Border Fences Pose Threats to Wildlife on U.S.-Mexico Border, Study Shows

Texas Science
University of Texas Austin
July 11, 2011
by Lee Clippard


AUSTIN, Texas—Current and proposed border fences pose significant threats to wildlife populations, with those animals living in border regions along the Texas Gulf and California coasts showing some of the greatest vulnerability, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin shows.

“Our study is the first comprehensive analysis of threats to species across the entire U.S.-Mexico border,” says Jesse Lasky, a graduate student in the laboratory of Tim Keitt, associate professor of integrative biology. “The scale at which these fences stretch across the landscape is large, so it’s important for us to also have a large- scale view of their effects across the continent.”

Among the species at risk include four species listed as threatened globally or by both the U.S. and Mexico, and another 23 with small range sizes. The animals include the Arroyo toad, the California red-legged frog and the jaguarundi.

“We were able to identify a list of animal species that are most at risk and should be prioritized and monitored for change,” says Lasky. “We’re hoping this helps point decision-makers towards the animals to look at first when making priorities for conservation.”

Most at risk of extinction are smaller populations of wildlife that occur in more specialized habitats, the study shows. Even animals that may appear to have large ranges may live in isolated habitats within those ranges that can be heavily disturbed by border fences. Human population growth along the border also poses threats to the wildlife.

Lasky says when the ranges of these animals are separated by barriers, including border fences and roads, the animals’ ability to move is limited. The isolated populations are then more vulnerable to unforeseen disturbances, such as a hurricane or fire, which can wipe out an entire population. The isolation also increases inbreeding depression, which means the animals have limited opportunities to mix their genes with others and accumulate harmful mutations.

The study analyzed the ranges of 313 non-flying mammals, reptiles and amphibians and identified three major regions where wildlife is most vulnerable: the high human population areas of coastal California and coastal Texas and the unique “sky island” Madrean archipelago habitat in southeastern Arizona.

These regions have high numbers of vulnerable species. Some species in California have barriers that block as much as 75 percent of their ranges.

“The U.S.-Mexico border spans regions of extraordinary biological diversity as well as intense human impacts,” says Keitt. “Loss of biological diversity can have negative impacts on the ecosystem services that are the basis of our life-support system.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is waived from environmental regulations when building security infrastructure. There are about 650 miles of border fences and human migration barriers along the border.

The study, by Lasky, Keitt and coauthor Walter Jetz, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, appeared May 3 online in the journal Diversity and Distributions.

http://web5.cns.utexas.edu/news/2011/07/border-fences-threaten-wildlife/

Immigration expert talks border policies

The Stanford Daily
October 1, 2010
by Erin Inman

you build it, they will come. And in border enforcement, if you build it higher, they will still come.

That was part of the hard look Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Immigration Studies at UC-San Diego, took at the effectiveness of U.S. border enforcement in a talk at Stanford on Thursday.

Cornelius founded the Mexican Migration Field Research and Training Program, which studies immigration from three Mexican regions: Jalisco, Oaxaca and the Yucatan. Forty years of field research in Mexico and the U.S. provided him with first-hand accounts of legal and illegal immigration.

More than 4,800 surveys show illegal border crossing remains high although the U.S. has spent $17.1 billion on immigration enforcement this year alone, he said. Sixty percent of immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border succeed on their first try and 90 percent of those actually detained by border patrol still end up successful.

He added that border patrol has increased four-fold since 1992, adding 600 miles of fencing that costs up to $16 million per mile.

“It’s our own great wall,” Cornelius said, referring to a section in the Otay Mountains of San Diego County.

But rather than stopping illegal immigration flow, the fences have only diverted it, he said. Migrants can simply tunnel under, climb over fences or trek across deserts or the Rio Grande. In fact, smuggling migrants has increased drastically as prospective immigrants search for new and safer, though sometimes more expensive, ways to cross the border.

These detours have generated close to14,000 deaths, he said. “It’s a slow-motion death across the Southwest.”

Cornelius suggests a cheaper alternative to current U.S. border policy: a more generous guest work program, an increase in permanent legal immigrant admissions and an increase in the number of green cards the U.S. awards.

Cornelius’ statistics were compelling enough to astonish some members of the audience.

“I was really surprised to hear the incredible amount of spending that has gone into border enforcement with almost no results to show for it,” Omar Media ‘13 said. ”That’s $30 billion down the drain. This only reinforces the idea that the U.S. must adopt comprehensive immigration reform now. We can’t afford not to.”

http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/10/01/immigration-expert-talks-border-policies/

Contractors association honors local company

February 28, 2010
The Desert Sun
by Monica Torline and Debra Gruszecki

Granite Construction Co.'s Southern California Region office in Indio has just been notified that the design-build project, “Monument 250,” is a finalist in the Associated General Contractors of California Constructor Awards gala at The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

Granite's handling of the roadway and primary border barrier fence is being distinguished in the “Meeting the Challenge” category for difficult jobs in the heavy engineering classification.

Traversing mountainous terrain, the multimillion-dollar project handled out of the Indio location with a contractor and subcontractor team of 75 led to construction of 3.5 miles of steel fence, 7,754 cubic yards of concrete, 24,000 tons of native rock crushed on site, 500,000 cubic yards of moved earth, about a half-mile of drainage pipe and five large canyon bridge crossings.

Business development manager Lee Haven said the project in the San Ysidro Mountains, primarily in the Otay Mesa Wilderness area, took 385 working days to complete and dealt with conditions so severe the initial job walk inspection had to be done in a helicopter.

Among those traveling to the final judging event will be Granite's Southern California regional manager Pat Kelly; construction manager Brad Williams; and project manager Bob Ramage.

“We're very excited about it,'' Haven said. “Just making it to the finals is a big deal.”

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100228/BUSINESS02/2270356/1003/business/Contractors-association-honors-local-company