Au Portugal, le suivi du #lynx_ibérique atteint un record historique
▻https://www.portugal.fr/Au-Portugal-le-suivi-du-lynx-iberique-atteint-un-record-historique.html
#Portugal #lynx #Alentejo #Guadiana #vallée_du_Guadiana #Serpa #Mértola
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Les #voitures fauchent les derniers lynx de France
Quelque 200 lynx subsistent en France, une fragile présence menacée par les véhicules qui les fauchent sur la route. Un centre jurassien tente de les sauver : « La grande coupable, c’est la vitesse des voitures. »
Deux grands yeux couleur ambre se braquent sur nous, et nous fixent avec intensité. Ils appartiennent à Virie, une femelle lynx de 12 ans, recueillie au Centre Athénas, dans le #Jura. De la taille d’un berger allemand, son corps est svelte, recouvert d’un pelage fauve, parsemé de taches brunes. Son ouïe est si fine qu’elle lui permet de suivre les mouvements de la caméra de surveillance, placée dans son enclos. Pour elle, ce bruit est le signe qu’il est bientôt l’heure de passer à table. Une fois servie, elle repart avec sa ration, les oreilles dressées de contentement et la tête agitée d’étranges soubresauts.
Il y a quelques années, Virie a eu un grave accident : une collision avec une voiture. Elle en a gardé de sévères séquelles neurologiques, dont ces hochements de têtes particuliers : « Parfois, elle bugge complètement. Elle s’immobilise d’un coup sans aucune raison. C’est pour ça qu’on a décidé de la garder ici », précise Gilles Moyne, le directeur du Centre Athénas. Dans cet hôpital pour animaux sauvages situé au cœur du Jura, une équipe de cinq salariés soigne les animaux blessés, malades ou en détresse trouvés dans la nature. Près de 6 000 animaux sont recueillis chaque année, dont une dizaine de lynx, souvent victimes de collisions ou de braconnage.
« Les collisions avec les voitures sont la première cause de mortalité identifiée chez le lynx en France », déplore Gilles Moyne, spécialiste de ce félin sauvage. Il a fait le compte : depuis 2021, 104 lynx ont été percutés par des voitures, 23 d’entre eux ont été pris en charge vivants par le centre, et seulement 4 ont survécu… Rien qu’en 2025, le centre a recensé 22 lynx percutés, et n’a réussi à en sauver qu’un seul. Un désastre pour cette espèce strictement protégée, qui ne compte que 200 individus dans l’Hexagone, dont 150 dans le massif jurassien.
« La grande coupable,
c’est la #vitesse des voitures »« Sur les cinq dernières années, on a eu 11 collisions sur autoroute, 14 sur route nationale et 79 sur le réseau départemental », comptabilise le directeur du Centre Athénas. Sur une carte numérique, il pointe du doigt les endroits où s’amassent les points rouges, marqueurs des collisions de lynx. La plupart s’agglutinent effectivement sur les routes départementales du Jura. « La grande coupable, c’est la vitesse, certifie Gilles Moyne. Ce sont de petites routes sur lesquelles les gens roulent très vite, parfois 15 km/h au-dessus de la moyenne. »
Seuls 4 % des lynx percutés survivent
Ce félin, identifiable par ses oreilles surmontées de touffes de poil et sa queue courte, a disparu de nos montagnes au XXe siècle, à cause de la chasse et de la destruction de son habitat forestier. Réintroduit en Suisse dans les années 1970, il a passé la frontière et a progressivement recolonisé le Jura, puis l’ensemble de la Franche-Comté. Mais aujourd’hui, Gilles Moyne n’est pas très optimiste, il se soucie de l’impact des collisions routières sur la conservation de l’espèce : « On peut estimer le nombre de naissances de chatons [le nom d’un bébé lynx] à environ 150 par an, dont seulement 1/4 atteindra l’âge adulte (soit 35/40) ce qui compense à peine la surmortalité liée à la circulation routière et au braconnage, et explique la quasi-stagnation démographique de l’espèce. »
C’est pourquoi, dès que le téléphone sonne au Centre Athénas, ce qui arrive environ tous les quarts d’heure, on s’empresse de répondre : « Ça peut être un particulier qui nous appelle catastrophé, pour nous dire qu’il a tapé un lynx », explique Lorane Mouzon, soigneuse animalière et cheffe d’équipe au centre. Dans ce cas-là, une équipe se dépêche d’intervenir avec du matériel de contention et des sédatifs afin de capturer l’animal blessé et de le ramener au centre. Mais « capturer n’est pas sauver », souligne Gilles Moyne, qui rappelle que moins de 4 % des lynx percutés survivent.
« Chaque individu compte »
L’établissement recueille aussi les jeunes lynx orphelins, victimes collatérales des collisions routières. C’est ce qui est arrivé à Athos et Ravi, deux jeunes chatons orphelins issus de fratries différentes, dont les mères respectives sont mortes écrasées. Ils sont arrivés au centre il y a plusieurs mois, malades et très affaiblis. Sans leur mère, ces jeunes ne peuvent pas se nourrir seuls, et perdent 30 à 50 % de leur poids. Ils attrapent aussi plus facilement les maladies des chats domestiques, comme le typhus, qui peut les tuer s’ils ne sont pas rapidement soignés. « Dans ces cas-là, on obtient 50 % de survie », précise Gille Moyne.
Pour Ravi et Athos, « on est plutôt confiants », commente Lorane Mouzon, en les observant sur l’écran de surveillance. Cette technologie haute définition permet de savoir si tout va bien, en limitant le contact avec les animaux. « Ce sont des animaux sauvages, et si on veut les relâcher dans la nature, le but est qu’ils le restent au maximum pendant leur séjour ici », glisse Gilles Moyne.
Tapis dans un coin, les jeunes chatons semblent être restés plutôt farouches. Après un passage dans un pédiluve désinfectant, Lorane Mouzon entre dans leur box de quarantaine et leur dépose un nouveau repas de viande congelée. Ses gestes sont rapides et précis : il faut rester le moins longtemps possible dans l’enclos, pour qu’ils ne s’habituent pas à la présence humaine. Une fois revenue à l’infirmerie, la soigneuse gribouille quelques notes sur une fiche de suivi des soins. Elle est optimiste, les jeunes reprennent du poil de la bête : « Chaque individu compte pour la sauvegarde de l’espèce. C’est pour cela qu’on fait notre maximum pour les sauver, et les relâcher en bonne santé. »
Collisions nocturnes
Par sa position géographique, le Jura est aussi une zone particulièrement fréquentée par les travailleurs transfrontaliers allant travailler en Suisse. Ils utilisent le plus souvent des axes « qui interrompent les continuités forestières, comme des couteaux qui coupent les forêts », compare Gilles Moyne. Résultat, les collisions sont fréquentes à l’intérieur du massif, surtout de septembre à janvier quand les mères arpentent leur territoire avec leurs petits pour leur apprendre à chasser et leur trouver à manger.
« Grâce à un collier GPS, nous avons pu constater qu’une femelle fait plus de 300 traversées de routes en quatre mois. » Le spécialiste des lynx ajuste une drôle d’antenne fixée sur le toit de sa voiture, pour recevoir les signaux GPS. « Ça, c’est Fréquence lynx, la seule radio qu’on écoute ici ! » plaisante-t-il.
L’hiver, l’augmentation du trafic de nuit, à cause du changement d’heure, peut aussi expliquer les accidents. « Le lynx a une activité essentiellement crépusculaire. Or, avec le changement horaire, la majorité des personnes qui rentrent du travail roulent de nuit, ce qui augmente le risque de collision », explique Gille Moyne.
L’autre période de l’année critique est le début du printemps, en février-mars, quand les mâles sont en rut et qu’ils traversent de longues distances et de nombreuses routes pour aller courtiser différentes femelles, multipliant les risques de collision.
Plus de 80 panneaux « Attention Lynx »Comment éviter cette hécatombe ? D’abord, « installer une signalisation routière », répond le directeur du centre, à qui l’on doit l’existence du panneau « Attention lynx » en France. Dans sa Renault Kangoo floquée du logo du centre — une tête de lynx —, Gilles Moyne nous emmène dans le village de Plainoiseau, où l’un des panneaux a été installé en sortie de commune.
C’est un panneau triangulaire, similaire à ceux signalant la présence d’animaux sauvages, avec au centre un lynx adulte suivi d’un jeune. « On s’est dit que si les gens voyaient ce panneau en sortie de village, ils seraient peut-être un petit peu plus vigilants, et que ça pourrait faire changer les comportements », espère-t-il.
Ainsi, plus de 80 panneaux ont été installés depuis 2022, essentiellement en Franche-Comté, en Haute-Savoie et autour du lac Léman. Est-ce efficace ? Pour l’instant, « nous manquons encore de recul pour le savoir », selon Gilles Moyne. En revanche, le spécialiste affirme que cela contribue à faire connaître le lynx, et à sensibiliser à sa conservation.
Sur les grands axes autoroutiers, les collisions sont moins fréquentes car les clôtures et les passages à faune aident à réduire le risque de collision. Mais ces aménagements ne sont pas toujours efficaces pour le lynx : « Le lynx peut facilement sauter une clôture de 2 mètres, et traverse où ça lui chante, pas forcément sur les passages à faune. »
Autre problème : le maillage du grillage des clôtures bordant l’autoroute. S’il est trop large, les chatons peuvent aisément passer et se faire écraser. « On a eu trois collisions un jour à cause de cela. Les petits sont passés et la mère les a suivis. Ils se sont tous fait tuer », soupire Gilles Moyne. Vu les nombreux trous dans la raquette, le Centre Athénas a noué un partenariat avec Autoroute Paris-Rhin-Rhône (APRR), la société qui gère le réseau autoroutier entre Paris et Lyon : en cas de collision, le centre est sollicité pour établir un « diagnostic de collision » et proposer une solution plus adaptée.
