Is the sun setting on the sabal palm? The remaining population of sabal palms in the U.S. is concentrated at TNC's Southmost Preserve and the Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary along the Lower Rio Grande. Photo by Wendy Shattil.
Black-bellied whistling duck in flight over wetland near Rio Grande. This wetland will be on the no-mans-land side of the proposed border wall. Photo by Wendy Shattil.
One of the remaining 12 to 20 ocelots living at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge is released after examination, blood tests, and being fitted with a transmitter collar. There are plans to create a wildlife corridor with the same subspecies in Mexico, but the border wall will prevent this. Photo by Wendy Shattil.
The border wall is being constructed near the Rio Grande in South Texas, Hidalgo County. Photo by Wendy Shattil. Aerial flight courtesy of LightHawk.
Snow geese feed on remnants of harvested corn below the proposed border wall in Cameron County at The Nature Conservancy's Southmost Preserve, Texas. Photo by Wendy Shattil.
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South Texas Attitude by Wendy Shattil
January 26, 2009
Along the Lower Rio Grande Valley, the border takes on a distinctly South Texas attitude. With 97% of the state privately owned, the slogan "Don't Mess With Texas" rings true for many when it comes to the border wall. Some living near the Rio Grande are grateful for the hard work of the border patrol and the promise of the wall to halt the unending flow of immigrants past their homes. Others see the artificial barrier in a broader picture of environmental damage and an expensively wrong-minded attempt to stop a flood by putting a few rocks in its path. To them, there is already a border wall and it's called the Rio Grande.
As debates go on, bulldozers, cranes and laborers create imposing barriers and nature does her best to adapt. Limited populations of sabal palm and ocelots share a struggle to maintain a foothold near the bottom of the Rio Grande as habitat is encroached upon. Mammals, reptiles and amphibians are blocked in their movement to food, water and shelter. Riparian corridors are severed, requiring some to cross paths with humans, dogs and highways.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been mandated for 30 years to restore and maintain the wildlife corridor along the Lower Rio Grande. 100 million dollars of government money has been invested and countless staff and volunteers have dedicated themselves to the effort with admirable results, adding pearls along a string with the ultimate goal a complete necklace of a riparian corridor from Falcon Dam to the Gulf of Mexico. At a cost of 3.9 million for construction of each mile of the border wall, conservationists see a reversal of 30 years' work.
The Nature Conservancy's Southmost Preserve is a model of stewardship under the direction of manager, Max Pons. Agriculture and nature have a symbiotic relationship. Corn crops create food and income for lease-holding farmers and the volunteer corn (remnants after harvesting) is food for wintering sandhill cranes, black-bellied whistling ducks, snow geese and Ross' geese. Crop production also rids the land of unwanted and non-native plants, paving the way for revegetation of a healthy balance of desirable ones. Southmost Preserve maintains a nursery, germinating and nurturing seedlings to plant. After only 4-5 years sections show remarkable biodiversity and health.
As of today, the proposed border wall will put most of Southmost Preserve in the no mans land between the barrier and the Rio Grande.
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