Thread: Border fence seen harming ocelots, butterflies

Border fence seen harming ocelots, butterflies
By Ed Stoddard
Tue Jul 24, 7:21 PM ET

ON THE RIO GRANDE, Texas (Reuters) - The riot of green vegetation that lines both sides of the Rio Grande river along the southeast Texas and Mexican border can give a canoeist the impression of gliding past unbroken wilderness.

But the strip of riparian forest that runs a few miles between the Texas towns of Fronton and Roma is deceptive.

In reality one of the most ecologically diverse corners of the United States has been diced up by farming and urban sprawl into isolated fragments of habitat that support far less wildlife than when they were whole.

Now, conservationists are concerned that a planned border security fence to stem illegal immigration from Mexico could cut this delicate area up even more and possibly remove the corridor of vital riverbank habitat that remains.

"We know as habitats become fragments whether by roads, fences or walls animals become much less capable of roaming widely," said Dr. Joel Berger, a senior scientist with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

"As these restrictions occur animals become isolated and with isolation the risks of local extinctions greatly increase," he said.

Animals at risk of local extinction include the U.S. population of the ocelot, a wild cat that is down to a few dozen animals, and several species of birds. Rare native plants such as sabal palm trees are down to a few isolated patches.

Driving along Route 281 which hugs this section of the Rio Grande reveals what lies behind the forested facade on the river's edge -- fast-growing border towns and cultivated fields of corn, sugar cane and other crops.

At stake is the sheer diversity of life in a region of lush subtropical vegetation threaded by a great river, lying between vast arid landscapes to the west and the Gulf of Mexico to the east.

Few Americans are aware of the area's ecological significance, which in four counties includes 300 butterfly species -- more than the rest of the country east of the Mississippi -- and over 500 different birds.

RECONNECT THE DOTS

Ecologists are trying to reconnect the dots by revegetating old farmland with native plants which they hope to link up.

At the Nature Conservancy of Texas' 1,000-acre Southmost Preserve, the contrast is plain along a dirt road with a cornfield on one side and wild bush on the other.

"This side looked exactly like that cornfield seven years ago," said Lisa Williams, a local project director with the Nature Conservancy, as she pointed to the tangle of wild growth which included haunting tepegauje trees -- a key species of the area -- their feathery leaves blowing in the wind.

"These are the pearls in a necklace which we are trying to string together," she said.

A pair of coyotes ran furtively through a field while a coot, an aquatic bird, chattered from a wetland.

When ecologists look at a patchwork of ecosystems cut up by roads or farms they think of islands -- and like islands out to sea, their isolation can be the undoing of their inhabitants.

According to the World Conservation Union, about 800 species have become extinct since 1500, when records began. Most were on islands.

But scientists say that extinctions and steep local population declines are now creeping onshore because continental habitats are being diced up by human activities.

Isolation makes populations more prone to sudden die-offs from disease or drought and also limits their genetic pool.

Other tracts of land besides Southmost are being protected in the area and reverted to their original state -- but there are worries the wall could cut through some of this work.

"There are two dozen species of very specialized birds that only live in the river forest and if that was cleared for the wall they will be lost to the area," said Martin Hagne, the executive director of the Valley Nature Center.

Supporters of the wall say it is needed to stem the tide of illegal immigration into the United States and the government says one green spin off will be a reduction in the mountains of litter which illicit crossers leave behind.

"I think it's well documented the affect that illegal border crossing activity has on the environment. The result in many cases is refuse left behind such as plastic bottles, clothes and discarded rubber rafts," said Michael Friel, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

He also said that in areas where effective control of the border has been reasserted such as near San Diego, local wild habitat which was trampled by illegal crossers has regrown.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070724/...G65Q4c.RIb.3QA

Birds FLY.
Butterflies FLY.
Ocelots are cats - cats climb fences.
DUH !

Mexico wants border fence plan altered
By Mark Stevenson
July 31, 2007

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is calling on the United States to alter a plan to expand border fences designed to stem illegal immigration, saying the barriers would threaten migratory species accustomed to roaming freely across the frontier.

Ways to minimize environmental damage from the fences could include the creation of cross-border bridge areas so that ecosystems remain connected and “green corridors” of wilderness without roads that would be less attractive to smugglers, according to a report released yesterday and prepared for the Mexican government by experts and activists from both nations.

The report also proposed "live" fences of cactuses, removable fencing, and more permeable barriers to allow water, insects and pollen to cross the border. Ecologists say species affected include Mexican jaguars and black bears, and the endangered, antelope-like Sonora Pronghorn.

Yesterday, Mexico's Environment Department said the proposed fences would seriously hurt species that cross the 1,952-mile border and that the United States needs to alter or mitigate the barriers where necessary.

"The eventual construction of this barrier would place at risk the various ecosystems that we share," said Environment Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira, noting that the border is not just desert, but includes mountains, rivers and wetlands.

