Happy New Year to us and all the critters!!!

Here is a look back in reveiw of some of the issues that have threatened or affected our wild life and natural habitats around the world the past year. I along with many others, have sent petitions to President Obama, President Bush, and other State representatives. I fight for the wildlife because they can not speak for them selves, and I can not bear the thought of losing any more wildlife or their habitats. I want future generations to be able to experience nature ,and wildlife as I have been lucky enough to do .That is why I work to not only preserve what we have , but to restore vanishing habitats and other vital resources that have been lost, stripping us all of our natural heritage. Most of these lands are public and belong to each and every one of us.

Here is my year in review , starting with the most recent:

Environmental Defense Fund 12-09
Restoring depleated fish populations

It was An historic day for America's fishing communities and our depleted marine resources:
In a landmark draft policy released today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which manages America's fisheries, is promoting greater use of "catch shares" to restore economically-depressed, unsafe, and unsustainable fisheries around the country.

Catch shares restore depleted fish populations and improve fishermen's lives and livelihoods by setting a science-based annual catch limit and award fishermen shares of the total allowable catch.

With a secure share of the catch, fishermen no longer focus on catching as much fish as they can as quickly as possible. Instead, they have a clear economic rationale for conserving marine resources and maximizing the value of their share. http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=69

highlighting some more of the victories achieved in 2009:

* Passage by the House of Representatives of landmark legislation to fight global warming and unleash a new energy future;

* Adoption of revolutionary new fishing practices in the Gulf of Mexico that are good for the fishermen, good for us, and good for the fish;

* Landmark agreements with private landowners to rescue endangered wildlife such as the ocelot and northern spotted owl.

see video with some of the victories Environmental Defense Fund accomplished in 2009 http://blogs.edf.org/greenroom/2009/11/20/2009-year-in-review/

Defenders of Wildlife 11-09
Lobos back on track

Until nearly 12 years ago, the Mexican wolf -- also known as the lobo -- was extinct in the wild. Wolf recovery in the Southwest has stagnated since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) handed over control to a multi-agency team that spent more time appeasing anti-wolf interests rather than helping restore lobos to healthy numbers.

Now, thanks to a settlement in a lawsuit brought by Defenders and our conservation partners, the future is brighter for the mere 52 lobos left in the wild. FWS will reclaim its rightful role in the recovery of these rare wolves.

http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/press_releases_folder/2009/11_13_2009_endangered_mexican_gray_wolves_get_a_boost_on_road_to_recovery.php

Polor bears
We've taken a vital first step toward getting key protections for polar bears and the places they live.

http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/press_releases_folder/2009/10_22_2009_polar_bears_to_benefit_from_proposal_to_safeguard_critical_habitat.php

deadly toxins
And the use of a deadly toxin that has killed millions of birds and poisoned other wildlife will end in the U.S.

http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/press_releases_folder/2009/10_30_2009_epa_sticks_to_its_guns_on_plan_to_bar_use_of_deadly_pesticide.php

Audubon 11-09
Clean Energy Plan Moves Forward in the Senate

In another step forward in the effort to pass clean energy legislation through Congress, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S 1733) . http://www.audubon.org/campaign/advisory/advisory0911.html#climate

Wilderness Society 11-09
land manangment and victories

Nearly a year after the Bush administration put some of Utah's most pristine lands on the auction block for oil and gas leasing, the Department of the Interior has handed down a report with recommendations aimed to overhaul the Bureau of Land Management's oil and gas leasing.

http://action.wilderness.org/ct/M725HL61Lm43/

And in other news, oil and gas leases in part Wyoming's treasured Red Desert known as Adobe Town have been pulled off the table following legal protests by The Wilderness Society and our coalition partners.

http://action.wilderness.org/ct/b125HL61Lmr5/

Gulf Restoration Network 11-09
Texans make beach conservation Constitutional

November 3rd election update: Texans voted for Proposition 9 to "protect the right of public access to beaches." For 50 years, the Texas Open Beaches Act protected public access to beaches, and in so doing kept development off the natural storm protection of coastal dunes and important coastal habitats. In the past year, however, private development interests threatened this visionary preservation law. In order to forever protect this uniquely Texan pubic right, the issue was up for a vote on Tuesday, and the results are conclusive: we, and sea turtles, can all still enjoy access to any Texas beach!


