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Mexican Invasion Title: Border battle is taking toll on desert's wildlife CABEZA PRIETA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Ariz. — Mountains of trash, recurring fires, despoiled natural springs, vandalized historic sites and disappearing wildlife are part of the devastating toll that the government's running battle with smugglers and migrants is taking on national parks and wildlife refuges along the U.S. border with Mexico. In southern Arizona, the damage extends to American Indian and private land, jeopardizing a broad expanse of the Sonoran Desert. At Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, 2 ½ million pounds of garbage is scattered through broad valleys and desert arroyos every year, according to Roger DiRosa, the refuge manager. Officials with the U.S. Border Patrol say the refuge's seven mountain ranges — home to bighorn sheep and a prized destination for wilderness hikers — now serve as posts for lookouts who use night-vision equipment to track Border Patrol movements. Mountain peaks conceal clandestine radio repeating stations. Illegal "ghost roads" carved by smugglers and pursuing federal agents crisscross Cabeza Prieta and nearby Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Officials at the U.S. Department of the Interior say they are considering giving the Border Patrol control of the hard-hit areas of the refuge and park nearest the border. "We've talked about what kind of swath they would need, how much we would let them control, recognizing that you would be sacrificing a small area for the greater good," said Larry Parkinson, Interior's deputy assistant secretary for law enforcement and security. On a recent tour of the damage, DiRosa, who manages Cabeza Prieta for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, steered his truck toward the Growler Mountains, making slow headway through what used to be fertile desert topsoil. A constant stream of vehicles has pulverized the sand into a fine powder that DiRosa and other federal land managers call "moon dust." There is only one official road in Cabeza Prieta's 860,000 acres, and this wasn't it. 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 Border Patrol. The constant human pressure is threatening to eliminate the area's wildlife. The refuge's population of the endangered Sonoran pronghorn, a deerlike 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. Cabeza Prieta has 400 plant species and 300 types of wildlife, including ringtail cats, kit foxes, bighorn sheep, javelina, badgers, bobcats, mule deer, desert tortoises, 24 snake species, 11 bat species and 212 bird species. advertising It's only a matter of time, officials say, before these animals' home is rendered uninhabitable. Federal officials describe the effects of massive trespass as "staggering" and warn of dire repercussions. East of Organ Pipe, residents of the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation recently removed more than 7,000 abandoned vehicles. Wendy Glenn, whose family runs a cattle ranch near Douglas, described the harm done to livestock and wildlife. "There are at least two semi [tractor-truck] 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. "There's constant harassment of wildlife," Glenn said. "Deer don't feed during the night, because there's too many people running around. They need to go into the thickets to shade up during the day, but they go in now and there's people there, along with trash and fecal matter." 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. Wildlife biologists say trash and human waste spread disease among animals. Soil compaction across hundreds of miles of roads and trails has killed cactuses' shallow root systems, causing towering saguaro and organ-pipe cactuses to topple, taking with them animal food sources and bird nests. At Organ Pipe, American Indian relics and pioneer ranch buildings have been damaged or destroyed, Billings said. 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 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. Last year, 3,500 acres burned in Cabeza Prieta, said Mike Coffeen, a Fish and Wildlife biologist at the refuge. The previous annual high was 50 acres. According to refuge staff, the increase is caused by "come-get-me fires" set by undocumented migrants who become lost in the desert. Preventing damage is complicated by the Border Patrol's virtual immunity from laws designed to protect the border environment. Border Patrol agents pursue illegal immigrants in high-speed chases across fragile desert lands. Driving in the area normally would be prohibited by the Wilderness Act. The agency has established camps in wilderness areas, obliterating plants to make way for helicopter pads, trailers, fencing, generators and high-intensity lights. Since much desert wildlife is nocturnal, the noise and lights have driven animals out of their natural habitat. "What would this be like if the Border Patrol was not here?" DiRosa mused, walking around a bullet-ridden white station wagon stuck in the sand at Cabeza Prieta. "I'd shut the door, because the refuge would be so damaged and compromised. But the Border Patrol is a Catch-22: They protect the refuge but damage the wilderness." The Border Patrol says it now requires environmental sensitivity training and mandates that agents who drive through wilderness areas report incidents to refuge or park managers. "We've come a long ways," said Ron Colburn, the Border Patrol's chief patrol agent for the agency's Yuma sector. "It has been an evolution in the cultures of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and Border Patrol personnel. We were both operating in the same area but had recognizably different missions. We didn't see our missions joining." Now they do, Colburn said, citing a pending national agreement between the Border Patrol and several federal land- and wildlife-management agencies that seeks to reduce conflict and spell out how to operate in sensitive habitat.
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