The iconic Continental Divide Trail, a 3,100-mile trail stretching from Canada to Mexico, is being militarized as the Trump administration erects a 30-foot steel border wall along the Mexico–United States border.
About a year ago, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum transferred 110,000 acres of land from the Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico to the U.S. Army to add hundreds of new miles of fencing and surveillance. But as High Country News reports, building a wall here would completely transform the region, including the southernmost edge of the Continental Divide Trail, which has long drawn hikers to the area because of its rugged solitude.
The Trump administration is carelessly destroying scenic, ecological, and cultural sites all along the border. In April, the Department of Homeland Security bulldozed a 1,000-year-old Native American archaeological site in Arizona. And in Texas, the administration is gearing up to construct a wall through Big Bend National Park despite fierce bipartisan opposition.
“What has been lost, we’ll never get back,” said Teresa Martinez, co-founder and executive director of the Continental Divide Trail Coalition. “In all the ways, physical, metaphysical, emotional, spiritual, cultural. We will never get it back. That is what I mourn.”
Quick hits
The bots stole your campsite
Border wall contractors may have caused wildfire in Arizona’s Coronado National Memorial
Gray wolf enters Sequoia National Park for the first time in 100 years
Opinion: Some lawmakers say local interests were ignored in the Grand Staircase-Escalante planning process. That’s not what I saw
Colorado leaders concerned about Steve Pearce’s previous attempts to sell off public lands
Interior to buy over 5,000 acres for waterfowl conservation
Manager at Trump’s N.J. golf club helped plan reflecting pool repairs
Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument earns dark sky status
Quote of the day
Democratic erosion rarely begins with the dramatic abolition of public process. More often, it works by preserving institutional forms while hollowing out the substance: hold the meetings, collect the comments, convene the agencies, and then discard the outcome when the wrong people manage to be heard.”
—Erik Stanfield, senior anthropologist with the Navajo Nation Heritage and Historic Preservation Department, Salt Lake Tribune
Picture This
Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball fur…
The ringtail cat is not actually a cat. That’s all.
Oh, you’re still here? Alright, we’ll explain. Despite its nickname and cat-like features, the ringtail cat is actually a small, mostly nocturnal member of the raccoon family found mainly in the southwestern US and Mexico. Naturally shy and solitary, these creatures are the introverts of the mammal world, rarely seen after work because they politely decline most social invitations. Their impressively long, ringed tails act like built-in tightropes, letting them perform acrobatics along trees and cliffside ledges with feline finesse.
P.S. If you try pspspspspsping at a ringtail cat, don’t be surprised when it ignores you…just like your cat at home.
(Featured image: The start of the Continental Divide Trail in New Mexico. Photo by Jim Smith, Hike with Gravity)