Posted on 04/19/2008 10:17:57 PM PDT by Aristotelian
TUCSON -- The debate over the fence the United States is building along its southern border has focused largely on the project's costs, feasibility and how well it will curb illegal immigration. But one of its most lasting impacts may well be on the animals and vegetation that make this politically fraught landscape their home.
Some wildlife researchers have grown so concerned about the consequences of bisecting hundreds of miles of rugged habitat that they have talked of engaging in civil disobedience to block the fence's construction.
"This wall is so asinine, and so wrong, I am one of a dozen scientists ready to lay our bodies down in front of tractors," Healy Hamilton, who directs the Center for Biodiversity Research and Information at the California Academy of Sciences, told colleagues at a recent scientific retreat here. "This is one thing we might be able to stop."
"Make it 13!" said Allison Jones, a conservation biologist at the Wild Utah Project, an advocacy group.
Hamilton and Jones have yet to throw themselves before bulldozers, but their call to arms reflects the researchers' growing fears that the wall will imperil species that, in Hamilton's words, "walk, fly or crawl across that border."
The scientists cite examples such as the 70 remaining Sonoran pronghorns in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, deerlike animals that are the fastest land mammals in North America. They are the only remaining population on U.S. soil, and the five surveillance towers that the administration plans to build in the area will be in the middle of the pronghorns' range, producing noise and human activity that would disturb the sensitive species.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I can't wait for Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau to make appearances in the Rio Grande.
The only species we should be concerned about is the species coming across the border illegally.
What’s so funny about this is that the DMZ between North and South Korea is one of the most pristine areas in the world.
I guess the walls on both sides of the DMZ are made of a different kind of material. /s
How about the endangered species called “Americanus Citizenus”
Allison , Healy meet Rachel.......welcome to stupid.
As always, never a word about the destruction wrought by the illegal traffic, their mounds of trash and feces or the fires they set.
“They are the only remaining population on U.S. soil, and the five surveillance towers that the administration plans to build in the area will be in the middle of the pronghorns’ range, producing noise and human activity that would disturb the sensitive species.”
Millions of Illegals, drug runners, their getaway 4x4s and tons of trash don’t cause any disturbance?
“They are the only remaining population on U.S. soil, and the five surveillance towers that the administration plans to build in the area will be in the middle of the pronghorns’ range, producing noise and human activity that would disturb the sensitive species.”
Millions of Illegals, drug runners, their getaway 4x4s and tons of trash don’t cause any disturbance?
I’m surprised the reporter didn’t try to work Global Warming into the article.
That which they refuse to see will never impact endangered species.
If the wall threatens the Dust Mouse or the Mexican Jumping Bean, that’s the price we have to pay.
“The only species we should be concerned about is the species coming across the border illegally.”
You mean the wild North American River jumper?
Not to mention infectious diseases (resistant TB, etc...)
And all the car smashes and crime committed by the illegals....
And those species are otherwise doing great being turned into burritos by the hungry “migrants”.
I dont think illegals are about to be listed as endangered species anytime soon. Wishful thinking.
"This is one thing we might be able to stop."
Breathing?
And I am hereby volunteering to drive whatever (preferably a brand new Abrams) right over this moonbat and permanently embed his useless carcass into Terra Firma and turn him into to compost on which these endangered species can then feast on.
They’re already engaging in civil disobedience. All 20 + millions of them.
Rachel Corey wannabe.
As others have said on this thread, somehow the wildlife is never “fragile” or “sensitive” when it comes to millions of Mexican immigrants tromping through their habitat, dumping trash and human waste.
The attitudes expressed in this story are pure politics. They are completely science-free.
Scientific Exodus
Scientists along the U.S.-Mexico border are fleeing the region, saying their work — and their lives — are increasingly threatened. Tighter border security has pushed drug traffickers into the most remote areas where the scientists say they do most of their work.
Some national parks have now stopped issuing research permits and have even forced scientists to sign statements saying the Park Service cannot guarantee their safety from persons entering the country from Mexico.
One scientist who uses night-vision goggles to study rare bats in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument says that on a nightly basis she sees men with guns and huge backpacks trudging through the desert. The scientists say huge swaths of the region are now off limits due to armed drug smugglers. As one botanist put it, “I got kind of allergic to pistols being held to my forehead.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318656,00.html
"Make it 13!" said Allison Jones, a conservation biologist at the Wild Utah Project, an advocacy group.
Not much tops a bunch of pansies trying to play badass.
Don't say that too loud, the enviromentals will start planting mines around our national parks to keep humans out.
“I am one of a dozen scientists ready to lay our bodies down in front of tractors,”
Fire-up the CATs!
Bet that the real reason the “scientists” oppose the barrier is to support illegal crossing.
Welcome to the Rachael Corrie pancake society
Human shields run when the tractors come....Remember Iraq and the human shields..?
Our military had to protect them while they fled back.ha.
To portect the species that are endangered i suggest we send code Pink members down to the border to stand guard so we don’t have to build a wall! Let’s call on Berkely to do their part to protect the ‘species.”!!
It will endanger the illegalus rodentus species, that’s for sure.
Good idea!
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