Les routes, facteur d’appauvrissement génétique
En plus de tuer les individus, les routes ont un autre effet sur le lynx : l’isolement de la population. Contrairement à ce qu’on pourrait penser, ce n’est pas un animal de haute montagne, il a surtout besoin de couvert forestier. Selon Gilles Moyne, il pourrait très bien coloniser le reste de la France, en suivant les continuités forestières où il trouve ses proies (essentiellement du chevreuil et des petits mammifères).
Las, son aire de répartition actuelle est encerclée de grands axes autoroutiers, si bien que « toutes les tentatives de passage vers d’autres territoires sont sanctionnées par des collisions », constate le directeur du centre. Le lynx se retrouve donc isolé dans le Jura, comme dans un parc animalier où les clôtures seraient remplacées par des autoroutes.
L’une des conséquences est l’appauvrissement génétique de la population : le lynx se reproduit avec les mêmes spécimens, et le brassage génétique est très limité. D’autant que l’espèce de lynx aujourd’hui présente dans le Jura (Lynx lynx carpathicus) provient d’une population balkanique qui présentait déjà une faible diversité génétique. Résultat : les jeunes naissent avec des malformations cardiaques, une incapacité à se reproduire ou une espérance de vie limitée.
« Sans mesures vraiment efficaces de restauration des continuités forestières, de lutte contre la surmortalité, et sans enrichissement génétique [1], la survie de l’espèce en France n’est pas assurée », s’inquiète Gille Moyne.
« C’est aussi une question de moyens, réagit Yann Laurans, expert conservation chez WWF France. Les équipements de sécurité routière pour la faune sauvage coûtent cher. » Selon le centre d’études Cerema, un écopont de 12 à 20 m coûte environ 1,5 million d’euros. Dans les faits, chaque passage à faune de ce type au-dessus d’une autoroute se chiffre aux alentours de 3 à 4 millions d’euros. Un prix important, mais à relativiser au regard du coût total de l’infrastructure dont il contribue à réduire l’impact (8 à 11 millions d’euros par km pour une autoroute, selon le Cerema). Ainsi, pour Yann Laurans, « il suffirait de consentir à un peu plus d’effort budgétaire pour faire une différence pour le lynx ».
▻https://reporterre.net/Fauches-par-les-voitures-les-lynx-pourraient-disparaitre-en-France
#lynx #France-
Actions de Conservation #Lynx_boréal
Depuis sa création, le Centre Athénas s’est attaché à œuvrer pour la conservation de cette espèce en se spécialisant sur la prise en charge et la réhabilitation d’individus en difficulté, qu’il s’agisse d’adultes accidentés sur la route ou victimes de braconnage ou encore de jeunes orphelins. A ce jour, 114 individus ont été pris en charge, 34 ont pu être relâchés, survivre et se reproduire, et ainsi contribuer à enrayer le déclin de la population. Dont 4 individus qui ont été relâchés en 2025.
▻https://www.athenas.fr/actions-de-conservation-lynx-boreal
#centre_athenas #Athenas
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Le Dernier Territoire du Lynx
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKWbrbPbg5ALe lynx est dans une situation critique en #France. Si rien ne change, il pourrait disparaître d’ici 100 ans. On est allé sur le terrain pour rencontrer ceux qui se battent pour le sauver, mais aussi ceux qui ont la chance de croiser son chemin, essayer de comprendre pourquoi il est en danger et comment agir pour éviter sa disparition.
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Abandoned lynx, roaming wild boar, ‘beaver bombing’ – has rewilding got out of hand?
From unauthorised species releases to small groups buying up land, ‘#guerrilla_rewilding’ is going mainstream. But experts worry that these rogue efforts could do more harm than good
Visions of habitats teeming with nature are powerful, particularly so in an age of extinction. Rewilding, which offers the promise of such transformations, was once something most would have imagined happening far away, carried out by people unlike them, but times are changing. The wilderness is getting closer to home and more personal.
In the past few months, there have been two suspected lynx releases and one of feral pigs in a small area of the Cairngorms, along with reports of a rise in “beaver bombing” on England’s rivers, and wild boar roaming Dartmoor.
These acts may have Robin Hood appeal, but the rearing and release of large mammals goes some way beyond the well-established phenomenon of “#guerrilla_gardening”, where people sow native plants on land without express permission, or even the letting loose of rare butterflies in nature reserves (also a trending phenomenon).
On the latter point, butterfly specialist Matthew Oates notes that ad hoc butterfly releases have been going on for more than two centuries, with Winston Churchill a notable practitioner.
The latest wave of rogue activity, Oates says, is “fuelled by butterfly enthusiasts seeing a plethora of seemingly suitable but unoccupied habitat, which isn’t going to get colonised naturally, and a degree of disillusionment with nature conservation bodies”.
As with mammals, trying to establish what has been unofficially introduced, as opposed to arisen from natural colonisation, involves “a lot of mythology and assumption,” he says. But there are many “highly reputable” breeders of butterflies with long-established reputations – something that rings less true when it comes to large animals.
“I think some people who have taken matters into their own hands potentially have a quite romantic view of what it’s like to be a wild animal out there. It’s not just about opening the crate and letting them go,” says Roisin Campbell-Palmer, head of restoration for the Beaver Trust.
“We should always put the animals first. We can celebrate the enthusiasm and the attitude of some people to shove two fingers to the system, but if those animals aren’t accepted and if they face prolonged or ongoing persecution, then I struggle ethically when asking: ‘Is this right, have we all done a good job here, and can we truly call this species restoration?’”
She acknowledges that without rogue releases, beavers would not be back in Britain on a more formal basis – but fears that some bridges have been permanently burned because of the experiment. “Fingers can always be pointed. In retrospect, it’s very hard to encourage people to then accept the animals and coexist with them when they feel it wasn’t their choice and they weren’t involved.”
A group of scientists working to restore predator communities have come out strongly against the Scottish lynx releases. It’s a view Campbell-Palmer shares. “What was the long-term outlook likely to be for those animals? They weren’t behaviourally ready for the wild. And to me, that’s just thrown up a big potential case of straight-out cruelty,” she says.
“I hope that’s been a bit of a wake-up call for people who think you can just put large mammals back and it’ll all be fine. I’m very empathetic with people who get frustrated with the speed of change, but this rationale of ‘just get them out there and they’ll be accepted in the end’, I do struggle with that.”
While charismatic species wandering free grab many of the headlines, a less bombastic phenomenon is growing: community groups are buying smaller patches of the landscape to interpret rewilding as they see fit.
The Covid-19 pandemic prompted many to dream of wide-open spaces and nature in bloom, but one group in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, decided to get on with making it happen.
The collective, from a variety of professional backgrounds, began by getting 3,000 shareholders to buy a £50 stake through a crowdfunding platform to acquire the 12-hectare (30-acre) #Long_Lands_Common on the outskirts of the town. They have recently completed another fundraising drive to add another 24 hectares of land, known as #Knaresborough_Forest_Park, which has been out of public hands since 1770.
“Everyone’s come together around this singular ambition, to protect, to restore, and to just provide more space for nature in the community. We’ve found there are very few people who don’t seem to agree with that,” says George Eglese, a designer and the youngest member of the team behind the project.
“I think before #Long_Lands existed, there wasn’t really anyone in the area who was doing this kind of work, and there was a lot of apathy in the town: people wanted change, but felt they couldn’t effect it. Long Lands created a platform, and there’s a sense that ‘we’ve got all this resource now – let’s do as much as we can to ensure the safety of our natural environment’.”
As well as offering nature right next to accessible transport, and forging links with schools and charities, the project is also hoping to supply local food banks with fresh produce through a community food field, and offer a sustainable source of wood via the reintroduction of coppicing. They even hope that, in time, the site may attract some of those charismatic big beasts.
“What we’re talking about is reversing nature depletion, and that means increasing biodiversity, whether it’s for fauna, fungi, the small and medium-sized things,” says Ian Fraser, the project’s woodland officer. “Do those things, the ecosystems are stronger, then the larger animals will come back on their own.”
Despite doing things by the book, groups working to bring more #wildness into communities are not against a touch of righteous anger and rebellion. There’s a trend for struggles against threats to habitats turning into reimaginations of them: the story of Long Lands Common began as a protest against a relief road that would have run through the Nidd Gorge. In Liverpool, a smaller patch of habitat began with a community halting a proposed deal between the council and Redrow Homes to build on a park.
More than simply saving Calderstones Park, the Liverpool campaign group went on to develop 1.5 hectares of semi-derelict land into a nature reserve, using some novel techniques that have won the admiration of urban planting experts. They have sown a wildflower meadow over concrete using a soil made from Mersey grit and crushed stone, introduced rescued hedgehogs, seen a big uptick in bats and are working on specialist butterfly habitat.
“The council talked about rewilding and making it butterfly-friendly, but all that meant is they didn’t cut the grass,” says Caroline Williams from the group. “Without greater effort, a lot of it became just a sheer mess, with Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed [invasive plant species] coming in. There was definitely a feeling that if we don’t do it, nobody else will.”
High-profile support has emerged for an even more personal form of rewilding. Financier and environmentalist Ben Goldsmith recently urged anyone with savings to buy land for rewilding, describing it as “the most rewarding, joyful and most impactful thing you can possibly do”.
For those not willing to go solo and put their savings on the line, the UK has now got – at least in theory – structures in place to financially support rewilding at all manner of scales. Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) legislation means that when new developments cannot feasibly create adequate habitat onsite to compensate for what they have damaged or depleted, plus 10% more, biodiversity projects, including relatively small community-managed patches of the landscape, can offer an offsite investment solution.
