WINTER 2018

THE VOICE OF DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE

In the Shadow of the Wall Wildlife on the line in the U.S.- borderlands [ cover exclusive ]

WA ‘big beautifulALLED wall’ would devastate wildlife OFF populations on both sides of the border

ilver tresses of Spanish moss sway beneath a mesquite tree’s thorny crown on a breezy August afternoon Salong the border in Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. The chatter of an Altamira oriole and a great kiskadee fills the air, plain chachalacas search for seeds in the leaves, and black-crested titmice feast on hackberry fruit. Presiding over it all is the Rio Grande. In the dry season, when the sky withholds and the river withdraws, these birds know how to persevere, having lived in relationship with

2 | DEFENDERS WINTER 20182016 WALLED OFFBy Krista Schlyer

this land through the ages. But of the 2,000-acre preserve on the new—the federal government built for all species there is a breaking Mexican side of the border barrier. approximately 650 miles of border point, a culmination of challenges “Santa Ana is a real jewel of the barrier nearly a decade ago before that exceeds an ’s ability refuge system,” says Ken Merritt, aborting the idea. In the process, it to adapt. Such a challenge may former manager of the severed ecological connections on soon present itself at Santa Refuge Complex. “It’s about the a landscape that wildlife scientists Ana—and to all the wildlife along worst place you could put up a wall.” consider one of the most biologically the entire U.S.-Mexico border. And this precious gem of a refuge diverse in the Western Hemisphere. Early last year, the Department is just the beginning. President This rare ecological complexity of Homeland Security began Donald Trump has vowed to along the southern border comes planning construction of a expand wall construction across largely from its topographical border wall through the northern the entire 2,000-mile border, variety. Steep climbs in elevation third of the refuge, which, if dividing ecosystems and give rise to mixed mountain built, would bisect the largest communities, amputating the North ecosystems—known as “sky remaining remnant of a globally American landscape at its knees. islands”—surrounded by vast

rare ecosystem and isolate much Trump’s intention is not desert communities. And because SARTORE/WWW.JOELSARTORE.COM JOEL ©

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the borderlands are located within In the past 10 valley resident who attended the the gentle transition zone between protest summed up the feelings of tropical and temperate climates, years, scientists many that day saying, “I’m opposed species that don’t coexist anywhere to the wall. I don’t want to lose this else in the world live side by side. have documented habitat for .” The borderlands are home to javelinas, desert In fact, just weeks before, the more than 180 federally threatened founder of the National Butterfly and endangered species, including cottontail, deer, Center—a 100-acre sanctuary dedi- the jaguar, Mexican gray , cated to the conservation and study peninsular bighorn sheep and toads, and of monarchs and 200 other butterfly Sonoran pronghorn. A viable future species east of the refuge—was for each of these and many more wild stranded shocked to find a work crew with creatures depends on open migration chainsaws and mowers cutting down pathways to and from Mexico. in places where the trees and vegetation on restored Given the threat a border wall habitat to make way for the wall. The poses to North American wildlife, wall already exists. sanctuary’s private property lies a many advocates—along with few miles north of the border. Defenders—are gearing up for a wildlife advocates from across the Director Marianna Trevino- hard fight. “Santa Ana is the first nation supported hundreds of local Wright says when she confronted battle in the war against a Trump organizers to converge on Santa the crew and told them to leave, the wall,” says Bryan Bird, Defenders’ Ana. Forming a line nearly a mile supervisor told her that U.S. Customs Southwest program director “If the long on the Rio Grande levee, they and Border Protection would be in refuge is damaged a major wildlife held hands in a show of support for touch, and she was later informed corridor is seriously compromised.” the wildlife that rely on Santa Ana. that the agency had the authority to Last August, Defenders and Zulema Hernandez, a 76-year-old enter any property within 25 miles The jaguarundi has barely escaped extinction in the United States but still finds refuge within Santa Ana. © STEVE WINTER/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE © JOACHIM S. MÜLLER/FLICKR JOACHIM© S. (CAPTIVE)

4 | DEFENDERS WINTER 2018 The recovery of the jaguar is intrinsically tied to larger populations across the international boundary. of an international border. The Jaguars, ocelots, and jaguarundis traveling the Central and Mississippi sanctuary mounted a legal fight, and once roamed the valley with their flyways with their safest route. in October filed its intent to sue the more northerly cousins, the More than 500 bird species rely Department of Homeland Security and —a gathering of wild on the South Texas landscape, a for violating private property rights felines at an ecological crossroads dependence grown ever-tenuous since and the Endangered Species Act. where coastal climate meets deserts the Spanish arrived in the 1700s If constructed, the wall would and grasslands. This landscape and began hunting and dividing the leave two-thirds of the sanctuary’s drew in all types of animals from landscape. land on the other side of the wall. coatimundi and Texas tortoise to one By the early 1900s, U.S. agricul- Federal lands—like Santa Ana of the most complex insect communi- tural expansion and flood-control National Wildlife Refuge—are even ties in temperate North America, measures had nearly erased the native easier for the Trump administration with more than 300 butterfly species thorn forest. to seize. including monarchs, malachites, By 1939, the 12 million white- This refuge was established in 1943 queens and American snouts. winged doves that had annually when human development threatened The Lower Rio Grande, converged on the valley dropped to utterly erase the native habitat of sandwiched between the vast to 500,000. The once-numerous the Lower Rio Grande Valley, along Gulf of Mexico to the east and chachalaca, dubbed the “wily with the rich diversity of wildlife that the Chihuahuan Desert to the Mexican pheasant,” had almost had relied on it since the dawn of the west, provides 80 percent of North entirely disappeared here. But in 1936 modern era. America’s migrating bird species the United States and Mexico signed