Mexico also wants Washington to expand its environmental impact study on the fences and will file a complaint with the United Nations' International Court of Justice in the Hague if necessary.

The proposed fencing includes at least 370 miles of vehicle barriers and metal walls supplemented by "virtual" barriers of sensors, mobile towers packed with cameras, strong lights, radars and sensors and other technology.

The environmental report said the 700 miles of fencing could isolate border animals into smaller population groups, affecting their genetic diversity. The lights and radar could interfere with nocturnal species, and the construction and traffic along the walls could affect a wider strip of border land than just the fences themselves, activists say.

Environmentalists say construction of the fencing could wipe out endangered species like the Sonoran Pronghorn — of which only about 100 still exist — in the coming years.

Exequiel Ezcurra, director of research at the San Diego Natural History Museum, said the pronghorns are used to moving across the border in search of scarce grassland.

The pronghorn "is without doubt the species in the most desperate situation, the number one victim of all the tension and movement on the border," he said.


http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs...107310099/1003

Fixing the border is a nonstop job
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 54 minutes ago

EL PASO, Texas - Every day, Eddie Lujan and fellow members of his Border Patrol welding team go out and fix holes cut in a 12-mile border fence the night before by illegal immigrants sneaking across from Mexico.

Then he and the others get up the next day and do it all over again.

"It's disheartening," said Lujan, a Border Patrol agent. "It's frustrating."

Given the never-ending task faced by Lujan and others like him, some wonder how the U.S. government will ever manage to maintain the fence it wants to build along a large portion of the 2,100-mile border.

"There isn't going to be anything that is cut-proof," said El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Victor M. Manjarrez Jr.

Congress has authorized $1.2 billion for about 700 miles of fencing, including about 330 miles of a so-called virtual fence — a network of cameras, high-tech sensors, radar and other technology. The remaining 370 miles, primarily in more urban areas, are expected to have an actual, two-layer fence.

Salvador Zamora, assistant Border Patrol agent in charge of the El Paso station, said no amount of vigilance — including constantly wandering patrol agents, pole-mounted cameras trained on the border and underground sensors — is going to prevent someone from taking a pair of bolt cutters to the fence.

"If it's made by man, it's going to be tampered and overcome by man," he said.

In fact, Manjarrez said the proposed border fence would not reduce the number of agents needed — it would increase it. Agents will have to watch for the people who almost certainly will try to climb or squeeze over, under, through or around it, and someone will have to repair the damage, he said.

"A fence in itself, we can't walk away and just say, `Well, that's it,'" Manjarrez said.

In the El Paso area, patrol agents every night draw up a list of holes they find in the chain-link fence, either when they see someone wriggling through, or when footprints are discovered leading from the fence toward El Paso.

Lujan's crew, consisting of two Border Patrol agents and two National Guard engineers, then goes out and repairs them, patching perhaps 15 to 20 holes a day.

On a recent day, Lujan and fellow agent Andrew Avile found a large cut that was deliberately made along a steel pole so that it could not easily be seen. Avile noticed it when the fence gave way as he pushed on it.

And for every cut, Lujan said, three to five people are probably making their way across the levee road, into a nearby canal and onto a highway, eventually reaching a neighborhood, "and then it's like looking for a needle in a haystack after that."

The goal is to use the fence to slow illegal immigrants down just long enough for an agent to spot them, Zamora said.

Manjarrez began his Border Patrol career in San Diego, where agents have been assigned to drive along the border in a pickup truck loaded with dirt to fill holes dug under the fence. In the Tucson, Ariz., sector, where Manjarrez was last stationed, a contractor has been hired to have welders on call to patch holes.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who voted for the expanded fence, said it could make a difference in urban areas. But building a fence that requires daily maintenance in the middle of the open desert, where agents are responsible for large swaths of territory, "may not be the most efficient or cost-effective way to control illegal immigration," Cornyn said.

Meanwhile, the fence fixers continue patrolling with their welding kits, finding ways to keep the boredom at bay.

Lujan likes to play tricks with the illegal immigrants who cut the fence. Once, he welded a crowbar to the fence after immigrants left the tool behind.

"I was just messing with them really," Lujan said with a smile. "They were using it to pry open the fence and in their hurry to get back, they dropped it. So I was just teasing them a bit, saying, `Hey, here's your crowbar. Don't forget it. It will be here for the next time. If you can take it off, you can have it.'"

It's been there for two years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070808/...tenz4UkFRH2ocA

Court rejects case on fast track for border fence
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer
40 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a plea by environmental groups to rein in the Bush administration's power to waive laws and regulations to speed construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has used authority given to him by Congress in 2005 to ignore environmental and other laws and regulations to move forward with hundreds of miles of fencing in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

The case rejected by the court involved a two-mile section of fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area near Naco, Ariz. The section has since been built.

As of June, 13, 331 miles of fencing have been constructed in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

"I am extremely disappointed in the court's decision," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said. "This waiver will only prolong the department from addressing the real issue: their lack of a comprehensive border security plan."

