At the border, land, wildlife, even ranch animals are the casualties

March 3, 2006

Trash, fires, spoiled natural springs, vandalized historic sites, disappearing wildlife and threatened ranch animals make up the devastation that smugglers and migrants create along the U.S. border with Mexico.

In Arizona, the damage includes Indian and private ranch land, and the Sonoran Desert is jeopardized.

More than one million tons of garbage are scattered through the broad valleys and desert arroyos of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, says the refuge manager. Border Patrol officials say the refuge's seven mountain ranges, which are home to bighorn sheep and prized destinations for wilderness hikers, also serve as posts for lookouts using night-vision equipment to track the Border Patrol. Mountain peaks conceal clandestine radio repeating stations that are part of smugglers' surveillance operations.

'Ghost roads' carved by smugglers and pursuing federal agents crisscross Cabeza Prieta and nearby Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Sections of Organ Pipe are deemed so dangerous that the National Park Service has closed them to the public.

The nameless routes, stretching north from the Mexican border, are the result of an estimated 1,000 illegal foot crossings a day and countless vehicles transporting undocumented migrants, drug runners and the Border Patrol.

The constant human pressure is threatening to eliminate the area's wildlife. The refuge's population of the endangered Sonoran pronghorn, a deer-like creature, had fallen to 21 — down from 179 in 1992 — and the species was headed for extinction before a captive-breeding program was established in 2004.

Officials at the U.S. Department of the Interior said they are considering giving the Border Patrol control of the hard-hit areas of the refuge and park nearest the border. 'If we don't help Border Patrol improve their control over the border, we won't have anything left to save, said a Department administrator in Washington.

Cabeza Prieta alone has 400 plant species and 300 types of wildlife, including ringtail cat, kit fox, bighorn sheep, javelina, badger, bobcat, mule deer, desert tortoise, 24 species of snake, 11 species of bat and 212 species of birds.

It's only a matter to time, officials say, before their home is rendered uninhabitable.

Cabeza Prieta is said to be the most embattled wildlife refuge in the United States. East of Organ Pipe, residents of the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation recently removed more than 7,000 abandoned vehicles.

One rancher described the harm done to livestock and wildlife.

'There are at least two semi loads of trash in the canyon behind us, and there are probably seven canyons like that,' she said. 'Our cattle eat the trash. Little animals stick their heads in bean cans and walk around with the cans on their muzzle until they die. Our neighbor had a cow in a corral; it was having a problem calving. They came back in the morning to check on it and two illegals had killed the calf and were cooking it.

Ranchers also worry about disease. John Ladd has 10 1/2 miles of land abutting the Mexican line. Floodwaters washed through the area last summer, taking out a 100-foot-wide portion of the fence, and that yawning gap is still there. There are many others. In a one-mile span, there were 12 fence breaks along Ladd's borderland through which Mexican cattle can wander onto his property, mingling with his own stock.

The problem? If these intruder livestock happen to be diseased, they could infect his herd and ruin him. In fact, Ladd believes that disaster will befall him eventually.

"I'm 50, and in my lifetime, I expect that something is going to cross the line disease-wise that puts me out of business unless somebody does something," says Ladd, a former assistant football coach at Bisbee High School. "I know that's a pretty radical opinion. But a guy can come from South America and in 24 hours be at my fence. And foot-and-mouth disease is in South America. I've complained to everybody, but nobody does anything. It's really alarming."

Similar threats exists at many places up and down the Arizona-Mexico line. At the 118,000-acre Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge near Sasabe, hundreds of illegals pour across the border every night, and Mexican cattle follow. At any given time, up to 100 trespassing cows graze on refuge property.

Arizona's border with Mexico, more than 350 miles long, includes six national parks, three wildlife refuges, three national monuments, two national conservation areas and a national forest. Government scientists have documented the most serious damage at Cabeza Prieta and Organ Pipe.

At Organ Pipe, on Cabeza Prieta's eastern border, the National Park Service estimates that visitors hiking the park's trails may encounter 200 pounds of trash per mile each year. Wildlife biologists say trash and human waste spread disease among animals.

At Organ Pipe, Native American relics and pioneer ranch buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The corral from Dos Lomitas Ranch, a 19th century site listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is being taken apart board by board and the wood used for campfires.

Thirsty border-crossers are also draining many scarce natural water sources and have damaged or destroyed water tanks placed by biologists for bighorn sheep and pronghorn. Dripping Springs, a centuries-old desert oasis for pioneers and prospectors, now regularly tests positive for high levels of E. coli bacteria.

In some cases, federal land managers must weigh damage from border protection projects against the future destruction they forestall. At Organ Pipe, installation of an $18-million vehicle barrier scraped away a 30-mile swath of the park's southern border, but has successfully reduced illegal vehicle traffic by 95%.

'The reason Organ Pipe was created was to preserve the Sonoran Desert,' An Interior superintendent said, 'If we lose Organ Pipe and it becomes a moonscape as a result of these impacts, we lose our heritage.'