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the Migratory Bird Treaty and the DISAPPEARING SPOTS FOR OCELOTS U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) began buying land to provide refuge The Lower Rio Grande for birds and other wildlife. wildlife refuges total only Given its critical role in bird about 200,000 acres— preservation, Santa Ana was one of not nearly enough to the first refuges established in the sustain Texas ocelots state of Texas. long term. FWS is trying to Standing on this land 75 years acquire more refuge land later, the importance of this designa- before it is developed, tion is readily apparent. but funds are lacking and Today Santa Ana is an island of the pressure to develop is habitat in a world of pavement and intense. The only refuge where the crops where human development still survive is Laguna Atascosa—with destroyed more than 95 percent of about 30. A second, slightly larger the thorn forest. Many of the valley’s population exists 30 miles away in Willacy birds have grown rare, and the last and Kenedy counties, primarily on private jaguar in South Texas was shot in ranches. Surrounded by roads, ocelots are 1948. The ocelot and jaguarundi often hit by vehicles—seven of them fatally have barely escaped extinction in the from mid-2015 to 2016. The best hope United States but they still find refuge for long-term survival of ocelots in the within Santa Ana. United States is to connect the two FWS and others have worked for remaining populations with each

decades to transform the Rio Grande other and with ocelots in Mexico. © JOEL SARTORE (CAPTIVE) NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ARK PHOTO Valley’s tattered habitat remnants, using approximately $100 million in federal funding to buy and restore according to FWS figures,” says Rob waters during extreme weather. some of its last available land and to Peters, Defenders’ Southwest senior “If they build the levee border wall, connect it with other protected lands representative. Similarly, ensuring full the current levee—which any animal in the United States and Mexico. recovery of the critically endangered can go up and over—will become a The cornerstone of this effort, Mexican gray wolf would cost the sheer 30-foot wall,” says Peters. “If the South Texas Refuge Complex, same as building 10.5 miles of the wildlife can’t get over it, they are all includes Santa Ana and the Laguna wall. “By not building one-half-mile going to drown.” Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge— of border wall, the $12 million we’d It’s happened before. where one of the last breeding popula- save could pay for one year’s expenses During the 2010 flood, sections tions of ocelots live—as well as 115 toward full recovery of the wolf and of border wall built in 2008 blocked refuge tracts along the final 275-mile ocelot plus the jaguar and Sonoran wildlife from escaping floodwaters on stretch of the Rio Grande. pronghorn,” he adds. a nearby Lower Rio Grande refuge This collection of habitat, pain- Much of the South Texas Refuge tract. When the rain subsided refuge stakingly gathered over the past 40 Complex sits between the Rio staff found hundreds of Texas tortoise years under the Lower Rio Grande Grande and the river’s flood-control shells. Many other species, whose Valley National Wildlife Refuge, levee, which in some places sits two bodies were not as durable as the is fondly referred to as “a string miles north of the river. Because the tortoise, also likely drowned. of refuge pearls,” and it aims to border wall would be constructed The Trump administration also preserve habitat and to create a travel on the levee, large swaths of refuge plans to scrape all vegetation from corridor for a variety of species, land would sit south of the wall, the ground within 150 feet of the especially the ocelot. preventing wildlife from reaching new wall, which will amount to “For the cost of building only essential habitat like the Laguna a catastrophic loss of the already 14 miles of border wall, the ocelot Atascosa refuge and blocking critically rare thorn forest. Increased could be completely recovered wildlife attempts to escape flood enforcement measures will introduce

6 | DEFENDERS WINTER 2018 lighting, vehicles and agents, further diminishing the land for wildlife. For the eight federally endangered species on the Santa Ana refuge and the hundreds of imperiled species who live along the 2,000-mile border, the prognosis is grim. In the past 10 years, scientists have documented javelinas, desert cottontail, deer, toads, snakes and cougars stranded in places where the wall already exists. Bobcat and pronghorn populations have also suffered increased mortality