Thompson chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. He and 13 other House democrats — including six other committee chairs — filed a brief in support of the environmentalists' appeal.

Russ Knock, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, said, "The American people expect this department to enforce the rule of law at the border. He added that the department is happy with the court's decision.

"As fence construction proceeds," Knocke said, "the department will continue to be a good steward of the environment, and consult with appropriate state, local, and tribal officials."

The concept of a border fence took on new life after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which revived the heated immigration debate. Intelligence officials have said the holes along the southwest border could provide places for terrorists to enter the country.

Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform when it had the chance in 2007.

Thompson said, "Without a comprehensive plan, this fence is just another quick fix."

Earlier this year, Chertoff waived more than 30 laws and regulations in an effort to finish building 670 miles of fence along the southwest border. Administration officials have said that invoking the legal waivers — which Congress authorized in 1996 and 2005 laws — will cut through bureaucratic red tape and sidestep environmental laws that currently stand in the way of fence construction.

Environmentalists have said the fence puts already endangered species such as two types of wild cats — the ocelot and the jaguarundi — in even more danger. The fence would prevent them from swimming across the Rio Grande to mate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/...UfShlHxyZh24cA

Court OK's border fence despite environmental worry
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jun 23, 6:29 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said Monday it won't stand in the way as the U.S. extends its security fence hundreds of miles along the border with Mexico, allowing building to proceed full-speed despite claims that it harms the environment and animals who live in the area.

In a second case mixing national security and the environment — and a second dose of potentially good news for the Bush administration — the justices agreed to consider an appeals court ruling that limits the Navy's use of sonar off the Southern California coast because of potential harm to dolphins and whales.

Given sporadic attention for years, the concept of a border fence took on new life after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which also revived the nation's heated immigration debate. Intelligence officials have said the holes along the southwest border could provide places for terrorists to enter the country.

On Monday, the court declined to hear arguments in a case brought by environmental groups that could have slowed or even halted the multibillion-dollar fence project that stretches from the Pacific surf at Tijuana to the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville, Texas. Some 331 miles of fencing had been constructed as of June 13, with about as much still to go.

The case involved a two-mile section of fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area near Naco, Ariz. The section has already been built. Environmentalists have said the fence puts already endangered species such as two types of wild cats — the ocelot and the jaguarundi — in even more danger. The fence would prevent them from swimming across the Rio Grande to mate.

Fourteen House Democrats — including seven committee chairs — had filed a brief in support of the environmentalists' appeal. "Without a comprehensive plan, this fence is just another quick fix," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., one of the signers. Thompson chairs the House Homeland Security Committee.

On the other side, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said the outcome "was a victory for common sense ... and it was a victory for Americans who want secure borders." King wrote the 2006 law that called for hundreds of miles of fencing.

So far, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has waived more than 40 laws and regulations in an effort to finish building 670 miles of fence along the southwest border. Administration officials have said that invoking the legal waivers — which Congress authorized in 1996 and 2005 laws — will cut through bureaucratic red tape and sidestep environmental laws that would otherwise stand in the way of construction.

The fence faces other legal challenges. Currently there are two class action lawsuits against property condemnation and four District Court cases challenging environmental actions, according to Homeland Security.

An environmental lawsuit stopped construction of a border fence in San Diego in the late 1990s. Because of this, in 2005 Congress gave the administration wide-reaching power to waive environmental and other laws that could stand in the way.

The fact that the Supreme Court would not take up the Arizona environmental challenge does not mean other lawsuits don't have a chance, said Celestino Gallegos, an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Gallegos' organization has worked with many South Texas landowners who face condemnation. The landowners argue that the government did not properly consult with landowners before filing condemnation lawsuits. The fencing plan affects about 480 landowners.

Defenders of Wildlife attorney Brian Segee said there are "serious constitutional problems" with the law Congress passed in 2005, "which places the unprecedented and extraordinary power with one individual, the secretary of homeland security, to pick and choose which laws apply along the southern border."

Russ Knocke, a spokesman for Homeland Security, said, "As fence construction proceeds, the department will continue to be a good steward of the environment, and consult with appropriate state, local, and tribal officials."

In the second case Monday, the justices, acting at the administration's urging, agreed to review a federal appeals court ruling that limits the use of sonar in naval training exercises.

Sonar, which the Navy uses primarily to locate enemy submarines at sea, can interfere with marine mammals' ability to navigate and communicate.

The administration says the decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco could cripple the Navy's ability to train sailors and Marines for service in wartime.

The government also says that its use of mid-frequency sonar in training exercises hasn't caused any documented harm to dolphins or been proven to be involved in the beaching of whales — and that national security can trump other interests in some cases anyway.

Some environmentalists said the Supreme Court's hearing of the case could finally settle what takes precedence — national security or environmental protection.

