The U.S. Border Patrol recently announced that a final Environmental Assessment (EA) for construction of approximately seven miles of new border fencing across a known jaguar corridor has been released with a finding of "no significant impact" on the ecology of the borderlands. The new walls are scheduled to be built near Sasabe, Arizona in that state’s ecologically-acclaimed “Sky Islands” region. The EA was completed without previous public comment or notice.

Construction of the security barrier, consisting of 4-inch-diameter, 18-foot-high verticle steel bars spaced four inches apart, has already begun, according to the Border Patrol.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently writing an expedited Biological Opinion related to the EA.  That opinion, according to USFWS, will include “conservation options” related to the jaguar, but such options would not be legally binding on the project.

The seven-mile stretch of wall will be built directly across a critical cross-border jaguar corridor specifically identified by scientists, conservationists, and agency personnel at a “Border Ecological Workshop” in 2006 sponsored by the Wildlands Project and Defenders of Wildlife.  The corridor, connecting the Baboquivari Mountain complex/Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. with the northernmost jaguar breeding grounds approximately 120 miles to the southeast in Sonora, Mexico, is also the same jaguar route identified in a "safe passages" corridor map developed by the Wildlands Project and partners at a GIS expert workshop earlier this year.  Numerous jaguar sightings have been documented in the region over the past several years.

“We are witnessing the permanent dismanteling of one of North America’s most precious ecosystems,” says Wildlands Project Western Director, Kim Vacariu.  “We can include effective ecological protections with effective border security infrastructure planning if we have the will” he notes, “but time is running out.”

The Wildlands Project has scheduled a third annual "Border Ecological Workshop" in Tucson on October 23 to reconvene previous stakeholders with the goal of focusing on the current status of border security infrastructure, and pressing forward in the effort to protect wildlife corridors as part of the border security planning process.

For more information, contact the Wildlands Project’s Western Field Office at 575-557-0155 or kim@wildlandsproject.org.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

The wall-building decision has caused conservation groups to accelerate efforts to pass legislation recently introduced by U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) designed to incorporate recognition of ecological concerns in border security infrastructure planning. The "Borderlands Conservation and Security Act (HR 2593)" would also require the DHS to follow all federal environmental laws when building barriers.  DHS is currently exempt from such laws under the Real I.D. Act. The Wildlands Project urges all those concerned with the effects of security barriers on wildlife corridors to contact their elected representatives in support of HR 2593, which is now moving through committee.

Letters and calls for support can be directed to the following:

U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva
1440 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
ph (202)225-2435
fax (202)225-1541

U.S. House of Representatives
You can leave a message of support for HR2593.
(202) 224-3121