Infrastructure is being added to BNG soon, which is likely to work especially well for projects such as the London Tree Ring, which aims to provide connective tree cover surrounding the capital, while also linking up smaller-scale community projects. Christoph Warrack, chief executive of the nature recovery consultancy Common, has been visiting potential sites.
“This is reforestation on the edge of lots of the biggest construction and infrastructure projects in the country. It’s a really easy fit, because you can essentially connect each part to an individual development project and create the Biodiversity Net Gain credits,” says Warrack.
“But we want those credits to happen anywhere. It’s important for quite complex mechanisms like that to be simplified and made available to communities, so that they’ve got a more powerful economic rationale for taking the plunge and acquiring their land.”
As well as these moves to boost biodiversity on a national scale, and a boom in crowdfunding for nature, there is also philanthropic funding out there willing to support local action. Knaresborough Forest Park received a loan on generous terms from the organisation We Have the Power, while Common is being backed by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to build new financial models for communities to move faster in snapping up land on the market.
British people’s love for wildlife, in a notably biodiversity-depleted country, is renowned. As such, rewilding was never going to remain purely the domain of large estates beyond the horizon. The fact that flagship projects have inspired efforts to bring the idea closer to home is a testament to their success, and it’s fair to say that was always at least partly the point.
While most people wanting to make a personal impact are likely to find the comfort and increased financial clout of groups – and the safety of working within existing systems – the most desirable option, for some, permits and certificates, rules and regulations will always be the antithesis of nature. Officialdom will probably win the day, but the rebels could have some influence on how fast things are done.
“Biodiversity is a whole huge multiplicity of dimensions, and then you add people, and the relationships between people and biodiversity. Welcome to planet Earth; this is life and all its glorious complexity,” says Warrack.
“At the heart of that are some simple principles about place and people that have been clearly mapped out. What all these projects and ideas have in common is nature and nature recovery. And that is in everybody’s interest.”
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/12/abandoned-lynx-roaming-wild-boar-beaver-bombing-has-rewilding-got-out-o
#rewilding #réensauvagement #castors #lynx #sauvage #faune_sauvage #privatisation #biodiversité #nature -
#Lynx
Au cœur des #montagnes jurassiennes, alors que les brumes hivernales se dissipent, un appel étrange résonne à travers la forêt. La superbe silhouette d’un #lynx_boréal se faufile parmi les hêtres et les sapins. Il appelle sa femelle. Un couple éphémère se forme.
C’est le début de l’histoire d’une famille de lynx. Leur vie s’écoule au rythme des saisons avec la naissance des petits, l’apprentissage des techniques de chasse, la conquête d’un territoire, mais aussi les dangers qui les guettent.
En suivant le mâle, la femelle et ses chatons, nous découvrons un univers qui nous est proche et pourtant méconnu... Une histoire authentique où chamois, faucons pélerins, renards et hermines sont les témoins de la vie secrète du plus grand félin d’Europe. Prédateur indispensable à l’équilibre de la forêt, sa présence demeure néanmoins fragile dans un milieu largement accaparé par les humains.
S’il est rarissime de croiser ce discret félin il est exceptionnel de découvrir son quotidien en milieu naturel.
#Livre :
▻https://boutique.salamandre.org/lynx-le-livre.pdt-1212
#film #Jura #montagne #documentaire #film_documentaire -
Europe saved its predators from the brink of extinction. So why is it killing thousands of bears, wolves and lynx? | Hunting | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/12/europe-saved-its-predators-from-brink-of-extinction-so-why-killing-thou
Europe saved its predators from the brink of #extinction. So why is it killing thousands of #bears, #wolves and #lynx?
Nelly Didelot
@nellydidelotA 2022 study founds #wolf_attacks were associated with #far-right gains in #German #municipal_elections of 1-2%
via #Nelly_didelot, twitter ▻https://x.com/nellydidelot
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Le lynx : le fantôme prétentieux des #forêts_boréales
Il était une fois, un félin solitaire qui se cachait de tous. Mais la fin de l’hiver sonna l’heure de l’amour ! Il était temps pour lui de trouver une femelle, de partir dans la nuit.
Habituellement, le lynx est un véritable fantôme. Il vit à l’abri des regards et ne sort qu’à la nuit tombée. Direction la taïga Sibérienne en pleine forêt boréale, au milieu des sapins.
Haut sur pattes, le lynx boréal porte au sommet de ses oreilles pointues des touffes de poils noirs qu’on appelle « pinceaux ». Il ressemble à un gros chat sauvage. Mais en plus gros. Et sa queue, bien plus courte, se termine par un manchon noir.
Les pinceaux de ses oreilles sont sensibles aux vibrations comme des antennes. Grâce à eux, il capte les moindres mouvements. Il possède aussi un excellent odorat et une très bonne ouïe. Quant à sa vue, on utilise souvent l’expression « avoir un œil de lynx » c’est dire si elle est bonne. Mais pas meilleure que celle de l’aigle.
Son pelage parsemé de taches noires semblables à ceux d’un treillis militaire lui sert de camouflage. Quelque soit la saison, il est difficile de le distinguer dans son milieu puisque son pelage est beige-gris en hiver et cannelle en été.
Chez les lynx, ce n’est pas aux mâles d’aller retrouver la femelle sur son territoire mais comme le dit l’adage : « si la montagne ne vient pas à toi, va à la montagne ». Celui des Bestioles a trouvé sa bien-aimée, alors, maintenant, il faut partir parce que la parade a commencé, et on va les laisser roucouler tranquillement.
▻https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/bestioles/le-lynx-le-fantome-pretentieux-des-forets-boreales-1219686
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Ce fil de discussion peut désormais être considéré une #métaliste sur le lien entre la construction de barrières frontalières et les impacts sur l’environnement/nature...
Balkan wildlife faces extinction threat from border fence to control migrants
Controversial razor-wire fence put up by Slovenia along its border with Croatia could wipe out local bear, lynx and wolf populations, say researchers
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/11/balkan-wildlife-faces-extinction-threat-from-border-fence-to-control-mi
#animaux #faune #barrières_frontalières #murs #wildlife #nature #migrations #réfugiés #asile #Balkans #Slovénie #ours #lynx #loups #animaux_sauvages #Croatie-
What would Trump’s wall mean for wildlife?
Free movement between the US and Mexico - the hottest of topics in the 2016 US presidential campaign - is not just a human issue. What would the construction of a wall mean for animals that live near the border?
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Border walls are bad for wildlife
In 1996, #Botswana erected an 83-mile fence along its border with Namibia. The goal was to protect domestic cattle from the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease. Within a year, though, the barrier had snared five giraffes, one elephant, several antelopes and numerous other wild animals.
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/11/01/border-walls-are-bad-for-wildlife
#Namibie -
Scientists say Trump’s border wall would devastate wildlife habitat
At the U.S.-Mexico border, scientists say existing fencing is hurting endangered wildlife and warn that a continuous wall could devastate many species.
▻https://www.texastribune.org/2017/03/03/environmental-impacts-border-wall
#USA #Etats-Unis -
Trump Border Wall Could Have Big Consequences For Animals, Habitat
“It’s just an arbitrary line that’s drawn across a very diverse region,” Millis said, standing next to Sedgwick on the gusty ridge. “It severs and destroys habitat for wildlife. We have animals that aren’t able to move across the border.”
▻http://kjzz.org/content/446276/trump-border-wall-could-have-big-consequences-animals-habitat
#ligne_arbitraire -
Embattled Borderlands
Will the border wall strike a fatal blow to one of the most imperiled wild regions in North America?
▻http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2017/embattled-borderlands/index.html
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The Disastrous Impacts of Trump’s Border Wall on #Wildlife
▻http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/international/borderlands_and_boundary_waters/pdfs/A_Wall_in_the_Wild.pdf
#rapport -
Trump’s Border Wall Could Impact an Astonishing 10,000 Species
The list, put together by a team led by Dr. Gerardo J. Ceballos González of National Autonomous University of Mexico, includes 42 species of amphibians, 160 reptiles, 452 bird species and 187 mammals. Well-known species in the region include the jaguar, Sonoran pronghorn, North American river otter and black bear.
▻http://therevelator.org/trump-border-wall-10000-species -
Rise of border fences hampers wildlife movements
The growth of border fences in Central and Eastern Europe in recent years is a “major threat” to wildlife, according to a new study.
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36598875 -
Border Security Fencing and Wildlife: The End of the Transboundary Paradigm in Eurasia?
The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe has seen many countries rush to construct border security fencing to divert or control the flow of people. This follows a trend of border fence construction across Eurasia during the post-9/11 era. This development has gone largely unnoticed by conservation biologists during an era in which, ironically, transboundary cooperation has emerged as a conservation paradigm. These fences represent a major threat to wildlife because they can cause mortality, obstruct access to seasonally important resources, and reduce effective population size. We summarise the extent of the issue and propose concrete mitigation measures.
http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/figure/image?size=large&id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002483.g001#.jpg 
http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/figure/image?size=large&id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002483.g002#.jpg ►http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002483
#faune #Europe #Europe_centrale #Europe_de_l'Est #cartographie #visualisation -
The Border Wall Is Underway . . . Right in the Middle of a Wildlife Refuge
Trump’s already offensive wall will also endanger an already endangered species.
▻https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/border-wall-underway-right-middle-wildlife-refuge
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Up Against the Wall
The U.S.-Mexico borderlands contain some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in either country. Trump’s wall would imperil all of it.
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Wildcats, butterflies, tortoises: all are endangered by Trump’s border wall
In the Rio Grande Valley, close to the border with Mexico, the president’s proposed barrier spells danger for the region’s plentiful wildlife
▻https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/12/butterflies-trump-wall-mexico-border-wildlife
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Rewriting biological history: Trump border wall puts wildlife at risk
Mexican conservationists are alarmed over Trump’s wall, with the loss of connectivity threatening already stressed bison, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, bears and other animals.
