Beans and Cornbread D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
October 2009
Bosque Park
Page: 2Outdoor Recreation
Even as the park is being transformed, it offers special opportunities for recreation and fun. Already park rangers and volunteers offer tours for birders (on the first Saturday of every month) and for native-plant enthusiasts. Rangers and volunteers have plans to build strategically located blinds for birders and wildlife photographers. Scouts are contributing by building bird perches just north and east of the visitor center.
On the first Saturday of each February, the park will mark the celebration of National Wetlands Day. In the future, it may become the setting for an annual sportsmen's festival, with exhibits and events revolving around outdoor skills such as fly fishing, archery and wild animal tracking.
In the interest of protecting the wildlife and native plant communities, the park has been declared off limits for off-road vehicles, bicycles, horses and pets.
Education
It is critically important, according to Ranger Alex Mares, that the park — with its floodplain grassland, mixed woodland, desert scrubland and classroom facilities — provides an ideal venue for environmental education, especially for young people. Working together, park rangers, public school teachers and students have already initiated several multi-disciplinary programs and professional development workshops. Many of these have been based on the Bosque Education Guide (Lower Rio Grande Edition), a detailed instruction book prepared by educators and New Mexico State Parks.
If you wish to visit Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park, which is open every day of the year except for New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas, take Exit 140 from Interstate 10. Follow Avenida de Mesilla for about three-quarters of a mile south to Calle del Norte in Mesilla (first stoplight). Turn right. Drive two miles west to a bridge across the river. Immediately after crossing the bridge, at the Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park sign, turn left. Follow the designated dirt road southward for about a mile to the visitor's center. For more information about hours and events, call the park at 523-4398. If you wish to become involved with the park, contact the Friends of the Mesilla Valley State Park through the park office. |
As Mares pointed out, such education programs may hold profound value for our children, who are becoming increasingly isolated from the outdoors and captivated, instead, by electronic media. The programs can connect children with their environment, helping them understand the importance of our natural surroundings. They can help invigorate children, offsetting the physical inactivity that has led to significantly higher incidences of obesity — and the consequent risks, according to the Sierra Club, of "increased rates of diabetes, heart disease, asthma, arthritis, some cancers and poor health status."
Outdoor education programs can excite children, helping them deal with academic, behavioral and even neurological problems. For instance, extensive studies have shown, according to the Bosque Education Guide, that, "while not a panacea, increased outdoor time, including both guided and non-guided learning in natural settings, can significantly reduce [attention deficit disorder]-related symptoms in some children and can lead to improved academic and behavioral issues in others."
In remarks during the dedication ceremony for the park, New Mexico Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish said, "Protecting and restoring the Rio Grande and the Bosque are essential elements of our newest state park, the Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park. The park will offer extraordinary educational opportunities for all New Mexicans — in particular, our children — to learn about their natural and cultural heritage." Given its visionary goals, the park will be a work in progress for years to come.
Jay W. Sharp is a Las Cruces author who is a regular contributor to DesertUSA, an Internet magazine, and who is the author of Texas Unexplained.