Environmental Defense Fund 11-09
Brown Pelican Victory

It's not every day we get a chance to celebrate a milestone conservation victory. Today is one of those special days.

For the first time in nearly 30 years, the brown pelican, an iconic coastal bird species found in southern California, throughout the Gulf Coast, and along the Eastern Seaboard, has recovered sufficiently to be taken off the Endangered Species List.

This is an inspiring conservation victory, one in which Environmental Defense Fund played a significant role.

EDF was founded in 1967 in campaign to ban the use of DDT, which is known to thin eggshells of many bird species, causing them to crack prematurely.

Thanks in part to our efforts, Congress passed a national DDT ban in 1972.

In the decades since, many endangered birds, including the American bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, the whooping crane (still listed as endangered), and the brown pelican, have seen dramatic recoveries.

Today, we celebrate. But we also dedicate ourselves to using the brown pelican's recovery to re-inspire our efforts to protect America's natural heritage and recover the more than 1,300 other plant and animal species listed as threatened or endangered in the U.S.

National Wildlife Federation 09-09
The U.S. Senate passed the FY10 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.

In addition to protecting the integrity of the Clean Air Act and allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to protect Americans from greenhouse gases, the bill also included the following highlights:
*provides critically needed and substantial new funding for the Department of Interior to safeguard America's wildlife and natural ecosystems.
*increased funding for improved scientific capacity for understanding climate change impacts on wildlife, and to assess and respond to that impact.
*increased funding for key conservation programs like national wildlife refuges, Land and Water Conservation Fund activities, the Forest Legacy program, and the National Environmental Education Act programs of the Environmental Protection Agency. Great job! With tens of thousands of messages into the Senate over the past few days, it's clear that the voices of America's wildlife advocates could not be ignored.

Audubon Society 09-09
President Obama Takes Crucial Step for Wetlands

"On the eve of the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President Obama took a crucial step toward saving Louisiana's nationally important coastal wetlands that provide natural hurricane protection, essential economic benefits and vital habitat for birds and other wildlife," says Dr. Paul Kemp, Vice President of Audubon's Louisiana Coastal Initiative and a recognized coastal expert. One of the worst disasters in our nation's history, Hurricane Katrina made its landfall in New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality announced it was creating a new federal interagency task force to coordinate the "economic and environmental resiliency" of Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast region. Audubon and other conservation groups have called for White House intervention in what is widely viewed as a stagnant process – now overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – for bolstering coastal wetlands.

Audubon and other national and regional conservation groups are urging bold actions to reconnect the Mississippi River to its delta in Louisiana, thereby allowing sediment and freshwater to maintain and rebuild coastal marshes that help lessen storm surges, provide critical wildlife habitat, protect oil and gas infrastructure, and serve as nurseries for shrimp and other valuable aquatic species. Primarily because of the separation of the Mississippi River from its delta by levees, Louisiana has lost more than 1.2 million acres of coastal land in the last 75 years, representing about 80 percent of all coastal land loss in the United States. Louisiana continues to lose the equivalent of up to 32 football fields of coastal land each day.

The Wilderness Society 09-09
Protections Reinstated for Roadless Forests!

A federal court has rolled back Bush administration attempts to neuter the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protected some 58 million acres of pristine national forests throughout the country. The Bush rule attempted to allow individual states the option of implementing their own rules protecting far fewer acres.

The court agreed with assertions made by The Wilderness Society that Bush's state petitions rule was misguided and that the Forest Service didn’t consider the impact of the move on the environment. This means the 2001 rule is now back in effect nationwide except on the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and on national forests in Idaho.