About one-third of the border, roughly 700 miles, already has fencing; President Trump has been pushing a controversial plan to fence the remainder.
A wall running the entire nearly 2,000-mile frontier from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, conservationists warn, would be catastrophic for borderland ecosystems and many wildlife species, undoing years of environmental cooperation between the two countries to protect animals that must move freely or die.
The wall is currently a key bargaining chip, and a sticking point, in ongoing immigration legislation negotiations taking place this week in Congress. Also expected this week: a federal court ruling on whether the administration can legally waive environmental laws to expedite border wall construction.
▻https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/rewriting-biological-history-trump-border-wall-puts-wildlife-at-risk
#bisons -
A Land Divided
The national debate about border security doesn’t often dwell on the natural environment, but hundreds of miles of public lands, including six national parks, sit along the U.S.-Mexico border. What will happen to these lands — and the wildlife and plants they protect — if a wall or additional fences and barriers are built along the frontier?
▻https://www.npca.org/articles/1770-a-land-divided
#parcs_nationaux -
R ULES C OMMITTEE P RINT 115–66 T EXT OF THE H OUSE A MENDMENT TO THE S ENATE A MENDMENT TO H.R. 1625
US spending bill requires “an analysis, following consultation with the Secretary of the Interior and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, of the environmental impacts, including on wildlife, of the construction and placement of physical barriers” (p 677)
▻http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180319/BILLS-115SAHR1625-RCP115-66.pdf
Extrait partagé par Reece Jones sur twitter
▻https://twitter.com/reecejhawaii/status/977304504700780544 -
Activists Vow Fight as Congress Funds Portions of Border Wall
Last week Congress voted to appropriate some monies to build new fortifications along the United States–Mexico border, but border activists in the Rio Grande Valley say the fight against President Donald Trump’s border wall is far from over.
The nearly $1.6 billion in border wall funding included in the omnibus spending bill that Trump signed Friday provides for the construction of some 33 miles of new walls, all in Texas’s ecologically important Rio Grande Valley. Those walls will tear through communities, farms and ranchland, historic sites, and thousands of acres of protected wildlife habitat, while creating flooding risks on both sides of the border. But far from admitting defeat, border activists have already begun mapping out next steps to pressure Congress to slow down or even halt the wall’s construction.
▻https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/activists-vow-fight-congress-funds-portions-border-wall
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Congress is quietly letting Trump bulldoze a butterfly refuge to build a border wall
A wildlife refuge was spared, but 33 miles of new wall that will cut through protected areas in #Texas have been funded.
▻https://www.vox.com/2018/3/28/17152644/trump-border-wall-texas-environment-refuge-butterflies
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State attorney general, environmental group to appeal decision on Trump’s border wall
A ruling by a San Diego federal judge allowing construction of President Donald Trump’s border wall to go ahead will be appealed by two entities that opposed it, including the state Attorney General.
Both the Center for Biological Diversity and Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed formal notices of appeal on Monday seeking to reverse a decision in February from U.S District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel. The judge ruled that the Trump administration did not abuse its discretion in waiving environmental laws in its rush to begin border wall projects along the southwest border.
The center had said after the ruling it would appeal, and Becerra also hinted the state would seek appellate court review at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The notices declare an intent to appeal. They do not outline arguments to be made on appeal or why each group believe that Curiel got it wrong.
In a prepared statement Becerra said, “When we said that a medieval wall along the U.S.-Mexico border does not belong in the 21st century, we meant it. There are environmental and public health laws in place, and we continue to believe that the Trump Administration is violating those laws. We will not stand idly by. We are committed to protecting our people, our values and our economy from federal overreach.”
The lawsuits challenged a law that allowed the federal government not to comply with environmental and other laws and regulations when building border security projects. They argued the law was outdated and Congress never intended for it to be an open-ended waiver for all border projects, and contended it violated constitutional provisions of separation of powers and states’ rights.
In his decision Curiel said both that the law was constitutional and it gave the Department of Homeland Security wide latitude over border security.
Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley said in response to the Curiel ruling that the administration was pleased DHS “can continue this important work vital to our nation’s interest.”
“Border security is paramount to stemming the flow of illegal immigration that contributes to rising violent crime and to the drug crisis, and undermines national security,” O’Malley said.
▻http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sd-me-border-appeal-20180409-story.html
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Les murs n’arrêtent pas que les humains
Des États-Unis à la Malaisie, en passant par Israël ou la Hongrie, les hommes construisent de multiples murs pour contraindre les déplacements de nos semblables. N’oublions pas, explique l’auteur de cette tribune, que nous ne sommes pas les seuls à habiter la Terre et donc à pâtir de ces barrières.
La #forêt_de_Bialowieza a quelque chose de mythique et de sacré. Âgée de plus de 8.000 ans, elle est la dernière forêt primaire d’Europe. S’étalant sur 150.000 hectares entre la Pologne et la Biélorussie, inaccessible aux visiteurs sans guide assermenté, elle constitue un sanctuaire d’espèces témoignant de la richesse des mondes anciens. Le bison d’Europe y vit encore de manière naturelle, côtoyant élans, cerfs, loups, lynx, etc.
En 1981, à l’époque du rideau de fer, l’URSS a décidé de clôturer la frontière entre la Pologne et la Biélorussie, coupant à travers cette forêt et séparant en deux la dernière population de bisons d’Europe (environ 500 individus de part et d’autre). Cette clôture est symboliquement forte, car elle témoigne de la coupure existentielle (« ontologique », diraient les philosophes) que les humains se sont imposée vis-à-vis des autres êtres vivants. Ces derniers semblent ne pas exister à nos yeux.
Mais cette séparation est plus que symbolique, elle est concrète. Les murs dressés par l’espèce humaine représentent une menace importante et sous-estimée pour de nombreux êtres vivants non humains.
Murs de béton, de pierre, de boue, de sable ou de brique, de barbelés, de grilles en acier ou de clôtures électrifiéesOn en trouve surtout aux frontières : entre les États-Unis et le Mexique, la Corée du Nord et du Sud, Israël et la Cisjordanie, la Malaisie et la Thaïlande, l’Inde et le Pakistan, l’Iran et l’Irak, la Chine et la Mongolie, le Botswana et le Zimbabwe, etc. Ils prennent la forme de murs de béton, de pierre, de boue, de sable ou de brique, de barbelés, de grilles en acier ou de clôtures électrifiées, et viennent accompagnés de routes, de casernes, de lumières et de bruits. Leur nombre a considérablement augmenté depuis les attentats du 11 septembre 2001. Par exemple en Eurasie (sans le Moyen-Orient), il existe aujourd’hui plus de 30.000 km de murs, grillages et barbelés aux frontières.
Ces murs affectent évidemment les populations humaines en brisant les trajectoires personnelles de millions de personnes. Ils affectent aussi les autres espèces [1]. À Białowieża, par exemple, la séparation a empêché les flux génétiques (et a donc fragilisé) des populations de bisons, d’ours, de loups et de lynx. Pire, 25 ans après la destruction du rideau de fer entre l’Allemagne et la République tchèque, les jeunes cerfs (qui n’avaient jamais vu de clôtures) ne traversaient toujours pas la frontière [2].
En mai 2018 paraissait dans la revue Bioscience un article cosigné par dix-huit grands noms de l’étude et de la protection de la biodiversité (dont Edward O. Wilson) et signé par 2.500 scientifiques, qui alertait sur les « conséquences inattendues mais importantes » de ces murs frontaliers sur la biodiversité [3]. Ce cri d’alarme n’est pas le premier [4], mais il résume bien l’état des lieux de la recherche, et aussi l’état de préoccupation des chercheurs.
Lorsque les habitats se fragmentent, les territoires des populations se réduisentLes murs nuisent à la biodiversité de plusieurs façons. Premièrement, ils peuvent blesser ou tuer des animaux directement, quand ils s’emmêlent dans les fils barbelés, sont électrocutés ou marchent sur des mines antipersonnelles.
Deuxièmement, ils fragmentent et dégradent les habitats. Par exemple la frontière de 3.200 km entre le Mexique et les États-Unis traverse les aires de répartition géographique de 1.506 espèces natives (parmi lesquelles 1.077 espèces animales) dont 62 sont sur la liste des espèces en danger. Le mur menace cinq régions particulièrement riches en biodiversité (on les nomme « hotspots ») qui retiennent presque tous les efforts de conservation et de « réensauvagement » (rewilding). Lorsque les habitats se fragmentent, les territoires des populations se réduisent, et le nombre d’espèces présentes sur ces petites surfaces se réduit plus que proportionnellement, rendant ainsi les populations plus vulnérables, par exemple aux variations climatiques. Les clôtures frontalières contribuent aussi à accroître la mortalité de la faune sauvage en facilitant la tâche des braconniers, en perturbant les migrations et la reproduction, et en empêchant l’accès à la nourriture et à l’eau. Par exemple, le mouton bighorn (une espèce en danger) migrait naturellement entre la Californie et le Mexique mais ne peut aujourd’hui plus accéder aux points d’eau et aux sites de naissance qu’il avait l’habitude de fréquenter.
Troisièmement, ces murs annulent les effets bénéfiques des millions de dollars investis dans la recherche et les mesures de conservation de la biodiversité. Les scientifiques témoignent aussi du fait qu’ils sont souvent l’objet d’intimidations, de harcèlements ou de ralentissements volontaires de la part des officiers responsables de la sécurité des frontières.
Enfin, quatrièmement, les politiques de sécurité mises en place récemment font passer les lois environnementales au deuxième plan, quand elles ne sont pas simplement bafouées ou oubliées.
