Fence cuts through to heart of river life

Houston Chronicle ^ | Oct. 1, 2007 | JAMES PINKERTON

[vietvet67]

ROMA — Noel Benavides stood on the banks of the Rio Grande, its clear water gurgling over sandstone slabs, and watched a butterfly wing into the small clearing.

A green jay glided down from arching trees overhead, disappearing into a tangle of thornbrush thicket that has grown undisturbed on this land since it came into his wife's family in the late 1700s. On this mile-long riverfront tract, Benavides has fished for alligator gar and crawfish, led his Boy Scout troop on weekend campouts and presided over countless family gatherings.

''This area has never been disturbed, and this is what they're going to bulldoze, this beautiful habitat," said Benavides, a 65-year-old merchant and city councilman. ''If we disturb this habitat, this ecosystem, it's never going to come back."

Benavides is deeply worried because the most recent map of a border fence proposed in South Texas shows the 16-foot-tall steel structure slicing across the length of his family's 150 acres of riverside property.

From Roma to Brownsville, the reality of a looming fence has set in among ranchers, farmers, conservationists, city officials and residents who live next to the river. Already, surveyors have been tracking down property owners, in some cases offering them $3,000 for permission to survey the land.

Reality sinks in A week ago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published the first detailed locations and maps of the initial phase of the fence in the Federal Register. The maps plotted 21 proposed sites along the South Texas border where nearly 70 miles of fencing are to be installed, largely along a network of existing government river levees. Bulldozers will begin clearing up to 508 acres of land for the fence beginning next spring, with construction finishing December 2008.

[BabsC]

See how they do things here in Georgia.....

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1899827/

[SwinneySwitch]

Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[Calpernia]

That caught my eye too.

Something isn’t right there.

[Calpernia]

Oh no. The butterflies seem to be in grave danger.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1871061/posts
Border fence seen harming ocelots, butterflies

[Calpernia]

You may want to highlight this on the TownCrier:

>>>Already, surveyors have been tracking down property owners, in some cases offering them $3,000 for permission to survey the land.<<<

[deport]

If the government wants to build something and needs to survey an easement on your property, I kind of doubt that they need to ask your permission or pay you money to do so.

---

I’d hope they ask/seek permission, etc because until the eminent domain process is actually completed the property is still private and belongs to the individual.

[Calpernia]

Eminent domain is not surveying. Eminent domain isn’t even established until the surveying is done. And the surveying would be done regardless of whether eminent domain is even an issue.

[deport]

So what else is new?

[Calpernia]

I would say being paid $3,000 is very new.

[deport]

Have you learned anything else that maybe new to you?

[Liberty Valance]

"...on the banks of the Rio Grande, its clear water gurgling over sandstone slabs..."



LOL! if you can get passed the raw sewage from Nuevo Laredo and every other crap hole along the Mexican side of that river.

[Calpernia]

Why yes. Thank you for asking. I learned from this thread that pigs actually do fly.

[deport]

You are learning alll kinds of new things aren’t you?..

[Calpernia]

;)

[ryan71]

Let’s all vote on every social issue. For example:

We all vote on having or not having a fence. If you vote “for” the fence, you pay $5 to support our hospitals, schools, police, etc. If you vote “against”, you pay $1,000. Simple.

If you vote “for” government healthcare, you taxes go up 20%. If you vote “against”, 0%.

If you vote “against” drilling for oil, new refineries, or nuclear power, you pay $6/gallon of gas. If you vote “for”, you pay $1.

Choice, choice, choice. The left love choice. Let’s give them a choice on every issue.

[deport]

take care..... Have to go do a little work....

[Graycliff]

Well if my ranch had river access and the Gov fenced me off it, I’d be a little more than pissed. Kinda like buying lake front or ocean front property and having the Gov put up a fence between you and it.

[deport]

Well if my ranch had river access and the Gov fenced me off it, I’d be a little more than pissed.

---

I think that’s part of the howl from the locals or at least some. They will have water access for cattle, agriculture etc fenced. I guess it depends upon where the fence is run in relation to the river but at some point people and animals will be blocked in order to keep illegals from coming on in.