Although the science is inconclusive, there is strong evidence that sonar affects marine mammals. The Navy's environmental assessment of the use of sonar in 14 training exercises off the California coast found it could disturb or harm an estimated 170,000 marine mammals, including causing temporary loss of hearing in at least 8,000 whales.

The case will be heard next fall.

In what is likely to be its final week before a long summer recess, the court has yet to resolve three major outstanding cases — the consideration of Americans' gun rights, whether Exxon Mobil Corp. must pay punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 and the constitutionality of imposing the death penalty on people convicted of raping children.

The court will meet again on Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/...UfShlHxyZh24cA

Environmentalists have said the fence puts already endangered species such as two types of wild cats — the ocelot and the jaguarundi — in even more danger. The fence would prevent them from swimming across the Rio Grande to mate.

Ever ~ try ~ to keep a cat in a fenced in yard ??

Supreme Court rejects challenge to Arizona border fence
By James Vicini
Mon Jun 23, 10:22 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court rejected on Monday a legal challenge by two environmental groups to the U.S. Homeland Security secretary's decision to waive 19 federal laws so a fence could be built on the Arizona-Mexico border.

The high court refused to hear an appeal by Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club challenging a 2005 law that Secretary Michael Chertoff invoked on the grounds that it violated the constitutional separation of powers principles.

The Republican-led Congress in 2005 gave Chertoff the power to waive environmental and other laws to build fences and other border barriers in an effort to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States.

Chertoff has issued a number of waivers for the planned barrier fence along the Mexican border. In April, he issued waivers for various projects across nearly 500 miles in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

The two environmental groups argued that Chertoff's waiver in their case represented an unconstitutional repeal of federal laws. The waiver provision amounted to an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to Chertoff, with only limited judicial review of his decision, they said.

In the Arizona case, Chertoff issued the waiver in October after a federal judge ruled for the environmental groups by temporarily blocking further construction of the fence in a natural conservation area.

The fence was being built in southeastern Arizona in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, which the environmental groups describe as unique and biologically diverse, with more than 250 species of migratory birds.

Under the law, Chertoff has the sole discretion to waive all legal requirements when he decides it is necessary to speed up construction of barriers along the border. Congress also set limited, streamlined judicial review of such waivers.

A U.S. district judge may hear a challenge only if it alleges a constitutional violation and has been brought within 60 days of Chertoff's waiver.

Any ruling by the judge cannot be appealed to a U.S. appeals court, the typical next step in the judicial system. It can be reviewed only by the Supreme Court.

Attorneys for the two environmental groups said the case presented legally significant and practically important questions, as the law involved virtually unprecedented restriction of appellate review.

Fourteen Democratic members of the House of Representatives, including the chairmen of the homeland security, the judiciary and the intelligence committees, supported the appeal.

Justice Department attorneys urged the Supreme Court to reject the appeal. They said a ruling in the case by a federal judge rejecting the challenge was correct and does not conflict with any decision by the high court or any other court.

The Supreme Court sided with the Justice Department and denied the appeal without comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080623/...5C.IAdeoRAw_IE

...which the environmental groups describe as unique and biologically diverse, with more than 250 species of migratory birds.

Birds FLY...

Cleaning up our trashed border
By Michelle Malkin • April 26, 2010 01:42 PM
http://michellemalkin.com/2010/04/26...rashed-border/

Last week, I mentioned that activists from Smart Girl Politics in Arizona were organizing a border clean-up day in honor of slain rancher Robert Krentz. http://michellemalkin.com/2010/04/12...ally-tomorrow/ The event took place on Saturday and Jennifer Leslie of SGP summarized the day’s activities:

We broke into four groups and went on our way. We were motivated, but quickly sobered by seeing the refuse that represented real human beings and their struggles. It was very eye-opening to almost every one of us who had only seen the nicer or touristy border spots. We were blessed with good weather, which not only made our physical labor easier, but kept the snakes and other critters scarce. When all of our bags were full, and the volunteers were wrapping up, I felt sincerely grateful for their desire to show support for the Arizonans that live near the border and to honor the Krentz family. Every one of them appreciated the opportunity to do something tangible in those regards and expressed interest in participating in future border clean-up efforts.

I have been told that Mrs. Krentz is aware of our efforts and approved. I have composed a letter to her and will mail it tomorrow along with condolence cards signed by people at the Tucson Tea Party last week and by volunteers yesterday.

Our efforts would not have been possible without the cooperation of the Border Patrol, Bisbee Police Department, and Cochise County Public Work Department that provided trash bags and picked up the bagged garbage.

Additionally, we contacted all of the Congressional District 8 and Arizona Senate candidates to inquire about their participation in this effort either in person or by providing volunteers and/or water and snacks for our volunteers. We were pleased to welcome Andy Goss, candidate for US House of Representatives in Congressional District 8, and Terri Proud, candidate for Arizona House of Representatives in Legislative District 26. We are grateful to the following campaigns for providing volunteers and water: JD Hayworth, candidate for the US Senate, Congressional District 8 candidates Jesse Kelly, Brian Miller and Jonathan Paton, and Buz Mills, candidate for Arizona Governor.