Des centaines de kilomètres de clôtures de sécurité aux frontières extérieures et intérieures de l’UELe double phénomène migrations/clôtures n’est pas prêt de s’arrêter. En 2015, un afflux exceptionnel d’êtres humains fuyant leurs pays en direction de l’Europe a conduit plusieurs États membres à réintroduire ou renforcer les contrôles aux frontières, notamment par la construction rapide de centaines de kilomètres de clôtures de sécurité aux frontières extérieures et intérieures de l’UE. Le réchauffement climatique et l’épuisement des ressources seront dans les années à venir des causes majeures de guerres, d’épidémies et de famines, forçant toujours plus d’humains à migrer. Les animaux seront aussi de la partie, comme en témoigne la progression vers le nord des moustiques tigres, qui charrient avec eux des maladies qui n’existaient plus dans nos régions, ou encore l’observation du loup en Belgique en mars 2018 pour la troisième fois depuis des siècles…
Les accords entre pays membres de l’Union européenne au sujet des migrations humaines seront-ils mis en place à temps ? Résisteront-ils aux changements et aux catastrophes à venir ? Quel poids aura la « #Convention_des_espèces_migrantes » (censée réguler le flux des animaux) face aux migrations humaines ?
En septembre 2017, un bison d’Europe a été aperçu en Allemagne. C’était la première fois depuis 250 ans qu’un représentant sauvage de cette espèce traversait spontanément la frontière allemande. Il a été abattu par la police.
▻https://reporterre.net/Les-murs-n-arretent-pas-que-les-humains
#Bialowieza -
Les murs de séparation nuisent aussi à la #faune et la #flore
3419 migrants sont décédés en Méditerranée en tentant de rejoindre Malte ou l’Italie. C’est ce que révèle un rapport du Haut commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés publié le 10 décembre. Il y a les barrières naturelles, et les murs artificiels. Pendant deux mois, le web-documentaire Connected Walls s’attaque aux murs de séparation entre quatre continents : le mur entre l’Amérique du Nord et l’Amérique latine incarné par les grillages entre les Etats-Unis et le Mexique, celui entre l’Europe et l’Afrique incarné par les barbelés qui séparent les enclaves espagnoles du Maroc. Tous les 10 jours, Connected Walls publie un nouveau documentaire de cinq minutes sur une thématique choisie par les internautes. Cette semaine, ils ont sélectionné la thématique « animal ».
Cette semaine, sur Connected-Walls,Valeria Fernandez (USA) et Fidel Enriquez (Mexico) ont suivi John Ladd dont la famille possède un ranch dans l’Arizona, à la frontière mexicaine, depuis cinq générations. Depuis la construction du mur frontalier en 2007, les choses ont changé pour lui et pour les animaux.
De leur côté, Irene Gutierrez (Espagne) et Youssef Drissi (Maroc) ont rencontré Adam Camara, un jeune de Guinée Équatoriale qui a tenté de traverser plusieurs fois le détroit entre le Maroc et l’Espagne. Lors de sa dernière tentative, il a reçu l’aide d’un mystérieux ami.
Pour chaque thématique, un partenaire associatif a carte blanche pour rédiger une tribune. Celle-ci a été rédigée par Dan Millis, de l’organisation écologiste Sierra Club :« Les animaux se moquent bien des frontières politiques. Le jaguar de Sonora n’a pas de passeport, et le canard morillon cancane avec le même accent, qu’il soit à Ceuta ou dans la forêt de Jbel Moussa. Les murs et les barrières ont cependant un impact considérable sur la faune et la flore. Par exemple, les rennes de l’ancienne Tchécoslovaquie ne franchissent jamais la ligne de l’ancien Rideau de Fer, alors même que cette barrière a disparu depuis 25 ans et qu’aucun des rennes vivant aujourd’hui ne l’a jamais connue. Les quelques 1000 kilomètres de barrières et de murs séparant les États-Unis et le Mexique détruisent et fragmentent l’habitat sauvage, en bloquant les couloirs de migration essentiels à la survie de nombreuses espèces. Une étude réalisée grâce à des caméras installées au niveau des refuges et des zones de vie naturellement fréquentés par la faune en Arizona a montré que des animaux comme le puma et le coati sont bloqués par les murs des frontières, alors que les humains ne le sont pas. »
►https://www.bastamag.net/Connected-Walls-le-webdocumentaire-4545
#wildelife -
Border Fences and their Impacts on Large Carnivores, Large Herbivores and Biodiversity: An International Wildlife Law Perspective
Fences, walls and other barriers are proliferating along international borders on a global scale. These border fences not only affect people, but can also have unintended but important consequences for wildlife, inter alia by curtailing migrations and other movements, by fragmenting populations and by causing direct mortality, for instance through entanglement. Large carnivores and large herbivores are especially vulnerable to these impacts. This article analyses the various impacts of border fences on wildlife around the world from a law and policy perspective, focusing on international wildlife law in particular. Relevant provisions from a range of global and regional legal instruments are identified and analysed, with special attention for the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species and the European Union Habitats Directive.
▻https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/reel.12169
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Border Security Fencing and Wildlife: The End of the Transboundary Paradigm in Eurasia?
The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe has seen many countries rush to construct border security fencing to divert or control the flow of people. This follows a trend of border fence construction across Eurasia during the post-9/11 era. This development has gone largely unnoticed by conservation biologists during an era in which, ironically, transboundary cooperation has emerged as a conservation paradigm. These fences represent a major threat to wildlife because they can cause mortality, obstruct access to seasonally important resources, and reduce effective population size. We summarise the extent of the issue and propose concrete mitigation measures.
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/figure/image?size=large&id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002483.g001#.jpg 
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/figure/image?size=large&id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002483.g002#.jpg
►https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002483 -
Butterfly Preserve On The Border Threatened By Trump’s Wall
The National Butterfly Center, a 100-acre wildlife center and botanical garden in South Texas, provides a habitat for more than 100 species of butterflies.
It also sits directly in the path of the Trump administration’s proposed border wall.
The federal spending bill approved in September includes $1.6 billion in 2019 for construction of the wall. In October, the Department of Homeland Security issued a waiver to 28 laws protecting public lands, wildlife and the environment to clear the way for construction to proceed.
▻https://www.npr.org/2018/11/01/660671247/butterfly-preserve-on-the-border-threatened-by-trumps-wall
#papillons -
Wildlife advocates, local indigenous tribes protest preparations for new border wall construction
The federal government this week began moving bulldozers and construction vehicles to the Texas border with Mexico to begin building a new six-mile section of border wall — the first new wall under President Donald Trump, administration officials confirmed Tuesday.
The move immediately triggered angry protests by a local butterfly sanctuary — The National Butterfly Center — and local indigenous tribes who oppose the wall and say construction will damage natural habitats. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the wall will run through land owned by federal government. The dispute came amid an administration claim that a caravan of 2,000 migrants had arrived in northern Mexico along the Texas border.
“We’re a recognized tribe and no one’s going to tell us who we are especially some idiots in Washington,” said Juan Mancias of the indigenous peoples’ tribe Carrizo-Comecrudo, who led protests on Monday. “We’re the original people of this land. We haven’t forgot our ancestors.”
So far, the Trump administration has upgraded only existing fencing along the border. The president has called for some $5 billion for new wall construction, and Democrats have refused, resulting in a budget dispute that shut down the government for five weeks.
This latest Texas project relies on previously appropriated money and won’t require further congressional approval. Construction plans for the Rio Grande Valley, just south of McAllen, Texas, call for six to 14 miles of new concrete wall topped with 18-foot vertical steel bars.
Last year, Homeland Security Secretary Kristen Nielsen waived a variety environmental restrictions, including parts of the Endangered Species and Clean Water Acts, to prepare for construction in the area. Construction on the Rio Grande Valley project is expected to start in the coming weeks.
Marianna Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly Center, remains a staunch advocate against the border wall. She met this week with authorities who she said wants to buy the center’s land for wall construction.
She traveled to Washington last month to explain the environmental damage that would be caused by the construction in testimony on Capitol Hill.
“The bulldozers will roll into the lower Rio Grande Valley wildlife conservation corridor, eliminating thousands of trees during spring nesting season for hundreds of species of migratory raptors and songbirds,” Wright told the House Natural Resources Committee.
When asked by ABC News what message she has for people who aren’t there to see the impact of the new border wall, Wright paused, searching for words to express her frustration.
“I would drive my truck over them, over their property, through their fence,” she said.
DHS continues to cite national security concerns as the reason for building the border wall, with Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen saying in a statement Tuesday that migrants in the new caravan that had arrived at the Texas border would try to cross over illegally.
“Such caravans are the result of Congress’s inexcusable failure to fully fund a needed physical barrier and unwillingness to fix outdated laws that act as an enormous magnet for illegal aliens,” Nielsen said in a statement.
The last so-called caravan that caused alarm for the administration resulted in thousands of migrants taking shelter in the Mexican city of Tijuana. Just across the border from San Diego, many waited several weeks for the chance to enter the U.S.
▻https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wildlife-advocates-local-indigenous-tribes-protest-preparations-border/story?id=60859814
#résistance #peuples_autochtones #Carrizo-Comecrudo #McAllen #Texas -
UPDATE: Bulldozers flattened a 150 swath of land on the LRGV Wildlife Refuge for the #borderwall and “enforcement zone.” @DHSgov is decimating some of the highest quality habitat in the region. This was supposed to be a refuge for wildlife, not a graveyard.
▻https://twitter.com/LaikenJordahl/status/1097590141042839552 -
As Work Begins on Trump’s Border Wall, a Key Wildlife Refuge Is at Risk
Construction is underway on a stretch of President Trump’s border wall cutting through the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Biologists warn the steel wall will disrupt carefully preserved habitat critical for the survival of ocelot, jaguarundi, and other threatened species.
