A decision by the United Nations’ cultural arm, UNESCO, reiterates concern about the U.S.-Mexico border wall’s impact on animal habitats along the Arizona-Sonora border.
The wide swath of protected land in northwestern Sonora, known as El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve, lies just south of Arizona’s Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
UNESCO named the reserve, which includes vast sand dunes and huge, almost perfectly circular craters, a World Heritage Site more than a decade ago.
Alex Olivera with the Center for Biological Diversity says border wall construction under the first Trump administration has damaged the important Sonoran desert ecosystem.
“Animals cannot cross that used to for millions and thousands of years from the United States to Mexico in order to look for water, for food,” Olivera said.
UNESCO’s decision calls for Mexico to organize a mission of United Nations cultural and conservation officials to El Pinacate to assess the impact of the border wall.
UNESCO asks Mexico to organize that mission after it says the United States “communicated it cannot take part at this time.” The Trump administration announced the United States would withdraw from UNESCO effective at the end of this year.
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Activists have spent the last 70 days camped around and inside a cottonwood tree right along the border in the tiny town of Lochiel. The tree was the last of an old grove estimated to be up to 250 years old. -
Hunters and hikers were among almost 133,000 people opposing potential changes to the Travel Management Rule in national forests. Snowmobile groups were in the minority. -
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a measure out of its upper chamber that would transform the Chiricahua National Monument into the Grand Canyon State’s newest national park. -
Back in March, the U.S. Forest Service transferred ownership of more than 2,400 acres to Resolution Copper — following a 2-1 ruling by a panel of 9th Circuit judges that legally cleared the way for the land exchange to be finalized. -
The partner organizations were planning conservation or cultural resource projects in parks across the Mountain West.
