conveyed to the Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Texas for the endowment fund for Franklin Mountains State Park. 

For this option, please make checks payable to “Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition” and send to: 

                        FMWC
                        Scott Cutler, Treasurer
                        112 Colina Alta
                        El Paso, TX  79912 

2.      You can send a tax-deductible contribution directly to the Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Texas. 

For this option, please make checks payable to “Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Texas” and send to:   

Lone Star Legacy Endowment Fund
c/o Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Texas
P.O. Box 15097
Dallas, Texas 75201-0097

With your check, include either the Foundation’s online donation form or a cover letter indicating you want your donation placed in the endowment fund for Franklin Mountains State Park. 

Background:  Castner Range 

Castner Range is an old military firing range no longer in use.  It consists of 7,000 acres (11 square miles) on the east side of the Franklin Mountains, on either side of Trans-Mountain Road.  Castner Range extends from the Patriot Freeway almost to the mountain ridgeline and includes some of the most scenic and ecologically significant parts of the mountains.   Hidden springs, complex geological features, unique plant associations, diverse landforms and noteworthy archaeological sites are among the elements that make it, in many ways, the heart and soul of the Franklin Mountains. 

This former artillery range remains open space today thanks to the stewardship of the Army and the presence of unexploded ordnance.  The Army has identified Castner Range as surplus to its needs but cannot transfer it to other ownership until it has been searched and cleared of old artillery rounds.  The Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition has long recommended that Castner Range be added to Franklin Mountains State Park once the clearance is complete.