As Tiffany Kersten descends from a levee into a verdant forest that stretches to the Rio Grande more than a mile away, she spots a bird skimming the treetops: a red-tailed hawk. Later, other birds — great blue herons, egrets — take flight from the edge of an oxbow lake. This subtropical woodland is one of the last remnants of tamaulipan brushland — a dense tangle of Texas ebony, mesquite, retama, and prickly pear whose U.S. range is now confined to scattered fragments in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. The ecosystem harbors an astonishing array of indigenous wildlife: ocelot, jaguarundi, Texas tortoise, and bobcat, as well as tropical and subtropical birds in a rainbow of colors, the blue bunting and green jay among them.
But the stretch of tamaulipan scrub Kersten is exploring, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, won’t be around much longer. About 15 feet from the forest edge, Kersten — a board member of a local conservation group — spots red ribbons tied to tree branches on both sides of the trail. Soon, an excavator will uproot those trees to make way for a 140-foot-wide access road and an 18-foot-high wall atop the levee, all part of the Trump administration’s plan to barricade as much of the Texas/Mexico border as possible. On Valentine’s Day, two days before I visited the border, crews began clearing a path for the road, and soon the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will plant a cement foundation in the levee and top it with a steel bollard barrier.
This construction is the first project under a plan to build 33 miles of new wall along the levee in South Texas, with $641 million in funding that Trump requested and Congress authorized last year. That 33-mile stretch, cutting through some of the most unique and endangered habitat in the United States, will be joined by an additional 55 miles of wall under a funding bill Trump signed February 15 that allocates another $1.375 billion for wall construction. The same day, Trump also issued a national emergency declaration authorizing another $6 billion for border walls. That declaration could give the administration the power to override a no-wall zone Congress created in three protected areas around the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Since the mid-20th century, ranches, oil fields, and housing tracts have consumed 97 percent of the tamaulipan brushland.
Since the mid-20th century, ranches, farms, oil fields, subdivisions, and shopping centers have consumed 97 percent of the tamaulipan brushland habitat at ground zero of this new spate of border wall construction. That loss led Congress to create the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in the 1970s and spurred a 30-year-effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, conservation organizations, and private landowners to protect the remaining pockets of tamaulipan brushland and restore some of what has been lost. The Fish and Wildlife Service has purchased 10,000 acres of cropland and converted it back into tamaulipan woodlands; it hopes to replant another 30,000 acres. The refuge, now totaling 98,000 acres, has been likened to a string of pearls, with connected jewels of old-growth and restored habitat adorning the 300-mile lower Rio Grande Valley.
Into this carefully rebuilt wildlife corridor now comes the disruption of a flurry of new border wall construction. Scientists and conservationists across Texas warn that it could unravel decades of work to protect the tamaulipan brushland and the wildlife it harbors. “This is the only place in the world you can find this habitat,” says Kersten, a board member of Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a non-profit group that works closely with the Fish and Wildlife Service on the corridor program. “And only 3 percent of this habitat is remaining.”
For all its efforts to turn cropland into federally protected habitat, the Fish and Wildlife Service finds itself with little recourse to safeguard it, precisely because it is federal property. The easiest place for the federal government to begin its new wave of border wall construction is the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, which includes the picturesque La Parida Banco tract, where I joined Kersten. Under a 2005 law, the Department of Homeland Security can waive the environmental reviews that federal agencies such as the Fish and Wildlife Service typically conduct for projects that could alter federally protected lands.
The tract Kersten and I visited is one of four adjacent “pearls” in the wildlife corridor — long , roughly rectangular parcels stretching from an entrance road to the river. From west to east they are the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge’s La Parida Banco tract, the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, the refuge’s El Morillo Banco tract, and the privately owned National Butterfly Center. A levee runs through all four properties, and the first sections of fence to be built atop it would cut off access to trails and habitat in the refuge tracts. Citizens and local and state officials have successfully fought to keep the fence from crossing the National Butterfly Center, the Bentsen-Rio Grande state park, and the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge farther downstream — at least for now. If Trump’s national emergency declaration survives court challenges, the border barriers could even be extended into these holdouts.
When the wall and access road are completed at La Parida Banco, a crucial piece of intact native habitat will become isolated between the wall and the river. Species that either rely on the river for water or migrate across it will find pathways they’ve traversed for thousands of years blocked.
While biologists are concerned about the impacts of the wall all along the U.S.-Mexico border, the uniqueness of South Texas’ ecosystems make it an especially troublesome place to erect an 18-foot fence, they say. The 300-mile wildlife corridor in South Texas, where the temperate and the tropical intermingle, is home to an astounding concentration of flora and fauna: 17 threatened or endangered species, including the jaguarundi and ocelot; more than 530 species of birds; 330 butterfly species, about 40 percent of all those in the U.S.; and 1,200 types of plants. It’s one of the most biodiverse places on the continent.
`There will be no concern for plants, endangered species [and] no consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service,’ says a biologist.
“This is a dry land, and when you have dry land, your diversity is near the water,” says Norma Fowler, a biologist with the University of Texas at Austin who studies the tamaulipan brushland ecosystem. She co-authored an article published last year in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment warning of the consequences of the new wall for the region’s singular ecosystems and wildlife. Since the wall can’t be built in the river, it’s going up a mile or more north of it in some areas, placing both the riparian habitat right along the river and the tamaulipan thornscrub on higher ground at risk.
“Both of those habitats have been fragmented, and there’s not much left,” Fowler says. “Some of it is lovingly restored from fields to the appropriate wild vegetation. But because they’ve waived every environmental law there is, there will be no concern for plants, endangered species. There will be no consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service.”
When the wall rises, the barrier and the new patrol road alongside it will cut an unusually wide 140-foot swath to improve visibility through the dense brush. In her article, Fowler estimated that construction of the border wall would destroy 4.8 to 7.3 acres of habitat per mile of barrier. The fence will also cut off access to the river and habitat on the Mexican side of the border for many animals. Including bobcats, ocelot, jaguarundi, and javelina. Some slower-moving species, like the Texas tortoise, could be caught in floods that would swell against the wall.
https://e360.yale.edu/assets/site/javalina_712x480_web.jpg 
https://e360.yale.edu/assets/site/Ocelot_712x480_web.jpg If new walls must be built along the Rio Grande, Fowler says, the Department of Homeland Security should construct them in a way that causes the least harm to wildlife and plants. That would include limiting the footprint of the access roads and other infrastructure, designing barriers with gaps wide enough for animals to pass through, and using electronic sensors instead of physical barriers wherever possible.
One of the most at-risk species is the ocelot, a small jaguar-like cat that historically roamed throughout Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Arizona, but that numbers only about 80 today. The sole breeding population left in the U.S. is in South Texas, and it is wholly dependent on the dense shrubland in the Lower Rio Grande Valley that the wall will bisect. Some species could be wiped out altogether: The few sites where Physaria thamnophila, a native wildflower, still grows are directly in the path of the wall, Fowler says.
With 1,254 miles of border — all following the languid, meandering course of the Rio Grande — Texas has far more of the United States’ 1,933-mile southern boundary than any other state, yet it has the fewest miles of existing fence. That’s because much of the Texas border is private riverfront land. The first major push to barricade the Texas border, by the George W. Bush administration, encountered opposition from landowners who balked at what they saw as lowball purchase offers and the use of eminent domain to take their property. (Years later, some of those lawsuits are still pending.) Federal land managers also put up a fight.
Natural areas already bisected by a Bush-era fence offer a preview of the potential fate of the Rio Grande wildlife refuge.
When Ken Merritt — who oversaw the federal South Texas Refuge Complex, which includes the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Santa Ana, and the Laguna Atascosa refuge near where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico — questioned the wisdom of a barrier through Santa Ana during the Bush administration, he was forced out of his job.
“I was getting a lot of pressure,” says Merritt, who still lives in the valley and is retired. “But it just didn’t fit. We were trying to connect lands to create a whole corridor all along the valley, and we knew walls were very much against that.”
Natural areas already bisected by the Bush-era fence offer a preview of the potential fate of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. A few miles downstream from the La Parida tract, the Hidalgo Pumphouse and Birding Center, which anchors the southern end of the tiny town of Hidalgo, now looks out at a stretch of steel bollard fence atop a concrete wall embedded in the levee.
On a recent Monday morning, a few tourists milled about the gardens behind the pumphouse, listening to the birds — curve-billed thrashers, green monk parakeets, kiskadee flycatchers — and enjoying the view from the observation deck. Curious about the wall, all of them eventually walk up to it and peek through the four-inch gaps between the steel slats. On the other side lies another pearl: a 900-acre riverside piece of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge called the Hidalgo Bend tract. It was once a popular spot with birders drawn to its ferruginous Pygmy owls, elf owls, and other wildlife. But since the wall went up in 2009, few birders visit anymore.
At The Nature Conservancy’s Sabal Palm Preserve, a 557-acre piece of the wildlife corridor near the Gulf of Mexico, a wall installed in 2009 cuts through one of the last stands of sabal palm forest in the Rio Grande Valley. Laura Huffman, regional director for The Nature Conservancy, worries that the more walls erected on the border, the less hope there is of completing the wildlife corridor.
Kersten and others remain unconvinced that the danger on the border justifies a wall. She believes that sensors and more Border Patrol agents are more effective deterrents to drug smugglers and illegal immigrants. Earlier on the day we met, Kersten was part of a group of 100 or so protestors who marched from the parking lot at nearby Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park to the adjacent National Butterfly Center, holding signs that read “No Border Wall” and “Solidarity Across Borders.” One placard listed the more than two dozen environmental and cultural laws that the Trump administration waived to expedite the fence. Among them: the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires environmental analysis before federal projects can begin; the Endangered Species Act; the Clean Water Act; the Migratory Bird Treaty Act; the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act; the National Historic Preservation Act; and the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act.
