FEAR AND LEARNING IN BIG BEND: IS IT SAFE TO TAKE A FIELD TRIP DOWN THERE?

The geology of Big Bend National Park (BBNP) makes it an excellent geology field trip destination. Evidence of the Marathon-Ouachita, Laramide, Basin and Range and Rio Grande Rift orogenies, volcanic processes, deep marine sedimentation, carbonate stratigraphy and exposures of the K-T boundary abound. Also, modern hydrological processes are spectacularly displayed in the river canyons that form the U.S- Mexico border. Unfortunately, perceptions of safety resulting from border violence reported elsewhere threaten the use of this unique region by educators.

Sul Ross State University (SRSU) is the closest university (and geology department) to BBNP. Consistent with the recent marketing campaign declaring SRSU as “The University of the Big Bend”, faculty continue to schedule field trips for various classes in the park. In addition to camping/hiking trips to the park, the University benefits from a cooperative agreement with BBNP whereby frequent research and educational field science trips are conducted with BBNP staff. Over the past two decades, no instances of border related violence have occurred on any of these trips.

Thanks to recent international developments, the Big Bend is receiving rare and positive attention. In the fall of 2011, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and his Mexican equivalent Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada visited BBNP to celebrate U.S./Mexico cooperative conservation efforts. These efforts comprise nearly 3 million acres of land under some form of conservation protection on both sides of the border and build upon Franklin Roosevelt’s vision that BBNP would never be complete until it was part of a transboundary park. Coincident with the 2011 event was the groundbreaking ceremony for the proposed international border crossing between Boquillas, Mexico and BBNP, improving access to field research study sites for researchers from the U.S. and Mexico.

Not all universities consider the Big Bend a safe destination. Recently at least one university cancelled all trips to the border (including BBNP) in response to reported border violence. The outdoor program at the University of Texas at Austin was similarly threatened, but an analysis of crime data in the BBNP area compared with other areas of Texas suggested that it was safer than other areas in Texas and trips were allowed to resume.