The Trump administration is continuing to fast-track the construction of hundreds of miles of border barriers across protected Western public lands, as a funding stalemate leaves the Department of Homeland Security in a partial shutdown.
According to the latest Westwise blog post from the Center for Western Priorities, America’s public lands are collateral damage for an increasingly militarized border. The post highlights how the administration is bypassing foundational environmental laws and moving forward without public input for the sake of border wall construction in sensitive Southwest ecosystems.
The administration even went so far as to plan to construct a physical border wall inside a national park in Texas, a move that was met with bipartisan opposition. In a particularly egregious incident at Arizona’s Coronado National Memorial, contractors used dynamite to blast through the Huachuca Mountains, causing permanent damage to a protected landscape.
This militarization disrupts critical wildlife habitats, risks damaging sacred Indigenous sites, threatens the outdoor recreation economies of Western communities, and restricts public access for hikers, hunters, and outdoor enthusiasts.
Learn more from Westwise on Substack.
Quick hits
USDA says it needs roads to fight wildfires, but a new study says roads bring more fire to forests
Colorado congressman wants answers about U.S. Forest Service seasonal hiring after last year’s staffing cuts, hiring freeze
The water footprint of Arizona’s copper mines
The Secretary of the Interior told BlackRock executives that Americans who love public lands are financially illiterate
The season of wildfire dread
What’s next for Oak Flat — the Apache holy land that now belongs to Resolution Copper?
Utah’s new study aims to kill ‘as many cougars as possible’
Land by Georgia swamp, once slated for a mine, will become a wildlife area
Quote of the day
This is the balance sheet that Burgum is selling. One where the government gives away the minerals for free, stages lease sales that nobody attends, opens refuges that produce no revenue, and then tells the American public that they are the ones who don’t understand money. An administration that claims to fight for the American taxpayer everywhere else on earth is letting corporations loot American land without paying a dime.”
—Will Pattiz, More Than Just Parks
Picture This
Soon, many species of birds will be making their way back to the area. One species that’s hard to miss among the muted browns of late-winter dead grass or the brilliant white of spring snow is the mountain bluebird (Sialia currucoides). In Yellowstone, the first mountain bluebird is usually spotted in mid-March. Anyone spotted one this year?
Featured photo: Border wall at Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. Russ McSpadden, Center for Biological Diversity