Jennifer Leslie
Smart Girl Politics, Tucson District Coordinator

Filmmaker Mike Shaw produced a 6-minute documentary on the clean-up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2icOH...layer_embedded



Photos here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cactusbillaz/page2


And from SGP member Lisa Ruth:

At the fence, we saw garbage everywhere including the Mexican side. We even heard a man clearing his throat on the other side of the border fence. We found a backpack with clothes that were wet from a newly opened water bottle that had spilled. We have every reason to believe there was someone in the wash we were walking who heard or saw us and took off. It was an eerie feeling. And yes, it only takes 3 seconds to hop a border because we found something that is never shown on the news or in distributed pictures: crossbars on both sides of the fence that are welded into the metal posts to serve as footholds. This is the handywork of illegals – not the way the fence was constructed. One can also witness the areas where a sledgehammer was used to break the footholds – probably done by border patrol. All someone has to do is slip their foot onto the cross bar to hoist themselves up, climb to the top bar and jump over. It’s that easy! And that’s what protects you and me from millions of unknowns.

We were approached by a border agent who simply told us to please be careful.

…We can hear all the reports and see pics and footage, but nothing will deliver the full impact of the border mess until you are actually face-to-face with the area seeing how flimsy the borders are in front of you and walking the trail the illegals take every day to their transports moving all across this nation. There is no guarantee you will not be face to face with the perpetrators themselves, and it was sobering to see many houses just yards away from that trail in the wash, the garbage, and the overall negative vibes one experiences just standing there. It is rather surreal.

We could not help but think about Robert Krentz, his family and all the legal citizens living along the border. If one can sense the horror by just standing there, imagine what it is like living in the area for years having those trails burrowed into your property, having to be extra cautious on your own land with trash and personal items left as evidence that human and drug trafficking are taking place in your backyard. Just imagine what it is like to live in the border war zone knowing your government is doing nothing to stop it and ignores you when the violence increases.

We were proud to stand with our fellow citizens and provide clean up efforts. We are also proud to be Arizonans helping to lead the nation in securing the border, protecting both legal citizens and the people of Mexico from being used as political chattle. As Smart Girls in Arizona, we are continuing our activism to help ranchers in the area and provide education to help those who wish to become LEGAL citizens on how to do it the LEGAL way. By doing so, we honor Krentz’s life and memory as someone who devoted his life to helping others. May his life example serve as a guide to us all.

Thanks to the SGP crew for doing the job the illegal border-crossers won’t do.




And no, it appears there were no environmentalist greenies in sight to pitch in, either.

yes - these are just the americans doing the jobs mexicans won’t. Yes there is a reason why typical mexican cities, not tourist locals, are basic 3rd world toilets with raw sewage in dirt streets to wash the debris down into the next neighborhood. They may pick fruit, but they generate a s**t-mess in doing so. Go to Tijuana for a dose of mexican cleanliness is next to godliness.

The garbage left behind in the ILLEGAL ALIEN transit corridors is just a small part of the problem.

***

The big part of the problem is who came in? Gang members, felony criminals, drug mules, druglord soldiers, etc. And what did they bring with them? Tuberculosis, cocaine, heroin, etc? Underage sex workers?

***

Build the border fence and enforce employer sanctions. Go Arizona enforcement laws.

The environmental groups used to openly tout population control to save the planet. Then, they saw the writing $$ on the wall and decided it’s OK to be invaded but we need carbon credits/green jobs and the control of all industry – oh, save the whales – and leave GPS and water bottles at strategic locations so the illegals can find their way here and stay hydrated. The damage that is being done to our southwest and border states is closer every day to being irreparable..

South Arizona man pleads guilty in jaguar's death
By Bob Christie, Associated Press Writer Fri May 14, 11:52 pm ET

PHOENIX – A southern Arizona biologist pleaded guilty on Friday to a misdemeanor federal charge for his role in the 2009 trapping and subsequent death of a rare jaguar known as "Macho B."

Emil McCain, 31, of Patagonia, entered his plea to illegally "taking" an endangered species in U.S. District Court in Tucson and was immediately sentenced to five years probation. McCain was also barred from being employed or involved in any project or job involving large wild cats, according to his plea agreement.

McCain worked with the Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project, which was contracted by a joint New Mexico-Arizona jaguar conservation team to study the elusive big cats.

A Game and Fish employee who worked with McCain has been fired.

A U.S. attorney's office spokesman said the criminal investigation was ongoing but wouldn't comment on whether others might also be charged. Another investigation into the matter by the state wildlife department was also ongoing.

Macho B was trapped on Feb. 18, 2009, fitted with a radio collar and released. Game and Fish initially called it an "inadvertent capture" and a potential treasure trove for scientists trying to determine if the cats lived in the U.S. or just were occasional visitors from Mexico.