Environmental Defense Fund 09-09
Historic Auto Efficiency Rule

New rules will cut global warming emissions from cars.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed the first national standards to limit global warming pollution in U.S. history.
The proposal would: Reduce global warming pollution from automobiles by 21% by 2030.
Cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 950 million metric tons.
Save 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
Save the average consumer more than $3,000 in fuel costs.
EDF President Fred Krupp issued this statement in response:

"This is a critical step to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and curb pollution that threatens our health. It will deliver immediate benefits for the country as Congress crafts comprehensive climate legislation."

Today's groundbreaking action supports President Obama's landmark May 19th accord with major automakers, the Governor of California, the United Auto Workers Union, and environmentalists.

Passenger cars and light-trucks emit nearly 20% of America's greenhouse gases in the form of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofuorocarbons. In April, EPA provisionally found that these four contaminants and two other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare.

Audubon 08-09
Sage Grouse and Wind Energy

We Won Protection for Sage Grouse from Wind Energy! The Wyoming state board of Land Commissioners voted to withdraw one million acres of state land within core sage grouse population areas from wind energy development!



Defenders of Wildlife 5-09
Two BIG wins for wildlife!

a video that shows some of the wildlifes we saved this year : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duqImfaq860&feature=player_embedded

For months, Defenders of Wildlife has been raising the alarm about bottom longline fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, where threatened and endangered sea turtles have been drowning and dying at alarming rates the victims of razor sharp hooks on fishing lines that span anywhere from four to nine nautical miles.

To save these turtles, the Defenders legal team engaged in intense negotiations with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), taking legal action and mobilizing nearly 50,000 caring Defenders supporters like you to speak out in favor of closing the bottom longline fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. Last week, the efforts paid off in a huge victory for threatened and endangered sea turtles. On Wednesday, the NMFS ordered a 6-month emergency closure of the bottom longline fishery in the Gulf of Mexico, providing a crucial lifeline to protect the lives of imperiled sea turtles from capture and death in the fishery.


The Wilderness Society 05-09
Fuel for the spirit

That's how Interior Secretary Ken Salazar characterized America's wilderness when President Obama signed into law historic wilderness protection last week. The Wilderness Society and the WildAlert community were integral in passing this landmark legislation, convincing more than 200 House members to vote for it.

One hundred fifty thousand. That's how many comments were sent in to the Minerals Management Service opposing new oil and gas leasing in Arctic waters. Two thirds of those comments were generated by The Wilderness Society's nationwide campaign.

Investing in Our Natural Heritage
It has been an exciting time for The Wilderness Society. With the help of the WildAlert community, we were able to generate nearly 100,000 comments to the Minerals Management Service in the effort to halt all new oil and gas leases in the Arctic Ocean. What's more, just last week, the environmental movement scored a major victory with the passage of the historic Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, which means protection for over 2 million acres of public land!

It's official! President signs wilderness bill

In a packed White House ceremony last week, President Obama signed historic legislation that will protect nearly two million acres of wilderness on public lands in the U.S. The WildAlert community was integral to its passage, having worked to pass major portions of the bill for several years.

"As Americans we possess few things greater than the landscapes that stretch the length and breadth of our continent," the President remarked before he signed the bill. "Each generation has a responsibility to secure this nation's promise for the next."

National Wildlife Federation 05-09
The Endangered Species Act is Restored!

Thousands of wildlife enthusiasts sent messages to Secretary Ken Salazar, and on April 28, the Endangered Species Act was restored.

For over 35 years, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has served as a safety net for plants and animals on the brink of extinction. It has successfully protected hundreds of species from destruction, including the bald eagle, Florida manatee, and gray wolf to name a few. Throughout the years, National Wildlife Federation has made protecting the ESA one of our top priorities.

