A River Divided by Rurik List
Associate Researcher in the Institute of Ecology at the National University of Mexico
February 1st
Most of today was spent traveling from Organ Pipe to Los Fresnos, a conservation property owned by Naturalia, a Mexican conservation organization. Along the way, many taxis passed us, all of them empty after leaving people hidden among the river vegetation. They will wait for the "Polleros", the people that make a living by taking illegal immigrants across the US border. Each taxi carries roughly 10 people, and we have seen 8 taxis in the hour and a half drive to the ranch-that's 80 people leaving families behind in search of a better future.
The road climbs into rolling hills mainly covered by grasslands, although the patches of oak forest are a common sight in this landscape. In the low areas we see trees that run along the riparian (river) corridors. All the tributaries here drain into the larger San Pedro River, where our friends will be working simultaneously.
We arrive after dusk at the ranch house, too late for pictures but we prepare a nice dinner, and finally, after 8 days we can shower off the dust of the desert.
February 2nd
Well before dark we hike to the pond nearby where a family of beavers has set up its home. Here at 4600 feet high, we sit on the frosted ground to wait for dawn in the hope that we will see one of them. Tail flapping on the water lets us know that the beavers are out, and when the light finally illuminates the pond, we see the beavers, but too far from the shore, so we have to wait some more. Finally, after a long patient wait, photographer Claudio Contreras gets a few pictures of the animal that brought us to Los Fresnos.
Three years ago, a rise in the river brought two beavers from the San Pedro River population, which in turn is the result of a reintroduction effort, since beavers had been absent from this region for nearly a century. The beavers immediately started feeding on the riparian trees and have felled many to build their dams and dens. Some of the trees have to be protected with wire mesh to make sure that the vegetation is maintained since these rodents are very efficient loggers. At mid morning we go to visit the wall-here it consists of the original barbwire fence, but next to it there are Normandy barriers. Because they are so close, I have serious concerns about the deer being able to jump over them. We walk along the fence, and in places see where people have lifted the barbwire to pass. We see deer and puma tracks. They need a gap to cross the border.
The base of most of the Normandy barriers has been set up in the Mexican side. It is only 20 to 30 centimeters in Mexican territory, but this is nonetheless an invasion of another country. The state of exemption approved by the US congress for the border region only applies in the US, not in Mexico. I wonder what the US government would say if Mexico had done the same.
From the fence, we see the Huachuca Mountains real close, a wonderful scene, which is only interrupted by a border patrol car, which stops for a moment and goes on. The wall is not just a fence or two; the surveillance road we have seen everywhere for the past week is also present here.
February 3rd
This morning, once again, the beavers were too far from me to take pictures, but I have plenty of time to think about the past 10 days. There are five beavers: the pair that arrived originally and the three born last year, but the activity at the den suggests that the family is increasing. We had an opportunity to see nature recovering in progress. The formerly absent beaver is back, and the riparian area where they live shows clearly the ecosystem engineer role they play in nature; there are dams in various places which are holding water year round, providing habitat for invertebrates, amphibians, birds and mammals. The wall that now lines the San Pedro ecosystem to the east and west of the river and the vehicle barrier that spans the river, are likely to block natural recovery processes like this. I hope the connectivity across the border is restored and enhanced, so stories like the beavers from Los Fresnos are repeated elsewhere.
Today is my last day on this journey. It has been an extraordinary opportunity to share time with this group of some of the best photographers out there. As a conservation biologist, photography is one of my work tools, but being here with professional photographers has been a fantastic learning experience. I have to go back and process the information we learned about the wall, to determine which are some of the critical areas where wildlife needs to be allowed to move across both countries.
I wish my friends the best of luck on the rest of their trip. Their effort to document the biological importance of species and ecosystems is vital-citizens and politicians need to know what is at stake.
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