The jaguar was recaptured due to health problems and euthanized on March 2, 2009. It was the only known wild jaguar in the United States.

It wasn't until several months later that questions began to arise about whether the jaguar had been intentionally the target of Game and Fish trappers who were looking for cougars and bears.

According to the plea agreement McCain signed, he placed jaguar scat or told a woman on the trapping team to place jaguar scat at three snare sites in an attempt to capture and trap the jaguar.

McCain knew a jaguar had recently been in the remote area between Arivaca and Nogales and the Game and Fish team he was working with only had authorization to trap mountain lions and bears for research, his plea stated. "We now know that McCain acted in a personal capacity to intentionally capture a jaguar," Arizona Game and Fish said in a statement. "McCain's admission of guilt supports the Arizona Game and Fish Department's longstanding assertion that agency personnel did not set out with intention to capture a jaguar.

"Until the Department has access to the federal investigation, the Department's own internal investigation continues to be open and ongoing."

McCain's lawyer, Alfred Donau, said his client has already taken a job out of the country as a wildlife biologist but wouldn't disclose where. Donau told The Associated Press Friday that while McCain was remorseful the jaguar had died, the trapping would have had much different results if the cat had lived because he was seeking scientific data for conservation purposes. "If this jaguar hadn't been the equivalent of 100 years old human age and he lived it would have been a huge boon to scientific research, because we would have known with a collar on him whether or not he was from Mexico or the native range was Arizona," Donau said.

"If the cat hadn't died, there would have been a much different point of view of what took place here. This isn't a case where somebody went out and tried to kill an animal."

The largest cats native to the Western hemisphere live primarily in Mexico, Central and South America. But they're known to roam in southern Arizona and New Mexico and are the only cat native to North America that roars.

Jaguars were thought to have been eliminated in the U.S. by 1990 until two were spotted in 1996 in southern Arizona. The capture of Macho B was the first time one had been trapped in the U.S.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100515/...FyaXptYW5wbGU-

Emil McCain, 31, of Patagonia, entered his plea to illegally "taking" an endangered species in U.S. District Court in Tucson and was immediately sentenced to five years probation. McCain was also barred from being employed or involved in any project or job involving large wild cats, according to his plea agreement.
>snip<
McCain's lawyer, Alfred Donau, said his client has already taken a job out of the country as a wildlife biologist but wouldn't disclose where.

Five years probation ... but he is leaving the country so that means ... squat. What a joke.

Arizona-New Mexico project aims to learn more about imperiled cats
Camera network will focus on jaguars
Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, November 25, 2011 12:00 am

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/came...#ixzz1eyNTiu8x

Starting next year, jaguars will be the target of an extensive network of remote cameras placed across Southern Arizona and southwest New Mexico.

In a three-year, $771,000 project that has been greeted warmly by environmentalists but warily by cattle growers, University of Arizona researchers will try to learn more about the status and presence of the endangered animal.

Fifteen years after the jaguar was listed as endangered in the U.S., this project will try to determine how often it roams from Mexico to the United States and back, said Melanie Culver, the project's principal investigator and a geneticist for the U.S. Geological Survey and the UA's School of Natural Resources.

Referring to the adult male jaguar photographed in Cochise County Saturday, Culver added that the project will try to learn, "Is this the only one?"

The research project has brought on a UA professor with a history of mediation work, Kirk Emerson, to reach out to environmental groups, ranchers, private landowners and others in an effort to minimize potential conflicts over the research.

There has long been tension among ranchers, environmentalists and government officials over how to conserve and study jaguars.

The cameras will be placed at 120 locations on public and possibly private lands in mountainous terrain - two cameras per site - and checked regularly, said Lisa Haynes, the research project manager and coordinator of the UA's Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center. They'll be located from the Baboquivari Mountains in south-central Arizona on the west to the Animas Mountains in the "boot heel" of New Mexico on the east.

Funding is from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Up to five jaguars have been photographed in the region in the past 15 years. Researchers say the new camera work could help determine if this area actually has a resident jaguar population or if the jaguars that roam here are transient migrants into their range's northern fringe from a larger population in Mexico.

Other possible results of the research include:

• Pinpointing movement corridors for jaguars across the mountainous borderlands region.

• Understanding more about how other wildlife relates to jaguars, and about the region's general biodiversity.

• Helping the federal government determine prime jaguar habitat, and prepare a federal recovery plan for the species.

• Learning how much impact the U.S.-Mexican border fence, illegal immigrants, and vehicles and equipment used to pursue immigrants has on the animal.

With last week's sighting being the first confirmed jaguar presence in this country since the March 2009 death of the animal dubbed Macho B, UA researchers say they have no idea what their chances are of detecting more jaguars or again seeing the one just photographed.

