Video by Leslie Ann Epperson, SmallWheel Films. This is the second video in a series on border wall developments in the San Rafael Valley.
More tough news from the San Rafael Valley and the headwaters of the Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona: Earlier this month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection began moving ahead with its destructive border wall plans, damming the Santa Cruz River with a dirt road that will eventually be replaced by 30-foot-tall steel wall, floodgates, concrete, and a bridge. As you can see in this video interview with SIA Wildlife Program Manager Eamon Harrity, the area is now crammed with bulldozers. Until recently, the Santa Cruz was the last free-flowing river of its kind in this part of the borderlands. It flows south here from the San Rafael Valley in Arizona into Sonora, Mexico, before returning north near Nogales on its way to Tucson and beyond.
It’s an unnecessary disaster and astronomically expensive given the extensive surveillance technologies that already exist, the importance of this area for wildlife, and just how rare human crossings are in the San Rafael Valley.
Adding insult to injury, CBP is planning to cut down four to five giant cottonwood trees, each estimated to be more than 200 years old, in the nearby border town of Lochiel. Recent reports on the ground have noted federally threatened yellow-billed cuckoos and numerous other bird species living in these very trees, some with active nests.
Please take a moment to oppose both of these border developments, which are expected to happen in the next month or so. Using the lookup tool below, call your reps in Congress and ask them to urge CBP to reconsider its plans and find a way forward without damming the Santa Cruz, cutting down historic trees, and destroying our borderlands. Then let us know you called.
Additional Resources
- Learn more about our Border Wildlife Study, which has been been operating in the San Rafael Valley and beyond since 2020, and help us keep the cameras running.
- Learn more about what makes the Santa Cruz River special and why American Rivers designated it one of the country’s most endangered rivers in 2024.