I've spent this year watching the places I love most in the world be bulldozed for the border wall.

[riversedge]

Laiken Jordahl
@LaikenJordahl
I've spent this year watching the places I love most in the world be bulldozed for the border wall. Sometimes I feel like I'm screaming from the top of my lungs, alone in the wilderness, about this travesty.

But today, my words in @nytimes
tell the story:

Link to tweet

?s=20




A Year of Devastation in Arizona’s Wild Lands

Living and working along the U.S.-Mexico border has meant watching the surreal, slow-motion leveling of the fragile ecosystems I’ve spent my career fighting to protect.

By Laiken Jordahl

Mr. Jordahl works to protect the U.S.-Mexican borderland environment with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Nov. 1, 2020

Credit...Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

Saguaro cactuses, some nearly a century old, in shards on the desert floor. Jaguars, lost, because a metal wall has blocked their migratory path. Endangered species homeless because their critical habitats have been destroyed.

Living and working along the U.S.-Mexico border means watching the surreal, slow-motion leveling of the wild and fragile ecosystems I’ve spent my career fighting to protect.

Contractors have bulldozed through all four southern border states, with nearly 400 miles of wall built or replaced under the Trump administration. But Arizona, with 372 miles of shared border of Mexico, has borne the brunt of the environmental damage. These are parts of the country so spectacular — with ragged mountainous terrain and sweeping desert valleys — that they’re protected by state, national and international laws.

Most of the harm has been inflicted in the past year, after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed wall construction to proceed, even though multiple lower courts ruled the funding for the project unconstitutional. Construction crews broke ground in August 2019, digging trenches and bulldozing wilderness to install 30-foot tall steel bollards filled with concrete.

[bullimiami]

1. MR BIDEN. TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!!!

[Magoo48]

2. And quickly!