Just south of the Mexican border is one of the most striking desert landscapes on Earth — a beautiful contrast of lava flows, granite mountains and sand dunes that can reach 600 feet high.

This stunning swath of the Sonoran Desert is a sacred site for native people and a refuge for wildlife found nowhere else on our planet.

It’s just one of many protected ecosystems in terrible danger from President Trump’s proposed border wall, which appears to be on a fast track near San Diego and in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage site along the Mexican side of the U.S. border. This richly biodiverse landscape is sacred to the indigenous Tohono O’odham people.


On the other side of the border, the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge has been managed to preserve and protect wildlife since 1939, with a special focus on the endangered Sonoran pronghorn, bighorn sheep and lesser long-nosed bat.

But Trump’s “impenetrable” wall would block wildlife migration and threaten the already-imperiled species that the 2,700-square-mile biosphere reserve, wildlife refuges and national parks along the border were designated to protect.

This includes two refuges south of San Diego, where the Trump administration says it will waive environmental and other laws to speed construction of border wall prototypes, 14 miles of replacement walls, roads, lighting and other infrastructure.

And it includes the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — described as the “crown jewel” of the wildlife refuge system — one of the top birding destinations in North America and home to a dwindling population of endangered ocelots.


In Arizona and Mexico, the wall would also separate the Tohono O’odham people, whose ancestral lands straddle the border, and endanger their cultural and religious practices.

Trump is rushing to devastate communities and wildlife to fulfill a twisted, divisive campaign promise, while ignoring the law and public input. It’s a travesty that must be stopped.

That’s why our organization, the Center for Biological Diversity, has filed a series of legal actions to stop the border wall and obtain public records about this dangerous project.

In June we expanded our lawsuit against proposed border wall prototype construction in Otay Mesa to also challenge replacement of the San Diego segment, which stretches east from the Pacific Ocean through the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge.


We’ve also teamed up with Greenpeace Mexico, the Tohono-O’odham of Sonora, Mexico, and several other Mexican conservation groups to urge the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to give “in danger” status to El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar.

As parties to this global treaty, the U.S. and 192 other countries are obligated to protect World Heritage sites throughout the world, not just in their own countries. Yet Trump’s administration is violating this obligation with his border wall.

In all, the proposed wall along the 2,000-mile border threatens more than 90 endangered and threatened species, including jaguars, ocelots, Mexican wolves, cactus ferruginous pygmy owls and the Sonoran pronghorn. Many of these species are found nowhere else.

El Pinacate alone hosts more than 540 species of plants, 44 mammal species, 225 bird species and more than 40 reptile species, including many endangered species and many found only in the Sonoran Desert. Pinacate’s dormant volcanic craters and the vast sand dunes of Gran Altar Desert give way to spring flows and seeps that nourish this astonishing array of wildlife.


The site also holds significant cultural importance. Ancestors of the Tohono O’odham began inhabiting the site around 5,000 years ago, and the area still contains many significant archaeological remains, including petroglyphs, geoglyphs and trails. El Pinacate is sacred to the Tohono O’odham, and the area is regularly used for ceremonial purposes, including a sacred salt pilgrimage across the border to Mexico’s Gulf of California.

Today about two-thirds of the border along the Pinacate World Heritage Site allows relatively free passage of wildlife between the U.S. and Mexico. That would change with Trump’s “impenetrable” wall — and the roads, lights and human activity that accompany it.

Indeed, the wall would be a stain on this spectacular landscape and an affront to the concept of World Heritage sites, wildlife refuges and national parks. We must work together to protect these sacred sites, and the natural and cultural treasures within, for future generations. And that means stopping this dangerous wall in its tracks.

Uhlemann is a senior attorney and international program director with the Center for Biological Diversity. Website: biologicaldiversity.org


RELATED