Posted on 04/21/2008 4:58:55 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
WASHINGTON -- The debate over the fence the United States is building along its southern border has focused largely on the 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 in Tucson, Ariz. "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."
Rare species such as jaguars, ocelots and long-nose bats are also likely to face problems with the new barriers, scientists said.
The Bush administration, however, has waived more than 30 environmental and land-management laws to meet its deadline for building at least 360 miles of the border fence.
Two advocacy groups, the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife, have gone to court to challenge the constitutionality of the authority that Congress gave the administration to set aside federally required environmental reviews.
Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that despite the waivers, the agency has prepared draft environmental assessments or impact statements for much of the fence -- stretches of which will be composed of metal, concrete or wire -- and that officials will continue to explore ways to mitigate its effect on vulnerable wildlife.
Brian Segee, a Defenders of Wildlife staff lawyer, said the waiver decision will affect plants and animals in areas ranging from the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Texas to Arizona's San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.
"We're going forward blindly now, and we're going to be learning about the consequences for years to come," Segee said in an interview.
The Lower Rio Grande Valley is home to one of the last free-flowing rivers in the United States, as well as more than 300 butterfly species, more than 500 bird species and the ocelot, an endangered wild cat. Even though 95 percent of the brush habitat in the four counties encompassing the Lower Rio Grande Valley refuge has been eroded, it still boasts 17 federally endangered or threatened species -- more than all of Louisiana.
"The significance of this area, biologically, is extraordinary," said Evan Hirsche, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association.
One of the most vulnerable species in the valley is the ocelot, a small hunter whose fur resembles that of a jaguar. Eighty to 100 ocelots remain in South Texas.
But their survival depends on access to water and getting to Mexico to breed because the Texas population lacks genetic diversity.
"They're perilously close to going extinct," said Nancy Brown, a Fish and Wildlife public outreach specialist for the refuge. "You think of that irony: We need our cats to get into Mexico. Genetically, they're all starting to look like the same cat."
Homeland Security's assessments do mention ocelots and other imperiled species in brief passages. "Habitat loss and fragmentation especially along the Rio Grande pose a critical threat to the long-term survival of the ocelot. Efforts are underway to preserve key habitat and biological corridors necessary for ocelot survival," said the draft environmental impact statement, published late last year.
Cry me a river Enviros!!!
Boo Freekin Hoo.
Build the damn thing.
Them some pretty low flying bats.
We can add this to the “we must find alternative energy sources” bleep. The environmental nazis don’t want us to use fossil fuels but we can’t use nuclear because we’ll glow in the dark, we can’t use hydro because we’ll kill a fish, we can’t use solar because it’s really ugly having all those panels all over the place, and we can’t use wind because we don’t like they way they look either plus, in certain cases, Ted Kennedy might have to see them when he goes sailing. BTW, these are the same environmental moonbats who have no problem burning wood in their nice little expensive trust fund air tight stoves.
Now we can’t put up a fence to keep out illegals because of the environment. This is becoming total insanity.
However, these same nut jobs want to starve the third world, and possibly the rest of us, in order to make us all use their stupid bio fuels.
AAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH.
BORDER FENCE WILL INCREASE GLOBAL WARMING BY 8 DEGRESS BY END OF DECADE
You heard it here first!
8(
Mad Dawgg
Let the wild life pass freely at the border check points. Don’t even ask them for proof of citizenship. Except for skunks and armadillos, we have too many already.
The animals will just have to choose if they want to be Mexican or American. They can pick a side before the last section is put in place.
“Rare species such as jaguars, ocelots and long-nose bats are also likely to face problems with the new barriers, scientists said”
The animals will evolve. The *not so rare* species of border invader Mexicalus will have to find another way to get in.
yah.
How many endangered plant species to illegal Mexicans kill every year kust from pissing on them??
This makes about as much sense as the group of enviro-weenies who are appealing the killing of sea lions on the Columbia River, on the grounds that local kayakers have “bonded” with some of the sea lions and would be irreversably harmed if their favorite sea lion were shot.
In the meantime, the 50 or more sea lions at Bonneville Dam continue to eat 20-25 endangered salmon per day, per sea lion.
Finish the fence and pass the ammunition...
They think the fence will be bad, just wait until the Mexicans start traipsing through the gaps.
long-nose bats ????
If Pinochio has taken to flying, he can get a H1-B and join Dumbo in the circus..
Y’OK solved that one...
Next problem ....
I can only imagine the diversity of wildlife in China had they not built that environment-killing wall hundreds of years ago. Why, it’s probably the prime source of their pollution, and the cause of the extinction of the unicorn.
" Miguel Fernandez (right) was delighted to be visited by his very good friend Healy Hamilton."
Umm... Is miguel one those she's concerned about being able to cross the border?
Not to mention, conspired governmental and corporate skimming of investors' monies will come to a grinding halt as the newly renamed sub-prime lending market to illegal aliens dries up - financial CEO's jumping to their deaths as their bonuses diminish.
Tracking of CDO's, CDA's, debt /credit swaps to cost millions to track!!
lol and unfortunately, probably true.
May she carry her Rachel Correy memorial flag with pride, "Don't tread on me..."
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