Early this week, the Obama administration rescinded last-minute regulations of the Bush administration that would have weakened the Act’s protections. This rule reversal reinstates the Endangered Species Act's requirement that federal agencies consult with independent scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to determine if the federal agencies actions might harm threatened and endangered species. “Restoring these core protections of the Endangered Species Act signals a renewal of America's conservation ethic. We have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren to ensure that wildlife not only survives, but thrives into the future,” said John Kostyack, Executive Director of Wildlife Conservation and Global Warming at NWF.

Union of Concerned Scientisits 5-09
support to make our world cleaner and safer

In just the past few months we've called on the administration to repower, refuel, and rebuild America through smart, climate legislation that will build a clean energy economy. You've told the Environmental Protection Agency to allow states to legally regulate global warming pollution from cars, and in key states and districts, you've been working to support strong renewable energy legislation. In addition, President Obama's recent calls to restore scientific integrity to federal policy making and reduce the threat of nuclear weapons is the result of our collective work over many years to raise the visibility of these critical issues and demand change. And just last week, California passed the world's first low carbon fuel standard to cut global warming pollution from gasoline and diesel fuels. The regulation will likely serve as a model for other states and the federal government.

Global Warming
Tens of thousands of citizens—including 20,000 UCS activists—called on our nation’s leaders to pass comprehensive climate legislation that will repower, refuel, and rebuild America. The petition was delivered to President Obama when he stepped into office this January. With the president’s public commitment to building a clean energy future and Congress starting to take up climate legislation, we have a tremendous opportunity to protect future generations from the worst effects of global warming while breaking our dependence on oil and putting Americans back to work. In the Northeast, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative—the nation’s first regional, market-based plan to limit global warming pollution—went into effect, helping to set the stage for federal legislation to reduce emissions across the country. And with tropical deforestation accounting for 20 percent of the world’s global warming pollution, UCS supporters pushed to include foreign aid funds to help reduce deforestation.

Clean Energy
UCS activists and allies advocated for a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) with our new Clean Power, Green Jobs analysis that shows that by requiring utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from clean, renewable resources by 2025 we would create new jobs, save consumers money on their electricity bills, and reduce global warming pollution. In key districts, states, and regions, supporters contacted their representatives, signed petitions, and submitted letters and op-eds to local and major media outlets, in support of the RES, and UCS supporters in California worked hard to strengthen their state’s RES as well.

Clean Vehicles
Amidst a weak economy and automaker bailouts, fuel economy and clean car standards were thrust into the spotlight this spring. The Obama administration used methodology held over from the Bush administration to set the 2011 model year vehicle fuel economy standards, which included only a small increase over current standards. UCS is working with agency officials to improve implementation for fuel economy standards in future model years. President Obama also told the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider their decision prohibiting states from implementing clean car standards for global warming pollution. UCS analysts and activists spoke loud and clear in support of this issue, including continued efforts to encourage more states to adopt the clean car standards.

UCS scientists worked with the EPA on its plans to implement a Renewable Fuel Standard, but key issues still remain especially in regard to land use and global warming pollution gasoline and diesel fuels. At the state level, however, we achieved a major victory last week in California where they passed the world's first low carbon fuel standard. In addition, California activists defended diesel pollution standards that protect public health and the environment.

latest news on this : http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/endangerment.html

Nuclear Weapons & Global Security
In 2008, UCS released Toward True Security, outlining steps the next president should take to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons. In his historic Prague speech this April, President Obama called for the implementation of many of these steps, laying out a bold, yet pragmatic plan to transform U.S. nuclear weapons policy. On the issue of nuclear reprocessing, UCS activists sent a clear, unequivocal message to the administration that reprocessing nuclear waste is dangerous, unnecessary, and will do nothing to solve the problem with spent fuel from commercial reactors by submitting more than 11,000 of the 14,000 public comments received on the topic. And tough budget battles loom over funding for costly, unproven missile defense programs that UCS and its activists have taken the lead in opposing over the last several years.

