The U.S. government plans to erect fences and adjacent roads along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants and smugglers. Environmentalists fear 90,000 acres of wildlife refuges will be threatened along about 140 miles of the proposed security border that follows the Rio Grande between Texas and Mexico.
The Rio Grande Valley is likely to be ruined by this fence. Worst hit will be some land animals, left cutoff from the Rio Grande, their only source of fresh water. Other animals are likely to loose out on chances of mating with partners on the other side of the river.
Brown, an outreach manager at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge says:
If you have a fence that runs several miles long, if you are a tortoise or any animal that can’t fly over or go through it, then you have a pretty long distance that you have to go to get water.
The fence is also likely to damage the tourism industry along the Rio Grande. The fence might result in the creation of a no man’s region. The wild cats, reptiles and at least 500 species of birds attract visitors from around the world who bring the impoverished region $150 million a year.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has used his authority to waive environmental regulations for security reasons in other states and might do so here as well. Food wrappers and water jugs, discarded wet clothing, the plastic bags used to carry a change of clothing across the river provide ample evidences of immigrant activities.
Close to $100 million have been spent creating, restoring and maintaining the refuges. Biologically the region is special, where a coastal climate meets a desert climate and further meets the temperate and the tropical. The four-county Rio Grande Valley contains 11 distinct ecosystems. It would be a shame to see such a region deteriorate just for border concerns.
Source: Msnbc