and decreased reproductive success SCHLYER KRISTA © because of the barrier. Some 500 bird species, including the Altamira oriole, rely on South Texas lands. For some endangered species, the wall may extinguish any hope of U.S. The jaguar and ocelot—two jaguar, ocelot, Mexican gray wolf recovery. Mexican gray have of the world’s most beautiful and the birds of Santa Ana. But in relied on border migration corridors species—are in similarly perilous 2005 Congress passed the Real ID in Arizona and New Mexico and positions. Their recovery in the Act, which gave the Department of international cooperation throughout United States is intrinsically tied Homeland Security the authority to their decades-long attempt to escape to larger populations across the waive all laws when constructing a extinction. Biologists captured the international boundary. Studies show border wall. The agency has already last five Mexican gray wolves in that the ocelot’s genetic diversity is used its authority on four occasions existence in Mexico by 1980 to breed eroding as it becomes disconnected over the past decade to waive 40 laws them in captivity in the United from larger ocelot populations south and construct more than 650 miles States. “In the last year, at least two of the border. “With only about 70 of barrier already at the border. Laws crossed over the border searching for ocelots left in the United States, if the waived include the Clean Air Act, food or mates,” says Peters. “The wall wall is finished, they are finished.” Wilderness Act, Endangered Species would put a complete and total stop Peters says. Act and the National Environmental to that.” U.S. laws could help protect the Policy Act (NEPA), which mandates

ENDANGERED SPECIES RECOVERY COSTS IN BORDER WALL EQUIVALENTS According to FWS numbers, the ocelot could be completely recovered for the cost of building only 14 miles of border wall, the Mexican gray wolf for the cost of 10.5 miles. Average projected annual cost for recovering both these species plus the jaguar and Sonoran pronghorn could be met by forgoing construction of just one-half mile of border wall at the current cost of $25 million per mile. Border wall miles Border wall miles Cost to completely equivalent for equivalent for annual recover endangered complete recovery Annual recovery recovery costs at Species species at $25 million/mile cost per year $25 million/mile Mexican wolf $262,575,000 10.5 $7,502,143 0.30

Ocelot $343,972,000 13.8 $3,509,918 0.14

Sonoran pronghorn $23,471,000 0.9 $1,303,944 0.05

Jaguar $56,093,000 2.2 $1,144,755 0.05

Totals $686,111,000 27.4 $13,460,760 0.54

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assessing environmental damage prior existence of the endangered Quino across southern North America could to any action. This law, had it been in checkerspot butterfly, snowy plover not be higher. Building a wall could force, would have required the federal and other imperiled species.” be the final breaking point for many government to consider how building In September, Defenders filed of our most cherished wild species.” n a wall might exacerbate flooding and suit against the administration drown wildlife, fragment habitat in response, setting the stage for krista schlyer is a conservation and inhibit wildlife migrations and more legal battles as the Trump photographer and writer in the reproduction. administration continues to ignore Washington D.C. area. For the “Many people refer to NEPA as environmental protections. past decade she has documented the the ‘look-before-you-leap’ law,” Bird “A U.S.-Mexico border wall in an rich biodiversity of the U.S.-Mexico says. “It’s looking over the cliff before era of climate change may represent borderlands and the impacts of U.S. you jump. But the Trump administra- the final breaking point for countless border policy on the region. She is tion decided to leap without looking species,” says Peters. “In the decades the author of Continental Divide: when it circumvented environmental to come drought and rising tempera- Wildlife, People and the Border Wall, protections last summer to pave tures will demand wildlife move in winner of the 2013 National Outdoor the way for wall construction in search of water and food resources. Book Award and Ansel Adams Award California. This threatens the The migratory stakes for wild species for Conservation Photography.

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DEFENDER

TOa q&a with THE a defenders expert CORE

Bryan Bird, Q: What do you say to those schools and investing in tourism that Defenders’ Americans who back a wall for generates jobs and income for the Southwest security measures? border region. program director A: Border communities are home Q: Defenders filed a lawsuit to Q: How would to the safest cities in the nation and stop the building of the wall in © DAVID KENNEDY DAVID © a border wall some of our country’s most stun- California, but what else is being degrade wildlife habitat? ning mountains, rivers and wildlife done to fight for wildlife facing a refuges. Our government should border wall? A: Patrol vehicles regularly go protect these lands, preserve the off-road, even in wildlife refuges. shared histories of the region, and A: Defenders is part of a growing This along with construction respect the rights of the roughly coalition of 160 organizations repre- crushes plants and animals and 15 million people who live, play senting civil rights, faith, environmen- keeps them from using their and work in border communities. tal, indigenous, LGBT and border habitat. Construction may also The wall is expensive—as much as communities working together to involve downing trees and clearing $24.5 million for every mile—and it protect the community, culture, vegetation for better visibility. does not address the fundamental land, wildlife and environmental Invasive plants also spread when causes of human migration and well-being of the border region. seeds catch a ride with vehicles, drug smuggling. The GAO reported We are participating in border wall and many plants, including that the U.S. government “cannot protests, educating Congress mesquite, have seeds that germi- measure the contribution of fencing about the impacts on wildlife and nate best if first passed through to border security operations along the environment and bringing the the guts of javelinas, and the Southwest border.” There are most comprehensive information other . If seed-dispersing far better uses of American taxpayer on the long history of binational animals become rarer or excluded dollars such as investing in U.S.- conversation investments to our from some areas by the wall, Mexico trade and port of entry opera- members and the public through a healthy habitat may diminish. tions, improving border-community report to be published in 2018. n

8 | DEFENDERS WINTER 2018