all walled up

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Senate Vote for Triple Border Wall Will Destroy Endangered Species and

Ecosystems

 

August 07, 2006 — By Center for Biological Diversity

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Center for Biological Diversity blasted this week's U.S.

Senate vote to fund the construction of a massive triple wall over 370 miles of

the U.S.-Mexico border, calling the plan a colossal environmental disaster and

declaring that it will not stem the tide of illegal immigration.

 

More border walls, militarization, low-level aircraft and roads would further

damage already-stressed wildlife and places, such as the Cactus Pygmy Owl and

Sonoran Pronghorn in Arizona, Flat-Tailed Horned Lizard and Peninsular Ranges

Bighorn Sheep in California, Jaguar and Mexican Gray Wolves in New Mexico, and

the Rio Grande River, Ocelot, and Big Bend National Park in Texas. Triple walls

are harmful to wildlife, blocking migration corridors and destroying valuable

habitat. The distance of the triple wall - 370 miles - is approximately the

distance of the entire border in Arizona.

 

" It's a sad day for America. In 1987, President Reagan stood before the Berlin

Wall and stated, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,' but less than 20 years

later, the Senate votes to build a new Berlin Wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, "

said Michael Finkelstein, Executive Director with the Center for Biological

Diversity. " Jaguars, Mexican Gray Wolves, Peninsular bighorn, low flying Pygmy

Owls and other endangered species need to cross their borderland habitat often,

and this wall would crush their ability to survive. "

 

As federal enforcement intensifies, a key focus should be wildlife-friendly

vehicle barriers in strategic and at-risk places on the border, such as the

Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Goldwater Range, Buenos Aries National

Wildlife Refuge and Coronado National Forest. In a more reasonable move, the

Senate also approved 461 miles of vehicle barriers, but it is not known if a

wildlife-friendly design will be used.

 

Once the vehicle barriers are in place, agents should patrol in trucks only on

roads right on the border or outside designated wilderness areas, and elsewhere

on horse or foot. A wildlife-friendly vehicle barrier at Organ Pipe Cactus

National Monument in southern Arizona has proven effective at stopping smuggling

vehicles from entering the U.S. However, the Border Patrol is still driving

off-road in wilderness areas where vehicles are prohibited, destroying fragile

desert habitat and running down wildlife and pedestrian immigrants with

" humvees, " trucks and off-road vehicles.

 

" Walls will block wildlife movement corridors and harm natural landscapes along

our fragile southern border, " said Daniel R. Patterson, Desert Ecologist with

the Center for Biological Diversity who formerly worked with the U.S. Bureau of

Land Management. " The only living things the walls won't stop are people. It's a

moral low-point for America when our government moves to destroy nature and wall

us off from a friendly neighbor. "

 

The Center for Biological Diversity is based in Tucson, Arizona and has more

than 25,000 members across the Southwest and the nation. The Center for

Biological Diversity is a non-profit conservation organization that utilizes

science, law, education and citizen activism to protect and restore endangered

species and wild places. The Center also has offices in Phoenix, Arizona;

Washington D.C.; Los Angeles, San Diego, Joshua Tree, San Francisco, and Shelter

Cove, California; Silver City, New Mexico; and Portland, Oregon.

 

Contact Info:

 

Daniel R. Patterson

Desert Ecologist

Tel : 520.623.5252 x306

E-mail : dpatterson

 

 

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