The researchers will be picking up on a larger scale where the nonprofit Borderlands Jaguar Detection Project left off in 2009 after the controversy over the capture and death of Macho B abruptly ended the remote camera work the group had been doing in Southern Arizona since the early 2000s.

The group's biologist, Emil McCain, pleaded guilty to trying to capture the jaguar without a permit. His five-year probation forbids him from conducting jaguar research in this country.

The federally financed project will use techniques similar to the detection project as far as cameras go, Haynes said. But this project will not follow McCain's practice of putting jaguar scat at camera sites to lure jaguars, the UA researchers said.

"We want to emphasize that this is a noninvasive technique that we'll use -no capture, no touch, no handling," Haynes said. But the researchers will employ dogs to look for jaguar scat if cameras capture any of the rare cats, Haynes said. It will be analyzed for DNA to identify the species and possibly the individual jaguar the scat came from, said Culver, the geneticist.

Activists for two environmental groups that have pushed hard for jaguar protection were delighted that this study will be done. "This type of science is long overdue," said Melanie Emerson, executive director of the Sky Island Alliance, a Tucson conservation group. "This is clearly nonintrusive, which means that the risks that manifested themselves tragically in Macho B's death will not be there," said Michael Robinson, an activist for the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, whose lawsuit forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to agree to designate critical habitat and prepare a recovery plan for the jaguar.

The Arizona Cattle Growers Association is not opposed to the research that UA will be doing, said Patrick Bray, the group's executive vice president. But it is concerned about how federal officials and others might use the research, particularly if it leads to controversial measures such as reintroduction of jaguars or restrictions on grazing, since jaguars - like wolves - eat cattle. "Sometimes there is a tendency by agencies to do an overkill of management, especially when you're working on species in a very northerly range of the animal," Bray said. "The money would be better spent in more densely populated ranges."

Bray also said he has a huge concern about the use of Homeland Security money for this project, since his group believes the federal agency isn't doing an adequate job of securing the border. If mitigation of environmental impacts is important to the public, the land-management and species-protection agencies should finance the research themselves, he said.

The public interest in this research is likely to be high, said Jeff Humphrey, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman, given the buzz that has occurred just since Monday when the Arizona Game and Fish Department announced the most recent confirmed jaguar sighting in Cochise County. "It's the subject of dinner conversation - hey, a jaguar is back in the United States," Humphrey said. "People love having a connection to the remote, wild land that we are in here."

Fighting drugs and border violence at Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument: What about the ranger’s M14 rifle, Yogi?
By Liz Goodwin National Affairs Reporter The Ticket – 4 hrs ago


Ranger Ken Hires in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. (Liz Goodwin/Yahoo News)

ORGAN PIPE CACTUS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Ariz. -- On a hot desert morning last week, a group of 20 tourists gathered in the visitor center in Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to attend a mandatory safety briefing before taking a guarded van tour to Quitobaquito springs. The springs is part of the 69 percent of the remote border park west of Tucson that has been closed to the public since Kris Eggle, a 28-year-old law enforcement park ranger, was shot and killed while pursuing drug runners armed with AK-47s in 2002.

Organ Pipe was named "the most dangerous national park" that year and also in 2003 by the U.S. Park Rangers Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, before the group discontinued the series. The drastic increase of drug activity on Arizona's southern border since the 1990s has turned Organ Pipe rangers into de factor Border Patrol agents, and spurred state lawmakers to pass several laws cracking down on illegal immigrants within the state.


Memorial to Kris Eggle

Since 2009, the park has offered van tours to the springs, as long as rangers armed with assault rifles go along to protect the visitors. Now, ten years after Eggle's murder, the park's leadership has decided to open up a portion of the closed areas to the public in March, citing improved safety conditions and a big increase in Border Patrol agents in the area.

In the run-up to Tuesday's Republican presidential primary in Arizona, immigration has once again been a hotly contested topic in the state: Mitt Romney in a debate last week praised Arizona's immigration laws as a "model" for the country, while President Obama's Justice Department is suing Arizona to overturn one of those laws, called SB1070. The law--which has not gone into effect because of a federal court order--requires police to check a person's immigration status during stops if there is a "reasonable suspicion" that someone is in the country illegally. It also makes it a state crime to fail to carry immigration papers or for illegal immigrants to solicit work. Drug violence has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the cartels in 2006, but spillover violence has so far been minimal in the United States. Still, Jan Brewer, the Republican governor of Arizona, falsely claimed that beheadings occurred in the Arizona desert in 2010, the same year she signed SB1070 into law. Arizona was also the first state to pass a mandatory E-Verify law in 2007, to ensure employers don't hire illegal immigrants.

Brewer says the law will help police officers combat drug trafficking and crime, but critics say it will encourage racial profiling and interferes with federal control over immigration. Yahoo News went to Organ Pipe last week to witness the challenges of the border as the presidential candidates debate how best to control it.