Scientific Integrity
Since pledging in his inaugural address to “restore science to its rightful place,” President Obama has asked his science advisor to come up with a plan to stop political interference in science. Many of the actions taken by the administration in its first 100 days reflect recommendations UCS presented to the presidential transition team. We’ve also started to see our work pay off within federal agencies—Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson recently issued a memo emphasizing scientific integrity and the importance of transparency in the agency. Last month both the president and Congress moved to strengthen the Endangered Species Act and its scientific foundation. After many of you called for action—along with more than 1,300 scientists—cabinet members responded, implementing many of those steps. And thanks in part to our efforts, companies will once again be required to disclose adequate information about the toxic chemicals they release into local communities.

Food & Agriculture
In April, UCS released a groundbreaking report, Failure to Yield, that dispels years of biotech industry propaganda by showing that genetically engineered (GE) crops do not allow farmers to grow significantly more crops per acre of land. At the same time, your letters helped stall a U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal to weaken oversight of GE crops. Your letters to Congress also helped support legislation to curb the overuse of antibiotics in the feed of animals that are not sick.

Invasive Species
UCS is working hard to make historic changes to invasive species law. Thanks to you, we have doubled the list of supporters of The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act, adding representation from six new states and trust territories. This House bill would require risk-assessment of non-native animal imports before they are permitted into the country. Nearly 12,000 UCS supporters emailed or called their representatives to let them know this legislation is the most effective way to prevent future non-native species invasions.

Wilderness Society 3- 2009
Millions of acres protected

There's nothing we can't accomplish when we stand together!

Tremendous news! Congress has finally passed the monumental piece of wilderness legislation that we've been helping to push forward.

I cannot tell you how huge this is for wilderness history. The passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act provides the largest expansion of our wilderness system in some 15 years. It means protection for more than 2 million acres of special wild lands, rivers and cultural sites throughout the nation, and it makes the National Landscape Conservation System official.
Staff members have sunk their hearts into working on various components of the legislation for years.
In recent months alone our many phone calls and letters to decision makers have been critical to pushing the bill forward. Now, special lands throughout the nation are sure to remain spectacular.
This tremendous victory truly demonstrates what we can achieve when we bring all of The Wilderness Society's resources to bear. It's also a powerful reminder of what we can accomplish in campaigns to stop new oil and gas leasing in the Arctic Ocean.

Together, there's nothing we can't accomplish.



Gulfwaves 02-09
A Victory for Florida's Green Swamp

Florida's Department of Environmental Protection recently denied a permit request to build a landfill near the Green Swamp on the Southern edge of Florida's Nature Coast. GRN and other conservation groups opposed to the landfill are thrilled that it will no longer threaten the Floridian Aquifer that runs beneath it or the four major rivers that flow out of the Green Swamp (and provide much of Central Florida's drinking water). This battle was particularly hard-fought, and GRN congratulates all involved in the fight, particularly the Protectors of Florida's Legacy, a group out of Dade City, where the landfill was planned.

National Wildlife Federation 02-09
We Helped Green Economic Recovery Become Law!

What a victory!

On Tuesday, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 into law, which includes very significant investments for conservation--at levels unlike any before.

The economic recovery legislation will provide over $80 billion for clean energy technologies, green jobs and many other important conservation advances.

Over the past few weeks, tens of thousands of National Wildlife Federation supporters across the country got messages and phone calls into their Members of Congress, voicing their support for economic recovery legislation that repowers America by restoring our natural world.

Wilderness Society 02-09
UtahWildlands

Fabulous news! The new Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, announced yesterday that oil and gas leases that would degrade Utah wildlands have been cancelled. The WildAlert community kept this campaign alive through months and years of action and donations. After all, it's not only our love for the land that inspires us to care for wild places. It's also belief in leaving the world a better place that keeps us going in the face of incredible challenges.

Protecting America's natural heritage is a worthy and honorable service. Each time we send a letter, make a phone call, donate, or pass along a WildAlert to a friend, we provide a service to future Americans.

Happy Nature journies to you all!!!


