3,000 scientists: border wall threatens local animals

Biologists warn that federal plans to build a wall along the US-Mexico border could pose serious threats to some unique species that live there

Borderlands is synonymous with desolation, but the fracture between Mexico and the United States is something quite different, say the researchers. The 2,000-kilometer border crosses some of the continent's most biologically diverse regions, including forests, grasslands and salt marshes, home to more than 1,500 native animal and plant species.

Physical barriers preventing or discouraging access to food, water, partners and other critical resources by disrupting annual or seasonal migration and dispersal routes, say the researchers. Work on walls, fences and related infrastructure, such as roads, fragment habitat, erode soils, alter fire regimes, and alter hydrological processes, such as flooding.

"Whenever you see a mall, an airport, or housing development under construction, you can be sure that biodiversity is suffering.

The potential for damage to the ecosystem was brought to light more than a decade ago when the US Congress passed the Real ID Act. The 2005 law gives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the power to waive any laws – including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act – that slow down the construction of the wall.

A new article in BioScience calls on scientists from around the world to support solutions, such as the requirements that DHS would identify species, habitats and ecological resources threatened by barrier construction and security operations; design barriers for maximum permeability of wildlife where possible; buy or restore replacement habitat when environmental damage is unavoidable. Nearly 3,000 scientists signed the newspaper's message.

Rodolfo Dirzo, Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences, and Paul Ehrlich, Professor Emeritus of Biology and Professor of Population Studies, both of Stanford University.