Thread: Some worry about border fence`s ecological impact

May 15, 2008, 11:45PM
Some worry about border fence's ecological impact
Preserves will be forced to close or turn into a no-man's land


By LYNN BREZOSKY
San Antonio Express-news

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BROWNSVILLE — A caliche road stretches through cornfields, tops a gentle slope, and ends at the headquarters of the Nature Conservancy's Lennox Foundation Southmost Preserve.

Outside are potted seedlings sitting on long tables and a nascent vineyard. On either side, thick groves of some of the nation's last remaining sabal palms rustle in the wind.

That slope would be the Rio Grande levee — where the Department of Homeland Security plans to anchor a 16-foot-high border fence. The preserve is destined to become a no-man's land between the river and the fence.

It is therefore doomed, its caretakers believe.

Same with a neighboring farmer's land, and the Audubon Society's nearby 527-acre ecotourism destination, containing more strands of the sabal palm forest that once hugged 80 miles of the Rio Grande's southernmost stretch.

In all, fewer than 100 acres of what was once 50,000 acres of a type of palm jungle found nowhere else in the world remain. The palms grow in Mexico, but not in such a dense clumping, considered its own biotic community.

"I'm all for border protection and I'm sure you are, too," the Nature Conservancy's preserve manager Max Pons said. "But here's the question — at what price?"

Over the years, Pons has helped restore large swaths of the 1,034-acre preserve to its native Tamaulipan thorn, a habitat for endangered wildlife found in no other region of the country.

But when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff used his authority to waive more than 30 federal laws to meet the fence's 2008 construction timetable, efforts to assess its environmental impact flew out the window.


Little consolation
Talk of mitigation was reduced to acts of good will by the DHS, which has indicated it will negotiate $50 million worth of environmental fixes with the Department of the Interior, which oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its national wildlife refuge that extends along the river in scores of tracts.

But that's small consolation to Pons. Word from his higher-ups is that the Southmost preserve will close, as will the Audubon property.

"How do you mitigate the loss of the last two remaining sabal palm forests and all those animals and everything that is associated with it?" Pons asked.

Homeland Security's decision to build along the levee made sense to local officials. The government already owns the land. The flood plain between the river and the levee cannot be disturbed because of a treaty sharing the river and its management with Mexico.

But the levees can range a mile or more inland, and while the official border remains the middle of the Rio Grande, the fence essentially will block off anything to its south.

As Anne Brown, executive director of Audubon Texas, explained it, the fence will separate its sabal palm preserve from the rest of Brownsville and the rest of the United States, creating liability problems with the loss of city police and fire protection and making it impossible to welcome school groups and other visitors.

"We'll have no choice" but to close, she said.

Conceivably, the road to Pons' home and office could pass through a remote-controlled gate that could swing open with a clicker or an access code. Brown said no thanks.


Access for smuggling
Such access would be a golden gate for illegal immigrant smuggling, she said, which increasingly is a sideline for violent drug cartels.

"We don't really want to have the responsibility," Brown said.

It's not just the two preserves. Through combined state, federal, and private efforts, the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Corridor now runs in chunks for 275 river miles from Brownsville to Roma.

Fish and Wildlife has acquired more than 100 tracts totaling about 90,000 acres for the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge.

With 11 different biotic communities, it is considered one of the most biologically diverse refuges in the continental United States. The ultimate goal has been a seamless, riverside refuge for disappearing species such as ocelots and jaguarundis.

While the fence as now planned will skip the refuge's two public parks, it will still cut through lands that are maintained solely for wildlife. The wildlife need the river.

"We estimate that anywhere from 60 to 75 percent of the refuge will feel either direct or indirect impact as a result of the border fence," said Nancy Brown, Fish and Wildlife's outreach specialist for the refuge.


'A buffer zone'
Farmland also will be lost, locals say, and bits of American history will ironically be south of the new tactical border.

"You will inevitably create a buffer zone, to use a mild term, that will result in the devaluation of the farmland," said John McClung, president of the Texas Produce Association.

"Then they're going to issue farmers remote controls for gates. Does anyone think the other guys won't either get the remote controls or figure out the frequencies in about a day and a half?"

Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said she couldn't comment on the lost lands or environmental consequences because final decisions there haven't been made.

But she said the department remained committed to moving quickly to meet its goal of 370 miles of pedestrian-proof fence by the end of the year.

"What you must bear in mind is that illegal activity does not stop as long as we have this endless debate," she said. Chertoff used environmental waivers to push through fencing in San Diego, which she said has resulted in a 76 percent decline in apprehensions of undocumented immigrants.

For fence foes, the last hope may be the U.S. Supreme Court.

Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club have so far lost a lawsuit claiming Chertoff's waiver authority is both unprecedented in U.S. history and unconstitutional, and they are waiting to see if the nation's highest court will hear the case.

But Brian Segee, attorney for Defenders of Wildlife, said there's little hope the case will be heard before fence construction is well under way.

lbrezosky@express-news.net

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 84365.html

Thousands of illegal aliens trampling through the preserve will destroy it.
And the tons of trash they dump enroute has an immeasurable ecological impact.

Forget the most precious resource around, " WATER ' ! You don't see ol Audobon tree huggers worrying about that . They are silent while the elite corps. like Nestle,Coca Cola and others rape our water resources with their bottling companys . Forget water wars in eastern states where severe draughts are depleting it .

I say mow down the palms and move the animals or whatever it takes to put up fence.

Someone said on radio the other day ,they don't care if they drill through the Alaskan carraboos head to get to the oil if it saves us from Saudi oil . I agree. And I love animals, but people first .