When I first heard the news that the Bush administration and its Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff planned to circumvent a host of environmental laws in order to effect the completion of the “Great Wall of Bush” dividing the U.S. from Mexico, I knew that various crimes against nature would soon be committed. The wait was not long before the first one saw the light of day.
It appears that one particular section of the wall near Brownsville, Texas will not only wreak ecological destruction of the ordinary sort, its construction will forever close the history book on the last stand of Sabal Palm forest remaining in the United States. According to Christopher Sherman reporting for the Austin American-Statesman, the Sabal Palm Audubon Center and most of The Nature Conservancy’s Lennox Foundation Southmost Preserve would end up in the no-man’s land between the fence and Mexico.
Once, not so very long ago, the majority of the eastern edge of the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas was covered with thick Sabal Palm forests – reminiscent of the type you’d see in the old black-and-white jungle adventure movies – a far cry from the mesquite barrens that are now the dominant landscape of the valley. The Sabal Palm Audubon Center is the very last remaining of this rich ecosystem in the U.S. Once walled off, the invasive species of plan will invade, wildfires will cut through the area, and never again will the United States know the splendors of this verdant reminder of what once was on its own soil.
Like so very many bird watchers and naturalists who have spent time in the lower Rio Grande Valley, I have visited the Sabal Palm Audubon Center – many times, in fact. Checking my life list, I am reminded that sixteen of my life birds were listed there:
Least Grebe (Tachybaptus dominicus)
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea)
Plain Chachalaca (Ortalis vetula)
Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)
Common Ground-Dove (Columbina passerine)
White-tipped Dove (Leptotila verreauxi)
Groove-billed Ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris)
Buff-bellied Hummingbird (Amazilia yucatanensis)
Ladder-backed Woodpecker (Picoides scalaris)
Nashville Warbler (Vermivora ruficapilla)
Yellow-throated Warbler (Dendroica dominica)
Worm-eating Warbler (Helmitheros vermivorus)
Mourning Warbler (Oporornis Philadelphia)
Olive Sparrow (Arremonops rufivirgatus)
Altamira Oriole (Icterus gularis)
Hooded Oriole (Icterus cucullatus)
I remember each one of these birds. The Groove-billed Ani was spotted while I was with a group standing in the parking area just outside of the center’s little hut that serves as its office. I personally sighted the Yellow-throated and the Worm-eating Warblers and called them out to each of the respective groups I was with at the time. As I was a new bird watcher at the time of the Yellow-throated Warbler, I was particularly proud of this sighting as it was the first time I had felt confident enough to call out to a group of far more experienced birders a bird that was a life bird for me. The knowledge that I will never be able to return there – to take my daughter there someday and retrace the steps I first took as a fledgling bird watcher myself – is a bitter pill to swallow.
Secretary Chertoff and the Bush administration are taking such drastic action at this time to bypass more than 30 environmental laws and regulations that could impede construction of the fence in order, as the Secretary said “to avoid unnecessary delays and litigation;” or, to put it another way, the rightful questions and activities of citizens who oppose the action to challenge the governments right to do so in court. Adding insult to environmental injury, the Secretary went on to promise “to be a good steward of the environment.” Only if one travels far through the looking glass is such tortured logic possible.
Almost needless to say, I encourage all who have ever visited the Sabal Palm Audubon Center, all birders who have ever recorded a life bird there, all photographers who have ever taken a photo there, all naturalists who have ever spent time contemplating the mysteries of nature there, and all others who simply care more about the environment than they fear the bogey straw men set up by the Bush administration to justify their every action regardless of consequence, to write their respective senators and congressional representatives. Tell them why this wall is a bad idea – if not in general then at least in this location as it is planned.
This wall is only one in a series of actions on the part of the Bush administration in their practice of the politics of fear – justifing everything on the grounds that there are “bad people” out there who want to do harm to the citizens of the United States. Yes, there are bad and even downright evil people in the world; there always have been and likely always will be. But we cannot act out of fear when making decisions that will irrevocably harm the environment to which we have already done so much damage (or in making any other decision for that matter). We must care more for the environment that sustains us all than we fear the few who wish us harm. Just as a flock of birds acting together can mob an owl out of the area, acting together we have the potential to stop this wall from destroying this last remaining vestige of an otherwise vanished American ecosystem.