Even as the wall goes up in the refuge, preparations for this year’s restoration projects are moving ahead. Betty Perez, whose family has lived in the Lower Rio Grande Valley for generations, is one of several landowners who grow seedlings for replanting on refuge lands each year. At her ranch, about a 45-minute drive northwest of the La Parida Banco tract, she’s beginning to collect seeds to grow this year’s native shrub crop: coyotillo, in the buckthorn family; yucca; Texas persimmon.
Next to a shed in her backyard sit rows of seedlings-to-be in white tubes. To Perez, the delicate green shoots hold a promise: In a few years, these tiny plants will become new habitat for jaguarundi, for ocelot, for green jays, for blue herons. Despite the new walls, the wildlife corridor project will go on, she says, in the spaces in between.
▻https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-work-begins-on-trumps-border-wall-a-key-wildlife-refuge-is-at-risk
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Trump’s @DHSgov just notified us of their plan to build 46 miles of #borderwall through the stunning #Chihuahuan Desert in #New_Mexico. A wall here would sever a known migratory corridor for one of the rarest & most endangered mammals on the continent - the Mexican #grey_wolf.
▻https://twitter.com/LaikenJordahl/status/1115714163970433024 -
Documents: CBP Ignored Federal Biologists’ Input on Border Wall
Border security officials visited wildlife preserves in Starr County, then blew off the recommendations of the scientists they brought along.
https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Lesquerella_thamnophila-web-apr19-wikimedia-759x398.jpg 
https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cbp_maps-web-apr19.jpg ▻https://www.texasobserver.org/documents-cbp-ignored-federal-biologists-input-on-border-wall
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Border Wall Rising In #Arizona, Raises Concerns Among Conservationists, Native Tribes
Construction has begun on President Trump’s border wall between Arizona and Mexico, and conservationists are furious. The massive barrier will skirt one of the most beloved protected areas in the Southwest — Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, recognized by the United Nations as an international biosphere reserve.
On a recent drive along the borderline, a crew was transplanting tall saguaro cactus out of the construction zone.
“There may be misconceptions that we are on a construction site and just not caring for the environment,” intones a voice on a video released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the project. “We are relocating saguaro, organ pipe, ocotillo...”
But a half-mile away, a big yellow bulldozer was scraping the desert clean and mowing down cactus columns that were likely older than the young man operating the dozer.
Customs and Border Protection later said 110 desert plants have been relocated, and unhealthy ones get bulldozed.
This scene illustrates why environmentalists are deeply skeptical of the government’s plans. They fear that as CBP and the Defense Department race to meet the president’s deadline of 450 miles of wall by Election Day 2020, they will plow through one of the most biologically and culturally rich regions of the continental United States.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has warned that the wall, with its bright lights, human activity and impermeable barrier, could negatively impact 23 endangered and at-risk species, including the Sonoran pronghorn antelope. And the National Park Service says construction could destroy 22 archaeological sites. Yet, for this stretch of western desert, the government has waived 41 federal environmental laws to expedite construction.
“This is a wall to fulfill a campaign promise. It’s really clear. And that’s what makes so many of us so angry. It’s being done so fast outside the rule of law and we know it’ll have an incredible impact,” says Kevin Dahl, Arizona representative for the National Parks Conservation Association. He sits beside a serene, spring-fed pond fringed by cattails, and dive-bombed by dragonflies. It is called Quitobaquito Springs, and it’s located on the southern edge of the #Organ_Pipe_Cactus_National_Monument.
A biologist peers into a rivulet that feeds this oasis in the middle of the Sonoran desert.
“These guys are very tiny, maybe half the size of a sesame seed. Those are the Quitobaquito tryonia. And there are literally thousands in here,” says Jeff Sorensen, wildlife specialist supervisor with Arizona Game and Fish Department. He’s an expert on this tiny snail, which is one of three species — along with a mud turtle and a pupfish — whose entire universe is this wetland.
The springs have been used for 16,000 years by Native Americans, followed by Spanish explorers, traders and farmers.
But the pond is a stone’s throw from the international border, and the path of the wall. Conservationists fear workers will drill water wells to make concrete, and lower the water table which has been dropping for years.
“We do have concerns,” Sorensen continues. “Our species that are at this site rely on water just like everything else here in the desert southwest. And to take that water away from them means less of a home.”
The Trump administration is building 63 miles of wall in the Tucson Sector, to replace outdated pedestrian fences and vehicle barriers. CBP says this stretch of desert is a busy drug- and human-trafficking corridor. In 2019, the Tucson sector had 63,490 apprehensions and seized more than 61,900 pounds of illegal narcotics. The Defense Department is paying Southwest Valley Constructors, of Albuquerque, N.M., to erect 18- to 30-foot-tall, concrete-filled steel bollards, along with security lights and an all-weather patrol road. It will cost $10.3 million a mile.
The rampart is going up in the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot-wide strip of federal land that runs along the U.S. side of the border in New Mexico, Arizona and California. It was established in 1907 by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Congress refused to authorize money for construction of the wall in Arizona. Under Trump’s national emergency declaration, the Defense Department has reprogrammed counterdrug funding to build the border wall.
In responses to questions from NPR, CBP says contractors will not drill for water within five miles of Quitobaquito Springs. The agency says it is coordinating with the National Park Service, Fish & Wildlife and other stakeholders to identify sensitive areas “to develop avoidance or mitigation measures to eliminate or reduce impacts to the environment.” Additionally, CBP is preparing an Environmental Stewardship Plan for the construction project.
Critics are not appeased.
“There is a whole new level of recklessness we’re seeing under Trump. We thought Bush was bad, but this is a whole other order of magnitude,” says Laiken Jordahl, a former national park ranger and now borderlands campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity.
There was an outcry, too, back in the late 2000s when President George W. Bush built the first generation of bollard wall. Those barriers topped out at 18 feet. The structures rising southwest of Tucson are as tall as a two-story building. They look like they could hold back a herd of T-rexes.
The Trump administration is using the same Real ID Act of 2005 that empowered President George W. Bush to build his border wall without heeding environmental protections. But the pace of waivers is quickening under Trump’s aggressive construction timeline. Under Bush, the Department of Homeland Security issued five waiver proclamations. Under Trump, DHS has issued 15 waivers that exempt the contractors from a total of 51 different laws, ranging from the Clean Water Act to the Archeological Resources Protection Act to the Wild Horse and Burro Act.
“The waivers allow them to bypass a lot of red tape and waive the public input process,” says Kenneth Madsen, a geography professor at Ohio State University at Newark who monitors border wall waivers. “It allows them to avoid getting bogged down in court cases that might slow down their ability to construct border barriers along the nation’s edges.”
The most important law that CBP is able to sidestep is the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA—known as the Magna Carta of federal environmental laws. It requires a detailed environmental assessment of any “federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.” NEPA covers most large federal construction projects, such as dams, bridges, highways, and waterway projects.
Considering the construction of 450 miles of steel barriers on the nation’s southern boundary, “There is no question that NEPA would require preparation of an environmental impact statement, with significant input from the public, from affected communities, tribal governments, land owners, and land managers throughout the process. And it is outrageous that a project of this magnitude is getting a complete exemption from NEPA and all the other laws,” says Dinah Bear. She served as general counsel for the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality for 24 years under four presidents.
To some border residents, barriers — regardless how controversial — are the best way to stop illegal activity.
“I support Donald Trump 100%. If you’re going to build a wall, build it!” declares rancher John Ladd.
His family has bred cattle in Arizona since it was a territory. Their ranch backs up to the Mexican border near the town of Naco. The surrounding mountains purple at dusk, as a bull and his harem of cows munch gramma grass.
Time was when the Ladd ranch was overrun by people crossing the border illegally. They stole things and cut fences and left trash in the pastures. Then in 2016, at the end of the Obama years, CBP built a fence, continuing what Bush started.
Ladd reserves judgment on the propriety of a wall through a federally protected wilderness. But for his ranch, walls worked.
“When this 18-foot wall went in, it was obvious that immigrants quit coming through here,” he says. “It was an immediate improvement with the security of our border as well as our houses.”
Other border neighbors feel differently.
The vast Tohono O’odham Nation — nearly as big as Connecticut — shares 62 miles with Mexico. The tribe vehemently opposes the border wall. Several thousand tribal members live south of the border, and are permitted to pass back and forth using tribal IDs.
Already, border barriers are encroaching on the reservation from the east and west. While there is currently no funding to wall off the Arizona Tohono O’odham lands from Mexico, tribal members fear CBP could change its mind at any time.
“We have lived in this area forever,” says Tribal Chairman Ned Norris, Jr. “And so a full-blown 30-foot wall would make it that much difficult for our tribal citizens in Mexico and in the U.S. to be able to actively participate with family gatherings, with ceremonial gatherings.”
Traditions are important to the Antone family. The father, son and daughter recently joined other tribal members walking westward along State Highway 86, which runs through the reservation. They were on a pilgrimage for St. Francis.
Genae Antone, 18, stopped to talk about another rite of passage. Young Tohono O’odham men run a roundtrip of 300 miles from the reservation, across the border, to the salt flats at Mexico’s Sea of Cortez.
“The salt run, for the men, that’s really important for us as Tohono O’odham. For the men to run all the way to the water to get salt,” she said. “Some people go and get seashells. So I don’t really necessarily think it (the border wall) is a good idea.”
The Antone family — carrying a feathered walking stick, a statue of the virgin, and an American flag — then continued on its pilgrimage.
▻https://www.npr.org/2019/10/13/769444262/border-wall-rising-in-arizona-raises-concerns-among-conservationists-native-tri
#cactus -
Les murs frontaliers sont une catastrophe écologique
On les croyait en voie d’extinction, ils se sont multipliés : les murs et autres clôtures aux frontières pour empêcher les migrations humaines ont un impact délétère sur de nombreuses espèces en morcelant leurs habitats naturels. Une raison de plus de s’y opposer, pour ce chroniqueur de gauche britannique.
