No border wall or bulldozing in Big Bend!

Big bend national park-Al Braden-2015-attribution required (45).jpg

In West Texas, the Rio Grande is the heartbeat of the Big Bend. Now, the Trump Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are mobilizing to bulldoze hundreds of miles of new roads and build border security infrastructure through Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and other sensitive lands.

Imagine visiting Big Bend and not being able to canoe, raft, fish, or hike through the magnificent canyons without navigating bright lights, razor wire, steel barriers, and surveillance towers.

For the communities and landowners along the border, constructing more border barriers and heavy infrastructure would be devastating. When the Rio Grande and the arroyos that feed into it flood, silt and other debris get stuck in the border wall, causing water to back up and flood local farms and communities. New border barriers would also deny ranchers and farmers access to the river, depriving their livestock and crops of access to water and creating a no-man's-land that cuts off access to public and private lands.

In Arizona, New Mexico, and the Texas communities of El Paso, Eagle Pass, Laredo, and the Rio Grande Valley, border barriers have cut off migratory routes and water supplies for wolves, ocelots, jaguars, black bear, elk, and many other species that inhabit both sides of the border. New roads in vast natural areas can also fragment wildlife habitat. In the Big Bend region, border infrastructure, which is often illuminated by bright lights, would destroy dark skies and disrupt the nearby McDonald Observatory, which depends on complete darkness at night.

Texans are uniting across party, race, and class against the plans to bulldoze through Big Bend.

Add your voice to the growing chorus of people calling on the Trump Administration and Governor Abbott to spare these fragile ecosystems and places of great cultural importance.

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Dear U.S. Customs and Border Protection,

Texans and Americans throughout the country do not want more border barriers, new roads through natural areas, or heavy infrastructure along the Rio Grande, especially through sensitive regions like Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and the surrounding ranchland that sustains our economy and culture.

The existing sections of wall already impose an unnecessary burden on ranchers and other landowners, as well as others who survive on tourism or otherwise recreate along the river. When we get heavy seasonal rains, the silt and debris in the river and arroyos back up and flood our land and communities. And cutting off access to the river and our land deprives our livestock and crops of much-needed water resources.

Building border security infrastructure and bulldozing hundreds of miles of new roads through Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and surrounding areas not only threatens the ecology of this fragile desert region, but would do away with the tourism economy that sustains many of our small border communities. The national park alone receives more than 500,000 visitors per year.

The entire border region, but especially the areas now targeted by CBP, is so important to species like the ocelot, jaguar, wolf, bear, elk, and so many others. Not only will these species no longer be able to migrate, but those on the northern side of the wall would no longer have access to the water resources that sustain them. New roads and barriers can also fragment their habitat and migrations.

Rural communities along the river are united in opposition to more border security infrastructure construction.

I join them in saying no to more wall, heavy infrastructure construction, and new patrol roads.

CC: Governor Abbott

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Image by Al Braden: Giant Dagger Yucca (Yucca faxoniana) at Big Bend National Park, Texas