When Kevin Bixby and his wife Lisa LaRocque created the Southwest Environmental Center (SWEC), they knew they wanted to make an impact. Over the past 18 years, they have done just that by focusing on public education and advocacy that changes the way the community sees the environment.

Kevin, executive director of SWEC, and Lisa opened the center in 1991 with no money and only volunteers. The couple, along with children Tess, 12, and Keara, 15, have since seen SWEC grow to 1,000 members and three full-time staff members.

“When we started, we thought it would be great to have a place where everyone could meet and share resources,” Kevin says. “We have evolved over the years to become an advocacy organization focused on the environment and wildlife conservation. We work to solve problems. We are not content with simply telling people what the problems are, we want to find solutions.”

In 1997, Kevin and SWEC joined forces and pooled resources with government agencies, city leaders and the community on the Picacho Wetlands Project which became an established park in 2000. Now the area is known as the Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park.

“The river is really an important part of the region – it has been an important lifeline to the people and species in this area for decades,” Kevin says. “By working on this project, we found we could actually restore the habitat and make it enjoyable for the people.”

The park is located along the western bank of the Rio Grande, southwest of Mesilla. The heart of the park is 52 acres of the Rio Grande floodplain and the total park acreage is about 945 acres of both wetlands and Chihuahuan Desert. Visitors to the park can view wildlife in their natural habitat while seeing what conservation, education and restoration looks like when it comes to the environment and wildlife conservation.

Kevin and SWEC are currently working on the La Mancha Wetland Project, similar to the Picacho Wetlands Project, which Kevin hopes will be complete in 2010.

“We want to create a natural habitat for native fish,” Kevin says. “With the river, we have a single, fast channel that is good for moving water but not for establishing a natural habitat. This project will change that.”

When not working on projects that focus on the river, Kevin works within SWEC, providing educational and resourceful opportunities for the community. SWEC provides a Desert Waters Program, Desert Lands and Wildlife Program and Education for a Sustainable Society Program. Through the programs, SWEC provides a wide variety of educational programs including lectures, workshops, panel discussions and guided walks.

Within the Center located in the downtown mall, visitors can find the Cottonwood Gallery which features environmental art shows as an education outreach, an environmentally focused Ecoshop, resource library, 90-foot mural, office and meeting spaces and the Rio Grande Aquarium.

“The main thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is the knowledge that people worldwide are inadvertently ruining our environment. I want to see change by educating and informing people that we are only one of a million species on earth,” Kevin says. “I want my legacy to be that I helped protect some of what makes this area an interesting place.”