Peace and good bird watching.
elizabird
April 5, 2008 @ 20:01
OH Sabal palm grove is where I learned native plants…It is so special. You mention the black and white jungles in movies. It is rumored that Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan was filmed there at times.
There were so many palms along the Rio Grande the state rock of Texas is petrified palmwood. A gorgeous stone.
The mobbing of an owl is an excellent metaphor. The “owl” is ignorance that perpetuates the idea that the borders are flooding with illegal aliens waiting to get at American tax dollars. I wish I had answers to fix all the problems.What I do know is that this wall will put a dent in nature tourism dollars to the Rio Grande Valley and that is serious.
This also means talking to people that are in support of the wall and letting them know you are opposed to it and why they as stewards of the land should be against the wall. /In the end it is not just a wall but a two way highway for border patrol agents to be able to travel at 50 miles and hour along . My border patrol friends are not in favor of the wall..curious–aye?
Walls never work!
Lori
April 6, 2008 @ 00:17
wow, don’t even get me started on the bush admin and the environment. Our gov. is actually suing the administration for violating laws concerning the road-less areas and selling of huge tracts of old growth forest… thankfully the border issue is happening at the end of his term… maybe the courts will jam it up. (crossing my fingers)
Mel
April 6, 2008 @ 07:10
Even though I’m on the other side of the world, I can relate to your post very much.
Over here the mosnter is not fear, but greed. Government gives away precious rainforest to mining and oil companies, who destroy unique ecosystems, help with the extermination of species of flaura and fauna, and pollute the air, soil and waters.
I really hope Governments EVERYWHERE finally see beyond their pockets, their fears and personal interests and take action in order to protect the ONLY place we ALL have to share.
Born Again Bird Watcher
April 6, 2008 @ 07:35
Mel – I think the try problem here is also greed, but the present administration uses fear to cover their true motives. I don’t know exactly how but I’m willing to bet that the construction of the wall is being done in a way that one or another of the administration’s “special friends” will be allowed to reap substantial profits from it. Perhaps it is under a (no-bid?) contract to Haliburton, KBR, or one of the other firms to which the Bush administration has deep and abiding loyalties.
John
April 6, 2008 @ 07:37
I think they want to avoid delays so that the damage is done by the time Bush leaves office.
Matthew Webster
April 6, 2008 @ 08:10
As a teacher here in Brownsville, Sabal Palms is a treasure for both me and my students. It is here they first learned how special their home in the Rio Grande Valley really is. Thank you for working to preserve Sabal Palms and all the other wildlife refuges in the Valley corridor which would be devastated by such a wall.
Keep up the good work, and check out some of the other work which is being done on the border about this pressing issue. God bless!
NO BORDER WALL
April 6, 2008 @ 10:01
One of the 36 federal laws that Chertoff waived was the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a clear admission that the wall will violate the wall and negatively impact migratory species. The Rio Grande Valley is a critical area for migrating birds, as the Mississippi and Central flyways converge upon it. If the birds passing through can’t rest and refuel they will not have the strength to complete their journeys. The wall will destroy swathes of the last 5% of the original habitat that remains in the RGV. In the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the RGV (Chertoff told the Texas Border Coalition after he issued the waiver that there will be no Final EIS) it states that if construction occurs between March 1 and July 31 the impact on nesting birds will be a violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Draft EIS also says that construction will begin in the Spring of 2008 (as in, right about now) and continue through December of 2008, when the Bush administration leaves office. The urgency that Chertoff feels is entirely political, not practical or tactical.
It is critical that everyone who reads this immediately write a letter to their members of congress and tell them that section 102 of the Real ID Act, which gives Chertoff the power to waive any law that he sees fit, is unconstitutional and must be repealed. His 5 existing waivers must be rescinded. In Arizona the bulldozers started tearing through the San Pedro Riparian National Wildlife Refuge within days of Chertoff issuing that waiver. Construction is likely to begin in the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge almost immediately as well. Please act now!