LAT: In Border Battle, Land and Wildlife Are Casualties

[question everything]

From the Los Angeles Times

In Border Battle, Land and Wildlife Are Casualties

Collateral damage in national parks and refuges includes trash, fires and disappearing species.
By Julie Cart
Times Staff Writer

March 3, 2006

Mountains of trash, recurring fires, despoiled natural springs, vandalized historic sites and disappearing wildlife are part of the devastating toll that the government's running battle with smugglers and migrants is taking on national parks and wildlife refuges along the U.S. border with Mexico.

In southern Arizona, the damage extends to Indian and private land, jeopardizing a broad expanse of the Sonoran Desert, which boasts a greater diversity of plant and animal life than any other of the four North American deserts.

At Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, 2 1/2 million pounds of garbage are scattered through broad valleys and desert arroyos every year, according to Roger DiRosa, the refuge manager. Officials with the U.S. Border Patrol said the refuge's seven mountain ranges — home to bighorn sheep and a prized destination for wilderness hikers — now serve as posts for lookouts who use night-vision equipment to track the movements of the Border Patrol. Mountain peaks conceal clandestine radio repeating stations that are part of smugglers' surveillance operations.

Illegal "ghost roads" carved by smugglers and pursuing federal agents crisscross Cabeza Prieta and nearby Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Sections of Organ Pipe are deemed so dangerous that the National Park Service has closed them to the public. Officials at the U.S. Department of the Interior said they are considering giving the Border Patrol control of the hard-hit areas of the refuge and park nearest the border.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-border3mar03,1,3430874.story?coll=la-headlines-california

[alarimer]

1. I think we need to fence off valuable areas

So that they are safe for legitimate visitors and the wildlife. These are areas of great biological significance and need to be protected from development and from illegals. Of course such fences would have to be quite high and would probably be prohibitively expensive to maintain.