Tuesday, October 08, 2019

Who’s ready for the border wall cactus wars?

...Reading a bit further into the coverage, combined with a little research into the distribution of various cactus species, we learn that the Saguaro Cactus is found across the southern part of both Arizona and Californa, as well as being prevalent across northern portions of Mexico. The organ pipe cactus is indeed quite rare… in the United States. This national monument is at the northernmost tip of its natural range. But it’s also found all the way down the Baja peninsula as well as along the western side of Mexico stretching approximately halfway down that country’s length. The number of these cactuses (cacti?) that are sitting precisely on the thin strip of borderland where the wall is going up is pretty small. The people involved in documenting this work also admit that some of the plants that can be safely dug up are being relocated, but a few will probably be lost to the bulldozer. Their other complaint is that the border wall will stop migratory animals from crossing the border. I looked up some of the studies (like this one) analyzing the impact of the wall on wildlife and there may be something to that. But mostly they talk about populations of wildlife that exist on both sides of the border and could be “cut off” from the others. No specific land animals that actually “migrate” back and forth seasonally were listed...MORE

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