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This story starts out simular to a normal day around here, things I might see ... but I didn't write this story, it is an update from the Defenders of Wildlife  , on the dangers already starting to unfold due to the building of the great Border Wall that is tearing through our great Contintental Divide and devestating the animals and thier natural habitats.... these are some of our rarest wildlives that exist no where else on earth. I have been against the building of this border wall from the very begining and have blogged about it many times, this is the latest news on the progress of this devestating project.

Defenders Magazine
Summer 2009
Continental Divide
Borderlands, wildlife, people and the wall

 

Moisture from a morning rain hangs heavy in the air, clinging to spider webs, flower petals and the Spanish moss draped over the shady canopy of trees at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. A tiny tree frog rests upon the wood railing along a trail, while plain chachalacas gobble and complain and green jays and malachite butterflies appear in bursts of tropical color through the deep green of the forest.

The landscape masquerades as Costa Rica, but in reality this refuge lies in Texas' Lower Rio Grande Valley, just north of the border with Mexico. Here, since the 1940s, the national wildlife refuge system has sheltered a rare treasure trove of life."The four most southern counties in Texas constitute one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America," says Nancy Brown, public outreach specialist at the South Texas Refuge Complex. "We have a documented 1,200 species of plants, 513 species of birds and nearly 300 butterfly species." Many of the creatures that dwell here exist nowhere else in the United States.

Like many of the borderlands ecosystems shared by the United States and Mexico, the Lower Rio Grande Valley is a bridge between north and south, and therefore a landscape of incredible richness—biologically, as well as culturally and historically. And, like much of the nearly 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico, the lower valley of the Rio Grande is being eroded and divided by roads, barriers and other infrastructure related to the construction of a border wall.

Legislation passed in 2005 gave the U.S. Department of Homeland Security unprecedented authority to waive laws to build the wall, and since that time the department has ignored the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and dozens of other laws while constructing almost 600 miles of barrier. Not surprisingly, the wall is having major impacts on the wildlife of the borderlands. As earthmovers, concrete and steel supplant trees, pollute rivers, obstruct pathways for wildlife and destroy habitat, the border wall threatens to unravel borderlands ecosystems. Despite the recent change in presidential leadership, construction continues, focused mainly on the sensitive south Texas region, where only a fraction of the native ecosystem remains in a sea of farmland and housing developments.

"About 95 percent of habitat here has been cleared—it's gone, there's nothing left," says Brown. "So all of this diversity is supported by 5 percent remaining habitat."

In the late 1970s, the wildlife refuge system began piecing together what was left of the native ecosystems, making space for the tremendous wealth of native birdlife and creatures like the endangered ocelot and jaguarundi.

"We have 17 federally listed threatened or endangered species," Brown says of the lower four counties of south Texas. That's as many or more than some whole states.

To make the remnants of native land valuable for terrestrial wildlife, the refuge and its supporters worked to create corridors for creatures to travel from one small parcel of land to another. The refuge also began buying farmland and undertaking the arduous process of restoring the native flora.

On one parcel, the Monterrey Banco tract, staff had worked for more than a quarter-century replanting native shrubs and trees and restoring what had been bare land into an island of habitat. Just when the refuge had succeeded at the project, and threatened species like indigo snakes and Texas tortoises were starting to make their homes on Monterrey Banco, construction began on the border wall.

The wall here, as in much of south Texas, is being built into the levee system rather than along the Rio Grande. The Monterrey Banco tract sits between the Rio Grande and the levee, so in addition to tearing up restoration work to build roads and 18 feet of concrete wall, the refuge now sits south of the border wall. Many refuge tracts and private preserves—along with private property seized through federal action—will lie south of the border wall if construction continues as planned.

Farther west along the borderlands, trees become scarce and the landscape opens wide into expansive grasslands, home of kit fox, porcupine and pronghorn. At the border of New Mexico and the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, some of the continent's most intact grasslands endure. This ecosystem, now considered one of the most imperiled in the world, has been nearly erased from North America by agriculture and development. In the borderlands, due to the persistence of ranching, large remnants of grasslands remain, providing habitat for keystone species such as bison and prairie dogs, and offering hope to scientists that with some assistance, a rare native ecosystem could be mended here.

