. And natural areas continue to be at risk of border walls being built across them.
So it’s no surprise that when DHS signaled in 2017 it was eyeing the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo, Texas, for 3 miles of new wall, environmental groups went on defense. Over the past several months, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Wildlife Corridor lobbied and held protests over the significant harm this wall would bring to the wildlife and overall ecology in the refuge.
The Fish and Wildlife Service calls Santa Ana the “crown jewel” of its 560 refuges in the US.
What a visit to the refuge revealed about how sensitive wildlife is to construction
In March, my colleague Christophe Haubursin and I went down to see for ourselves. Our arrival coincided with the very end of winter, which meant we got to see many birds on the move. Santa Ana is located at an east-west and north-south confluence of two major migratory routes of birds flying from as far north as Canada to as far south as Central America. It’s also the northernmost point for birds whose range extends all the way into South America, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson told me.
The abundant berries, insects, and wetlands in the refuge attract around 400 regular bird residents. And more than 500 of the 1,000 bird species known to inhabit the United States have been sighted there. “Its unique geography means birders who go there get the best of all worlds,” Steve Holmer, vice president of policy at the American Bird Conservancy, told me. “It’s a special, special place.”
And it’s not just the birds that make it special — rare plants and reptiles like the endangered indigo snake can find safe harbor in the refuge too. (The Rio Grande Valley region is native habitat for the endangered ocelot cat, and there are about 50 left in the entire US. Most are in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge; the last official sighting of one in the Santa Ana refuge was in 1992.)
Though most birds could theoretically fly over a wall, the big concern is that the wall would destroy some of their habitat and put other species at risk of drowning the next time the Rio Grande floods. (Right now the reptiles and mammals that can’t fly can crawl over the levee that runs through the refuge when the river floods.)
But to many activists’ surprise, the pushback against building the wall in the refuge paid off: Congress included special language in the spending bill to exempt it.
“It was something that I fought for,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) said in an interview. “Thanks to the Democrats on the Appropriations Committee, this has been a priority to protect the environmentally sensitive areas.”
Except Congress allocated $1.6 billion for more border wall — $445 million for 25 miles in Hidalgo County and $196 million for 8 miles in Starr County — which are slated to impact several other critical protected areas for wildlife. (An additional $251 million was allocated to replace 14 miles of existing secondary wall in the San Diego sector and $445 million was included to replace an unspecified amount of other wall.)
“I was worried about this: that Santa Ana would be saved and everyone else gets wall,” said Jim Chapman, a Texas environmentalist who helped organize against the Santa Ana wall. “We never wanted to just save Santa Ana. It’s kind of bittersweet.”
The spending bill authorizes money for a wall that would go through other protected areas
The picture that has emerged from plans shared with the local press is that the new 33 miles of wall will connect existing sections in Hidalgo and Starr counties. And it turns out a lot of it will go through land that’s already been protected for wildlife in one form or another.
Kersten, the local activist, has been looking at all the Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge tracts, state properties, county parks, and private nonprofit nature sites that would be affected by the proposed, funded border walls for Hidalgo County. And she’s compiled an astonishing list that include, among other sites:
- La Parida Banco Refuge Tract (447 acres)
- Bentsen-R