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Rogue trails damaging Knapp and Lost Dog nature preserves [1]
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Date: 2025-02-10
Tucked behind a Northeast El Paso neighborhood is a quiet open desert refuge where people can enjoy creosote bushes, prickly pear and wildlife native to the Chihuahuan Desert thrive – one of the city’s natural open space preserves.
But some visitors are repeatedly carving unauthorized trails into the grounds at the Knapp Land Nature Preserve and the West El Paso Lost Dog Trail conservation easements, leaving damage that will take several years to reverse. The unknown culprits over the past year have also removed signage placed by the Frontera Land Alliance, the stewards of the land owned by El Paso Water.
“It was very emotional for me, because, first of all, these lands are for the benefit of the community. But also, when you get invited to somebody else’s house, you just don’t go in and open the fridge and do whatever you want. You need to be respectful,” said Rocio Ronquillo, the Frontera Land Alliance open space manager. “I was struggling to understand what it was that would lead to that behavior of people doing that.”
Rocio Ronquillo, Open Space Manager at Frontera Land Alliance,points out where vandals removed prickly pear cacti and other plants to create an illegal offshoot of the marked trail at Knapp Land Nature Reserve, Feb. 3, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
While carving out trails by clearing brush and rocks is not considered a criminal offense, doing so damages the ecosystem by disturbing the soil, plants and animals in the area. Conservation easements are put in place to protect and preserve natural areas of open land by restricting or limiting what can be done on the property. Nonprofit conservation organizations, also known as land trusts, typically manage the lands; in this case, El Paso Water owns the Knapp Land and the Lost Dog Trail.
In 2020, the nonprofit Frontera Land Alliance took over stewardship of the Knapp Land Nature Preserve and in 2021, took over stewardship of the Lost Dog Trail conservation easement. Frontera is tasked with maintenance of the land as the land trust.
Ronquillo said she and volunteers have had to close off the unauthorized trails – but they keep coming back.
“That first time that I encountered it, (early 2024) I removed it. (But) the next day, I came to fly the drone, it was already up, so that just told us that they’re regulars,” Ronquillo said.
With the help of volunteers, Ronquillo removed the unauthorized trail at Knapp near the arroyo. Their work was undone the following day. This continued several times, she said.
As the land manager, Ronquillo is tasked with monitoring 1,354 acres of open space, roughly the equivalent of 1,800 football fields. She walks, hikes and uses a drone to monitor the condition of the lands and determine restoration projects to repair the damage that people create when they carve out unauthorized trails, disturb native plants or leave trash behind.
The Knapp Land Nature Reserve consists of trails and arroyos on more than 300 acres of land owned by the City of El Paso, which placed a conservation easement on the land in 2020. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
During a hike in Knapp Land with El Paso Matters on Monday, Ronquillo and Janae Reneaud Field, the land alliance’s executive director, discovered that the culprits cleared out brush and rocks in the arroyo to create a path to connect the adjacent trails.
“There’s a big safety issue,” Field said. “This is this side in particular there is a huge arroyo and if they’re in there, and there was a storm … it’s going to take people if they’re crossing.”
Carving trails also goes against the concept of “leave no trace” that calls for visitors to stay on designated trails, not disturb the land and not leave trash or pet waste behind.
Joe Garibay, chair of the city’s Open Space Advisory Board, said he is not sure that the unauthorized trails are made out of malice in most cases, but may be a lack of education. He said some homeowners that have open space behind their homes sometimes decide to carve their own paths through the desert land for convenience instead of going to the trail heads.
“People don’t understand – they think, ‘Hey, I bought a house next to the open space because I wanted to be here, and so I’m just gonna go out there and build this trail,’” Garibay said. “So they don’t think about the consequences – in that sense, it’s really a lack of education, because if some of them knew the situation, they probably wouldn’t do that.”
The Knapp Land Nature Reserve consists of trails and arroyos on more than 300 acres owned by the City of El Paso, which placed a conservation easement on the land in 2020. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
But in other instances, like what they have seen at the Lost Dog Trail, Garibay said they believe some mountain bikers have been carving the trails.
During an Open Space Advisory Board meeting in January, some commissioners acknowledged that they may know a mountain biker, whom they did not name, is intentionally creating unauthorized trails and refuses to stop. It is during these meetings that the Frontera Land Alliance delivers an annual report of the conservation easements.
Garibay said it is difficult to change behaviors if people have a sense of entitlement to the land and want the trails to function for their personal purposes.
“Oddly enough, it’s mountain bikers that are doing it, and it’s other mountain bikers that are incredibly angry at them for doing it,” Garibay said.
Field and Ronquillo said even if they did catch someone vandalizing the lands, they do not have much recourse for penalizing them since they do not have a law enforcement mechanism in place like at state parks.
A map of the Lost Dog Nature Preserve in West El Paso show authorized visitor trails. Credit: Courtesy of the Frontera Land Alliance
Cesar Mendez, Franklin Mountain State Park manager, said he works closely with the land alliance, but his enforcement authority does not extend to private property.
Mendez said they have similar issues at the state park and despite having an enforcement officer, it is still difficult to monitor the vast area.
“We have police that would take the lead into prosecuting anyone that is doing anything illegal, whether it be building a trail, because basically what they’re doing is destroying – they are tampering with the natural resources and we would seek restitution for the damages,” he said.
In the state park, there could also be more serious legal consequences if someone were to disrupt an archaeological site or endangered species, he said.
“That could escalate real quick into more severe fines or jail time or whatsoever,” he said.
Field and Ronquillo said they are hoping through education and more signage that clearly states the rules, they can keep people from damaging the lands.
At the Knapp Land trailhead there is narrow signage with small stickers that state people cannot have dogs off their leashes, burn fires, leave trash and the like, but they are working on getting funding for larger signs.
A map of the Knapp Land Conservation Easement shows authorized trails. Credit: Courtesy of the Frontera Land Alliance
Ronquillo said they are also working with the water utility to get funding for surveillance cameras. The water utility has helped with funding for signs, but many of the expenses come from the nonprofits’ donations.
El Paso Water spokesperson Denise Parra in an emailed statement to El Paso Matters said the utility’s partnership with Frontera Land Alliance is important.
“While there are some signs in the areas reminding visitors the property is owned by the utility, there are plans to include additional signage marking authorized trails,” she said. “As part of the agreement, Frontera remains committed to restoring areas that have been disturbed, including unauthorized trails.”
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[1] Url:
https://elpasomatters.org/2025/02/10/lost-dogg-knapp-land-trails-open-space-conservation-easements/
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