But construction of walls, roads and other barriers now imperils the ability of these animals to move on the landscape and thus reclaim their roles in the ecosystem. The international border, which was nearly imperceptible a few years ago, is now clearly cut by wide roads and steel barriers. If construction continues, it will block all north-south movement and access to crucial habitat for bison and pronghorn, and may also disrupt the movements of prairie dogs, deer and other species.

Both Mexico and the United States have also been working to re-establish bighorn sheep populations. The sheep travel through mountain chains that span the border, and have been migrating from healthier populations north of the border to take advantage of land to the south. "But with a wall, that's out of the question," List says.

 

The natural and essential process of animal migration, a key component of wildlife survival and evolution, now hangs in the political balance. Countless species—from the Mexican gray wolf and jaguar to the rattlesnake and beaver—will feel the impacts.

 

In the San Pedro River corridor, which crosses the border in southeastern Arizona, cottonwood trees tower over a shady riverbed imprinted with the feet of many wild creatures—including bobcat, mountain lion, turkey, coatimundi and small rodents. Outside the river corridor, open grasslands spread for many miles to the south, and climb the Huachuca Mountains to the west.

The land is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, which, in 1999, began reintroducing beaver, a keystone river species absent from the San Pedro for decades due to fur trapping and habitat loss and degradation. The reintroduction was such a success that during a flood a few years later, the beavers naturally made their way south of the border, to Mexico, where the species was not only gone from the river but considered endangered nationwide.

Unfortunately, in 2007, the Department of Homeland Security began building barriers in the river corridor. Defenders of Wildlife and its partners sued to stop construction, and won a temporary restraining order in federal district court. But the department invoked its waiver authority, and dismissed all the laws that the judge had cited in the case. Today steel barriers slice through the corridor right to the water's edge. People are often seen climbing the wall or cutting through, but the easiest passage for human traffic is now through the fragile river habitat, where some creatures find their only haven in southeastern Arizona.

The ability of walls to shift the paths that people take to the United States highlights the broad impacts of U.S. border policy on this region. Construction of walls in urban areas caused human traffic to shift to remote areas, bringing increased trash and illegal roadways to fragile southwestern landscapes. In response, the Border Patrol has built more roads, and engaged in off-road vehicular chases with smugglers, tearing up some of the continent's most pristine arid habitats.

Farther west, the high desert sinks in elevation and transitions into the Sonoran desert, home to the iconic and endemic saguaro cactus, endangered Sonoran pronghorn and threatened desert tortoise. To survive the harsh climate, animals here restrict activity to cooler times of day and arrange their movements around reliable watering holes. But in the past few years, this landscape—including national park and wildlife refuge land—has been severed by walls impenetrable to local wildlife, in many cases putting water and food resources just out of reach. As droughts in the Southwest become more common because of global warming, the wall's harm to desert wildlife will grow.

"The border wall in a climate-change environment is very dangerous because it won't allow the movement of species north as the climate gets hotter," says List. "If you put a wall that doesn't allow plants and animals to move north, it may become a wall of extinction."

But the clock has not yet run out on borderland species and habitat. Defenders of Wildlife and a coalition of conservation, business and human-rights groups are working both in the courts and Congress to halt the reckless expansion of the border wall, and advocating the adoption of other, less harmful methods for protecting our borders.

"Few areas in North America are as biologically diverse as the U.S.-Mexico borderlands," says List. "We have to be creative and find new solutions to restore the cross-border ecological processes that forged this unique region."

Krista Schlyer is a writer and photographer who helped organize the recent photo expedition by members of the International League of Conservation Photographers to the borderlands region. For the full story, video, great resources, and links, and more information here from the link below:

Refuge Watch

 

 

And my related posts:

Border Wall disasterous for Wildlife september 22, 2008 (with Videos)

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