At the end of 1987 and the beginning of 1988, Tom and I went on a short camping trip to Big Bend National Park. I fully appreciated the beauty of the place even as I worried about encountering spiny cacti if I had to plunge out of the tent at night to vomit, for I was in the first months of my first pregnancy. Fortunately, I made it through the trip without having to make such a hasty exit.
I've been thinking of that trip recently in light of what the Trump administration is doing to our protected natural places. President Trump, obsessed with immigrants, especially with those crossing our southern border, whether legally or illegally, put in motion during his first administration the building of a wall through once sancrosanct and protected natural areas. That construction continues in this, his second administration. Environmental issues are disregarded, natural pathways of wildlife disrupted, native flora destroyed.
Big Bend National Park is now a target. While construction seems to have been halted for a bit in response to public outcry, we can't be assured that the pause will be permanent. The Trump administration has demonstrated that it is willing to defy legal constraints on its actions.
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| Our camp in the foothills of Nugent Mountain, Big Bend |
Our natural treasures are under attack.
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| Our camp at Paint Gap, Big Bend |
Clearing has already begun in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Pima County, Arizona. According to the Center for Biological Research, the clearing is in preparation for building a second wall to run parallel to the already-existing 30-foot wall. Endangered species at a nearby spring are threatened as well as native fauna found nowhere else in the country. The government has closed roads to vehicle and pedestrian traffic, an action that defies public transparency. Staff for the Center for Biological Diversity had to hike for miles to investigate and document the damage done to an area that is part of the historical homeland of the Hia C-ed O'odham and the Tohono O'odham.
In April, wall construction workers plowed a 50-foot-wide swathe through an ancient fish-shaped geoglyph in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
Those who take care of our public lands have also been affected by the Trump administration's bad governance. The National Park Service has lost about a quarter of its permanent workforce. Money that would be going to pay Park Service employees, to maintain visitor centers, trails, and camping sites, to protect native flora and fauna is being rerouted to the President's vanity projects, such as the botched $16 million "repair" to the Reflecting Pool, the White House ballroom, the changes to the White House grounds and the National Mall. The money funneled to such projects has ballooned from $7.5 million in 2024 to $423 million in 2026.
Public outcry to these actions should be more widespread. The bipartisan response to construction in Big Bend is a model, for environmentalists, local land owners, local sheriffs and judges have all voiced their objections. Their arguments against the wall construction are supported by the fact that the rugged terrain of Big Bend already acts as a fairly effective barrier to migrant incursion, with only about 1% of border crossings. But our national interests go beyond illegal immigration and should include maintaining for future generations the biodiversity of public lands, their archeological artifacts, their cultural significance to settlers--ancient and more recent- who also were once immigrants to this continent.
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| View from summit of Lost Mine Trail |
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| View from Lost Mine Trail |
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| Sotol Vista Overlook |
Memories are made in places such as this.
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