Trump’s Border Wall Will Be An Ecological DISASTER

There are many reasons why Americans object to president Donald Trump’s proposition of building a wall on the Mexican border with the United States.  Many cite funding and the high cost as a con, while others are pointing out that it’s, quite simply, an ecological disaster.

Not many question whether or not border walls work, because Hungary has proved that their wall did what was intended: cut illegal immigration by 99%.  But what about the financial burden and ecological impacts? What is undeniable is that the 654 miles of walls and fences already on the US-Mexico border have made a mess out of the environment there.

Trump has requested $1.6 billion for the fiscal year 2018 to build three segments of his wall totaling 74 miles. The Department of Homeland Security is planning to test the eight prototypes it built this summer in San Diego over the next 30 to 60 days.  But the walls already in place have cut off, isolated, and reduced populations of some of the rarest and most amazing animals in North America, like the jaguar and ocelot (also known as the dwarf jaguar). They’ve led to the creation of miles of roads through pristine wilderness areas. They’ve even exacerbated flooding, becoming dams when rivers have overflowed.

DHS is now eyeing unfenced areas in two Texas wildlife refuges that conservationists consider some of the most ecologically valuable areas on the border. These areas are home to armadillos and bobcats. If a wall were to slice through these ecosystems, it could cause irreversible damage to the plants and animals already under serious threat living there.

According to EconewsMedia.org, the political boundary between the US and Mexico stretches 2,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, there are three mountain chains, the two largest deserts in North America, vast cattle ranches, a handful of cities and their sprawling suburbs, and the Southern section of the mighty Rio Grande river.

“People think of deserts as barren lands and flat sand dunes with nothing there,” Sergio Avila, a conservation scientist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, says. “But deserts are very diverse and rich in life.”