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Nature interrupted: Impact of the #USMexico #BorderWall on #wildlife
Scientists on both sides of the border are working to understand how the barrier is affecting the area’s #biodiversity. Meanwhile, communities try to save animals left without access to #water.
By Iván Carrillo 06.27.2024
"In a vast stretch of the #SonoranDesert, between the towns of #SanLuisRíoColorado and #Sonoyta in northern #Mexico sits a modest building of cement, galvanized sheet metal and wood — the only stop along 125 miles of inhospitable landscape dominated by thorny ocotillo shrubs and towering saguaro cactuses up to 50 feet high. It’s a fonda — a small restaurant — called La Liebre del Desierto (The Desert Hare), and for more than 20 years, owner Elsa Ortiz Ramos has welcomed and nourished weary travelers taking a break from the adjacent highway that runs through the arid Pinacate and Grand Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve.
Landscape showing an arid land with bushes and a mountain in the background. The land is divided by a brown wall. In the foreground is a huge cactus.
"But the dedication and care of this petite woman go beyond her simple menu. Every two weeks, she pays out of pocket for a 5,000-gallon tank of water to distribute to a network of water troughs strategically placed in the area. By doing so, she relieves the thirst of #BighornSheep, #ocelots, #pronghorn, #coyotes, #deer and even #bats that have been deprived of access to their natural #WaterSources.
"'The #crows come to the house and scream to warn us that there is no more water ... it’s our alarm,' says Ortiz Ramos in her distinct northern Mexico accent. Her words sound straight from an Aesop’s fable, but they take on stark realism in this spot. Covering large parts of #Arizona, #California and the Mexican states of #BajaCalifornia and #Sonora, the #SonoranDesert — along with the #LutDesert in Iran — was catalogued in 2023 as having the #hottest surface temperature on the planet, at 80.8 degrees Celsius (177 degrees Fahrenheit).
"Through narrow steel bollards 3.5 inches apart, I observe lush vegetation surrounding the Quitobaquito spring on the other side of the border. 'This vital source supplies both humans and animals over an area of more than 1 million hectares,' Federico Godínez Leal, an agronomist from the University of Guadalajara, explains to me. But now this crucial water source is restricted to the US side due to the construction of the border wall, and I have come with him here to understand the consequences. Godínez Leal and his team have been documenting the stark difference between each side: Their poignant photographs show skeletons of wild boar, deer and bighorn sheep lying on Mexican soil."