Bracing for construction of a border wall through delicate habitat for butterflies, birds and other wildlife, the National Butterfly Center is calling for donations to help it fight the project and, if that fails, to repair the environmental damage.

The center, part of the nonprofit North American Butterfly Association, has set up a GoFundMe.

“For us to financially survive and weather this storm, we’re trying to create a fund that will be kind of like an endowment,” said Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the New Jersey-based NABA.

Construction of the wall is expected to begin in February through the 100-acre habitat near the Rio Grande River in Mission, just west of McAllen.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection described the project’s path and proposed design in a July letter to an environmental nonprofit. The San Antonio Express-News obtained a copy.

Officials of the butterfly center interpret the letter to mean the wall will be as high as 36 feet, with gates at least 18 feet high and 20 feet wide to accommodate vehicles.

The letter and accompanying maps also outlined a 150-foot-wide “enforcement zone” south of the wall, where “all vegetation… will be cleared.”

The letter indicated that LED lighting and a camera surveillance system would be installed on the wall, with a patrol road running parallel to it.

The proposed route would put 70 percent of the butterfly habitat on the side of the wall facing Mexico. The center said the government has not indicated whether that land would be accessible once the project is completed, or what kind of damage the habitat might suffer during construction.

“The truth is, nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen and exactly what effect it’s going to have,” Glassberg said.

The center said that in the worst case, destruction of much of the habitat would pose a significant threat to the sanctuary’s survival. In a less dire scenario, the center could face a steep decline in visitors if construction of the wall is noisy and disruptive.

“It could be a situation where nobody wants to come because all you hear is jackhammers every day,” Glassberg said.

The center relies on membership dues and admission fees to operate.

Glassberg said the center would use money from the GoFundMe campaign, which was launched Monday, to pay legal fees, offset lost revenue or remediate environmental damage, among other possible uses. He said that at some future point, the center conceivably could tap the money to dismantle the segment of wall within the sanctuary.

The 100-acre habitat is a lush, wild place with trees and native plants. Sections have been cultivated as habitats for endangered butterflies and plants.

The sanctuary was established in 2002 in the Rio Grande Valley because of the area’s rich diversity of butterflies — it’s in a “liminal,” or transitional, zone where both tropical butterflies and North American butterflies thrive.

About 240 different varieties can be seen there, sometimes in swarms so dense they resemble “clouds of butterflies,” Glassberg said. Nearly 300 species of birds also live in the habitat.

The 70-acre piece of land threatened by the wall is home to more than 5,000 milkweeds, a fishing dock, hiking trails, a wildlife photography blind and a wetland with a boardwalk for educational activities.

Trump’s plan for a 33-mile border wall in the Rio Grande Valley — secured with $1.6 billion in congressional funding last year — would put the barrier a few miles north of the international border, cutting through Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park and the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge as well as the butterfly center

“All of this wild area is potentially going to be completely destroyed,” Glassberg said.

The Rio Grande Valley has the highest rates of immigrant apprehensions along the U.S-Mexico border, according to Customs and Border Protection. But Marianna Wright, executive director of the butterfly center, said it has never had a problem with undocumented immigrants crossing through. Wright said she has seen only a few in the six years she’s worked there.

Plans for the border wall received a boost last week when the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by three environmental groups, which claimed the Trump administration had improperly waived 28 environmental laws to allow expedited construction. The high court let stand a lower-court ruling in the administration’s favor.

In a separate case, the butterfly center is suing the government for sending contract workers unannounced to survey its land last year in connection with the wall. The suit, which is awaiting trial, contends that the survey was a violation of the center’s due process rights. It seeks an order requiring the government to obey environmental laws in building the wall, including conducting an assessment of the environmental impact and ways to mitigate it.

The government has already used its power of eminent domain to seize private property along the border for hundreds of miles of fencing. It’s expected to do the same for the border wall in the Rio Grande Valley, including at the butterfly center.

“This is a financial struggle for us, and we’re trying to do the right thing,” Glassberg said. “We think what we’ve created there is important, and we hope people will support it.”

Silvia Foster-Frau is a staff writer covering immigration and other subjects. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | sfosterfrau@express-news.net | Twitter: @SilviaElenaFF