Plain chachalacas are some of the tropical bird species seen in few other locations in the US. Photo by Claudio Contreras Koob.
Green jays are a common sight in the Sabal Palm Audubon Center. Photo by Claudio Contreras Koob.
This portion of the wall, being photographed by Claudio Contreras Koob, was built on the northern boundary of national wildlife refuge land. Photo by Krista Schlyer.
At the mouth of the Rio Grande where it spills into the Gulf of Mexico, no wall has yet been built. Photo by Ian Shive.
Boca Chica, the mouth of the Rio Grande, is a popular spot for fishing on both sides of the international border. Photo by Cristina Mittermeier.
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Not Yet Lost by Krista Schlyer
February 18, 2009
After almost 2000 miles of travel over three and a half weeks with 13 photographers, we arrive at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Though I can't say I planned this, we have ended our journey in the best spot possible, at the eastern terminus of the US/Mexico border, where no wall forces humans to interact through cracks in 15 feet of steel, or animals to pace in search of pathways. Here fishermen cast their nets in Mexico, and throw their lines in the United States, separated only by the calm river and ocean breeze.
Over the past few weeks, several people have said to me, 'so much wall has already been built, why even fight this battle?' This is why. The difference between this spot and San Diego tells it all. We haven't yet built wall all the way through our border, and the pelicans that plunge head first into the gulf off the US coastline where I stand, can be seen by the child riding a bicycle on the opposite shoreline in Mexico.
The scene provides an apt punctuation for the days and weeks behind us. This morning, we had traveled from McAllen, Texas, along the border, stopping to take photos of the wall that is currently being built into the levee system along portions of the Rio Grande. I had seen the beginnings of this construction four months ago on a scouting trip and returning to the wall, nearly finished, I was shocked by the change. The 18 feet of concrete that had been completed when I was here last, has been nearly doubled with the addition of 15 foot steel uprights at the top. This massive structure towers ominously above the Monterrey Banco tract of the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge.
Aside from the jarring visual reality of 30 feet of concrete and steel on a wildlife refuge, and the fact that the barrier puts the refuge south of the effective international boundary, the impact of wall on this particular refuge, is glaring. Monterrey Banco is a small piece of a patchwork of lands sewn together with great care and energy over several decades as part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley refuge complex. All but 5 percent of the unique semi-tropical native habitat here has been converted to agriculture or other human uses. A great effort, with much support from local volunteers, and millions of dollars, has been put toward returning some of this land to its natural state, and creating corridors of habitat so that species can travel between scattered preserves. Farmland and other development surrounds most refuge tracts, and the lush condition of the restored land stands apart from the bare cleared fields. Most animals will do anything to avoid venturing onto landscape without cover, so the refuge system here has had to be very strategic about where they buy land and work to restore it. Creatures like the endangered ocelot, which has been nearly extirpated from the US, have one hope in this country-that the refuge succeeds in saving a small space for them. They must be able to travel in order to get to mating populations in Mexico, and to larger tracts of habitat further north in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.
Ocelots are joined by a host of other species that exist nowhere else in the United States, including many tropical bird and butterfly species like the green jay, plain chachalaca, and malachite. More than 500 bird species can be found in what remains of this habitat type in the US, exceeding any other area in the country. Their presence draws people from all over the world and fuels a thriving tourist economy.
The wall at Monterrey Banco is only about a mile long, it runs the length of the wildlife refuge's northern boundary. So it will effect small creatures that are repopulating the refuge, but it will be quite easy for a human traveler to see the end and walk around. This stretch of concrete, in addition to reducing the value of this land for wildlife, and crippling the work of the refuge, cost taxpayers more than $3 million.
From Monterrey Banco we traveled onward to Brownsville and the Sabal Palm Audubon preserve. This 557-acre preserve protects the largest and one of the last stands of Sabal Palm trees in the US. If the wall is built here, it will put the preserve south of the effective US border. There have been no promises about what type of access the preserve will have to its land once the wall is built, and without having to have meaningful consultation with local people, the Department of Homeland Security could decide to give no access at all. During my time at the preserve, watching hawks dive at cardinals and orioles under the palm canopy, I saw busloads of people coming to experience this special and now critically rare home of ocelots, jaguarundi, tropical birds and butterflies. That we would consider walling this area off from ourselves would have been unimaginable, but I have seen the bulldozers at work further west just hours ago.
As I drove to the last place on our itinerary, the mouth of the Rio Grande, I talked with Mexican photographer Claudio Contreras Koob about the birds we had seen that day and the fate that may await the preserve. A heaviness permeated the mood, along with a sense that we would all say goodbye soon and there was so much left to do. But when the first puff of ocean breeze hit our faces at the Boca Chica (mouth of the Rio), and we saw families picnicking on the beach in Mexico, it became clear, all is not yet lost.
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