'They'll have M14s at hand. Don't be worried.'
"There is a chance we might have to cancel the tour if there's some sort of apprehension in progress," Park Ranger Karl Sommerhauser, wearing a bulky dark green bulletproof vest, told the tourists last week. Sommerhauser had an ear piece curling out of his left ear. "We expect you to take direction from Ken," he said sternly.

Ken Hires, an unflaggingly cheerful park ranger dressed in reassuringly normal-looking tan ranger clothes, bounded to the front of the room. Hires is what's called an interpretive ranger, which means he has no law enforcement duties and does not carry a weapon. ("I spent my five years in Vietnam. Enough shooting," he said later.) Hires explained that some law enforcement officers would be hiding in the hills and closely watching the two-hour nature hike, while another pair of armed rangers would follow the tourists closely from the ground. "They'll have M14s at hand," he told the group. "Don't be worried."

"You might see something interesting off the trail, but please don't go wandering off," Hires continued, explaining that it made it difficult for the rangers to track people from the hills. "Please be respectful that those people are putting themselves on the line for us."

As the group loaded into the vans, one woman from Idaho whispered to her husband: "Does it make you worried? They get chest protections, and we don't get none of them."

Hires, sitting in the passenger side of the van, began talking quickly into his radio to the rangers. He turned to the back and explained: "We operate this as if it were an incident."

"You say there was an incident out there?" a walrus-mustachioed passenger wearing a cowboy hat asked warily.

"We're it," Ken said, to nervous laughter.

'There's nothing normal about Organ Pipe'
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a 330,000-acre, surprisingly green stretch of Sonoran desert populated by barrel, saguaro and organ pipe cacti, spans 30 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. The park became a corridor for drug runners in the 1990s after border security tightened at major ports of entry and in urban areas, driving human and drug traffickers to rural crossings. Alan Bersin, the Customs and Border Protection commissioner until last year, admitted that the Tucson sector of the border was "out of control" until recently. In 2010, half of all border apprehensions and drug seizures occurred in the Tucson sector, which encompasses much of Organ Pipe.

Drug runners would cut across Mexican Highway 2 through Organ Pipe's dirt roads in a car and then quickly hop onto U.S. Highway 85, which shoots up to Phoenix or Tucson. The vehicles blazed more than 200 miles of unauthorized roads through the park, and rangers found themselves in dangerous, high-speed chases nearly every day. An $18 million, 23-mile vehicle fence put up after Eggle's murder by the Department of the Interior cut down on this vehicle traffic. Now, cartels have had to get smarter, sometimes cutting into the fence, removing it, driving through, and then putting it back together again. Drug runners also started coming more on foot, dropping their packages in designated spots on the highway for someone else to pick up.

The Department of Homeland Security recently put up nine surveillance towers in the park, making it easier for agents to detect this new foot traffic, so the drug runners are now hiding in the hills, where the towers can't see them. (A Border Patrol helicopter operation last year in these hills netted 800 pounds of trash and a whole "herd" of people, according to Hires.) Border Patrol set up a check point on Highway 85 within the park in the past year, which has pushed drug traffickers to the neighboring Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and Tohono O'odham reservation, adding as much as four days to their on-foot journeys. "They're very adaptive, more so than us," said Organ Pipe park superintendent Lee Baiza wearily, during an interview with Yahoo News last week.

Baiza said he spends about 80 percent of his time working with Homeland Security and handling border concerns. "There's nothing normal about Organ Pipe," he added.

The superintendent, who took over in 2007, has faced criticism for preventing Border Patrol agents from building new roads in the wilderness areas of the park, which is part of a larger struggle between Homeland Security and national park and land agencies that operate on the border. (More than 85 percent of border property in Arizona is federally owned.) Bob Bishop, a Republican representative from Utah, introduced a bill last year that would waive environmental laws up to 100 miles north of the border, freeing up Homeland Security to build roads through the wilderness to combat illegal immigration and drug running. Bishop criticized the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for preventing Border Patrol agents from driving off-road in the Quitobaquito area of the park because of a pond nearby that contains the endangered Sonoran desert pupfish.

"I may care about the pupfish, but I also care about kids getting hooked on illegal drugs that are coming over that border," Bishop told Yahoo News. Drug runners cause more environmental damage to the border by leaving trash, he said, than Border Patrol agents would by building roads.

"Every congressman seems to have his own idea of what we're doing wrong," Baiza said. "The reality is all of that has improved immensely since 2007."

Apprehensions in the park were down last month for the first time in three years, Baiza said. Border Patrol would not release park-specific data, but a spokesman, Jason Rheinfrank, said that the Tucson sector overall saw a 40 percent drop in apprehensions last fiscal year, while the number of agents has nearly tripled since 2000. Illegal crossing arrests over the entire border were at a four-decade low last fiscal year, in part because of the flagging American economy.

On March 1, 46 percent of the park--instead of 31 percent--is scheduled to be open to the public. Baiza cited the increased fencing, number of Border Patrol agents, and technology in the park as the reasons for the change.