Late December 2018 finds us enjoying strong snowfall in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. The Jet Stream that abandoned us last winter is now swooping up and over us bringing much needed snow and beauty. Unfortunately our best public lands are closed right now. Much of the federal government is shut down because of disagreements about federal spending between the Congress and Donald Trump. This means that the Valles Caldera and Bandelier National Monument (and all the other National Park and National Forest sites) around New Mexico and southern Colorado are closed because of the government shutdown.
Pajarito Mountain has about 25 inches of snow as of Thursday. The bottoms of the Valles in the Caldera likely have less snow but plenty to ski and snowshoe upon. Even so, we can’t go there, or to the Caldera rim because of the shut down.
Nationally a few national parks are staying open with temporary partial funding from state governments. Arizona is paying to keep basic visitor services at Grand Canyon south rim and Utah is paying for the same in some of its iconic national parks. These states understand how critical national parks are to local economies.
The House and Senate had agreed to a short term funding compromise before Christmas that did not include $5,000,000,000 for Donald Trump’s proposed “border wall” but Mr. Trump refused to sign any spending bill without the billions for his wall. (Some economists estimate wall construction would actually run closer to $25 billion, and even this estimate is probably low.) Last Thursday (12/27) Congress was unable to break the impasse in intense negotiations with Trump giving no ground.
Many in Congress oppose the wall idea because they say there are better, more cost effective ways to secure the border. In a few days the House will be controlled by democrats, limiting Donald Trumps prospects of getting his money for a wall. (Senator Chuck Schumer called the wall a “campaign stunt” while Senator Bob Corker called Trump’s insistence on wall funding “juvenile.”) Of course others support the Trump wall.
The Wall
New Yorker Trump probably has not visited southern New Mexico, west Texas, southern Arizona or southern California to see the vast stretches of land that would be crossed by his 30 foot tall wall. The US/Mexico border is 2000 miles long and crosses rugged remote desert for most of that distance. The Rio Grande forms the border east of El Paso, Texas and some of that border is included in Big Bend National Park (National Park Service) and three national wildlife refuges, the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Laguna Atascosa, and the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the Department of Interior.
The Santa Ana NWR was exempted by Congress from having the wall built through it (but it could be built nearby) because of the massive damage construction and a hard barrier would have on this critical migratory bird habitat. But the other two refuges could have the barrier built, damaging their value to wildlife during the massive construction project. After construction was complete the lighting and patrols in what is now wild wetland habitat could drive wildlife away. These refuges are some of the last wild habitat in that region beset by urbanization and agriculture.
The wall could affect national parks on the border. Big Bend National Park in south Texas is the only large national park in Texas (1,125 square miles) including 118 miles of US/Mexico border. Much of that is the Rio Grande itself in a deep canyon. The park has 1500 species of plants and animals, some of which migrate between the wilderness of northern Mexico and the park. The steep, waterless topography prevents smugglers or “illegal” migrants from crossing into the area. Even so, Trump plans a 30 foot wall in Big Bend and the fact that the land is federal would make construction much easier than it would be over the majority of the Texas border which is mostly private and where the federal government would need to condemn private land under eminent domain.
“Logistically, it just doesn’t make any sense,” Marcos Paredes, a retired park river ranger who spent 25 years patrolling the Rio Grande at Big Bend told USA Today. “The only people who believe that a wall down here is a good idea are people who have never seen this country.”
The wall would also affect Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (NPS) in Arizona where a crude metal wall already blocks wildlife, arroyos and views along some of the park’s boundary with Mexico.
Overall, the Trump administration proposes to waive environmental laws and condemn private lands to build the wall. The National Park Service would have little if any say over construction in national parks.
The Center for Biological Diversity estimates that 93 endangered species would be damaged by the wall and over 2 million acres of critical habitat affected. “Building a wall across the entirety of the border would cause massive damage to one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America,” said Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity.
It is unclear what will happen with Trump’s insistence on partial wall funding in the current spending bills in Washington. Democrats in the House will have hearings and may have the power to block funding even if the current republican wall opponents in the Senate give up and appropriate the money. Many worry the shut down could go on for weeks as Trump’s base eggs him on. A Reuters poll today shows that 47% of Americans blame Trump for the shutdown while 33% blame congressional Democrats.
The last government shut down cost the National Park Service $414 million in lost revenue. The NPS employs roughly 16,000 permanent and 3,000 seasonal employees.
In any case, the Valles Caldera, Mesa Verde and Bandelier could be closed for some time if Mr. Trump doesn’t back down. Staff at these parks (and other national parks) are furloughed, meaning either not working or are working for free. In the last government shut down Congress voted to back-pay furloughed workers for the time they worked though the shut down. Whether that will happen this time is anybody’s guess.
The parks do have law enforcement rangers on duty.