C’est au XXIe siècle que convergent les catastrophes humanitaires et environnementales. L’effondrement climatique a contraint des millions de personnes à fuir de chez elles, et des centaines de millions d’autres risquent le même sort. La famine qui dévaste actuellement Madagascar est la première que les Nations unies ont qualifiée de conséquence probable de l’urgence climatique [un lien contesté] ; elle ne sera pas la dernière. De grandes métropoles s’approchent dangereusement de la pénurie d’eau à mesure que les nappes souterraines sont vidées. La pollution de l’air tue 10 millions de personnes par an. Les produits chimiques de synthèse qui se trouvent dans les sols, l’air et l’eau ont des retentissements indicibles sur les écosystèmes et les êtres humains.
Mais, à l’inverse, les catastrophes humanitaires, ou plus précisément les réactions cruelles et irrationnelles des gouvernements face à ces crises, peuvent aussi déclencher des désastres écologiques. L’exemple le plus frappant est la construction de murs frontaliers.
En ce moment, avec l’aide de 140 ingénieurs militaires britanniques, la Pologne entame la construction d’une paroi en acier de 5,5 mètres de haut sur 180 kilomètres, le long de sa frontière avec la Biélorussie. L’aide des militaires britanniques facilitera la signature d’un nouveau contrat d’armement entre le Royaume-Uni et la Pologne, d’un montant approximatif de 3 milliards de livres.
L’illusion de la chute du murLe mur est présenté comme une mesure de “sécurité”. Pourtant, il protège l’Europe non pas d’une menace mais du dénuement absolu de personnes parmi les plus vulnérables du monde, en particulier des réfugiés venus de Syrie, d’Irak et d’Afghanistan qui fuient les persécutions, la torture et les massacres. Ils ont été cruellement exploités par le gouvernement biélorusse, qui s’est servi d’eux comme arme politique. Ils sont maintenant piégés à la frontière en plein hiver, gelés et affamés, sans nulle part où aller.
À la chute du mur de Berlin, on nous a promis l’avènement d’une nouvelle époque plus libre. Depuis, beaucoup plus de murs ont pourtant été érigés qu’abattus. Depuis 1990, l’Europe a construit des murs frontaliers six fois plus longs que celui de Berlin. À l’échelle mondiale, le nombre de frontières clôturées est passé de 15 à 70 depuis la fin de la guerre froide : il existe actuellement 47 000 kilomètres de frontières matérialisées par des barrières.
Pour ceux qui sont piégés derrière ces obstacles, la cruauté du capitalisme est difficile à distinguer de la cruauté du communisme.
(#paywall)
▻https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/faune-les-murs-frontaliers-sont-une-catastrophe-ecologique -
An endangered wolf spent days searching for a mate. The border wall blocked him.
It is the first time researchers have directly observed how border fences hinder the Mexican gray wolf, which is on the verge of extinction.
One chilly early morning in November, a wolf roamed southwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico, on the southern border of the U.S. He was probably driven by the call for survival and wanted to mate, researchers say.
In his search for a mate or for better opportunities, the wolf tried to cross the dangerous Chihuahuan Desert, a region he knows very well because it has been his species’ habitat since time immemorial.
This time, however, he was unable to cross. The barriers that make up the border wall prevented him from crossing the border into Mexico.
“For five days he walked from one place to another. It was at least 23 miles of real distance, but as he came and went, he undoubtedly traveled much more than that,” said Michael Robinson, the director of the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit organization that defends and monitors species that are in danger of extinction — like this Mexican gray wolf, whom they called Mr. Goodbar.
Robinson lives in Silver City, very close to Gila National Forest. He noticed the wolf’s adventures when he was reviewing a map from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that records the locations of the wolves using GPS devices they have on necklaces. It is the first time researchers have directly observed how the border wall hinders the life of the species, which is at risk of extinction.
“Mr. Goodbar’s Thanksgiving was forlorn, since he was thwarted in romancing a female and hunting together for deer and jackrabbits,” Robinson said. “But beyond one animal’s frustrations, the wall separates wolves in the Southwest from those in Mexico and exacerbates inbreeding in both populations.”
The dangers of the wall
The Center for Biological Diversity and other organizations have said the border wall cuts off connections for wildlife in the area. The center has filed multiple lawsuits to stop the construction of barriers between the two countries and protect the populations of gray wolves and other endangered animals.
The organization announced Dec. 21 that it plans to sue the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection for failing to protect ocelots and other species during the construction of border levees along the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
“It is hypocritical to use safety as an excuse to repair levees and then ignore federal laws that protect people and wildlife. These alleged repairs are seen more as an excuse to rush the construction of the border wall,” Paulo Lopes, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
The organization said more than 13 miles of levees will be built on the land of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, traversing family farms and other private property in Hidalgo County, Texas.
Ocelots have been in danger of extinction since 1982, and according to official data, it’s estimated that fewer than 50 of them remain in the U.S., all in South Texas.
Restoring their habitat, including creating wildlife corridors, is a priority for the Rio Grande Wildlife Refuge, but the levees project — which involves removing vegetation along the river to build a control zone 150 feet wide with new roads for law enforcement agencies, as well as lighting systems, cameras and sensors — threatens the ocelot’s habitat.
Building a wall on the border between Mexico and the U.S. was one of former President Donald Trump’s main campaign promises, and 450 miles of the project were completed during his presidency. The Biden administration suspended construction work, but Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, began construction of his own wall on Dec. 20.
“President Biden should knock down the wall,” Robinson said. “Allowing Mexican gray wolves to roam freely would do right by the sublime Chihuahuan Desert and its lush sky-island mountains. We can’t allow this stark monument to stupidity to slowly strangle a vast ecosystem.”
Challenges to survivalBy March, the Fish and Wildlife Service had estimated that 186 specimens of the Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) were in the wild, an increase of 14 percent over 2020. The population has increased for five consecutive years. Only 35 of the wolves are in Mexican territory, according to Mexican government data.
In some ways, the fight to preserve the wolves is a success story, because, from 1915 to 1972, U.S. authorities poisoned and trapped almost all of the wolves in the wild. Three of the last five surviving wolves, captured from 1977 to 1980, were bred in captivity along with the progeny of four previously captured Mexican wolves.
Because of a lawsuit filed by the center, the descendants of those seven wolves were reintroduced in the Southwestern U.S. in 1998. On the Mexican side, the wolves’ release began in 2011.
The subspecies is about 5 feet long, usually weighs 50 to 80 pounds and lives in herds of four to nine. Their gray and rust-color fur is abundant. They live from two to eight years, and, despite protective measures, very few die of natural causes.
Historically, their habitat has been the border: They used to live throughout southwestern Texas, southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona and as far south as central Mexico. Today they are found only in the Gila ecosystem, in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, and in the Sierra de San Luis, in northern Mexico.
Despite the modest but constant growth of its population, activists and experts have made multiple calls to maintain the protections for the species. Mr. Goodbar, who was born at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas and was released in the desert area of Arizona in 2020, is the result of such measures.
The wolf’s adventurous and exploratory spirit is part of the species’ most basic instincts. It also runs in the family.
Wolves from Mexico twice entered the U.S. at the beginning of 2017. One crossed through the point where Mr. Goodbar couldn’t make it and then returned to Mexico. Two months later, a female crossed into Arizona, and authorities captured her to appease complaints from people linked to the livestock industry.
She is Mr. Goodbar’s mother, and she is still in captivity.
“If the barriers remain on the border, and more are being built, that is going to have an impact on the genetic diversity of the wolves, because it could affect their reproduction. If the wall could be knocked down, at least in some key areas, it has to be done. That will allow for wildlife connectivity,” Robinson said.
A problem of bordersResearchers at the Center for Biological Diversity say wolves aren’t the only species threatened by the border wall.
The telemetry studies of Aaron Flesch, a researcher at the University of Arizona, have found that the mountain owl, a bird in the area, flies at an average height of 4.5 feet, so border fences would also affect it.
In addition, other animals, such as the cacomixtle, which is similar to a racoon, and the northern fox need to travel through large areas of the Chihuahuan Desert to feed and reproduce, so the barriers are obstacles to their habitats.
Aislinn Maestas, a public affairs specialist for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement published in the El Paso Times that it was “speculative” to suggest that a barrier may have affected the wolf’s movements, adding that the wolf has continued to roam widely.
However, the ecological impacts of border barriers have been widely documented. Roads and farmland isolate wildlife, but nothing else separates some species as effectively as border walls.
The fence erected between Slovenia and Croatia in 2015 could lead to the gradual extinction of the lynx in the Dinaric Mountains. Carcasses of bears, deer and lynx that died horribly after they got caught on their quills are often found throughout the area.
The barrier between India and Pakistan has caused the population of the Kashmir markhor (a rare wild goat) to collapse. The world’s longest border fences divide China, Mongolia and Russia, isolating populations of wild donkeys, Mongolian gazelles and other endangered species from the steppes.
Modern wildlife researchers have warned that even in large protected areas, wildlife species are at risk of extinction if they can’t disperse and mix with populations elsewhere.
Robinson, the activist, said that only once was he able to see a Mexican gray wolf in the wild. “They are incredible animals and play a key role in balancing nature,” he said.
After his days trying to cross the border in November, Mr. Goodbar headed north toward Gila National Forest, where most of the Mexican wolves live. The area is very close to where Robinson lives, and he usually hears the powerful howls and sees the footprints the wolves leave on their wanderings across the border.
“At any moment he will leave again. That is their nature, regardless of the walls that human beings build," Robinson said.
▻https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/endangered-wolf-spent-days-searching-mate-border-wall-blocked-rcna10769
#loup
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Poland’s border wall to cut through Europe’s last old-growth forest
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/927137#message948541
►https://seenthis.net/messages/927137
#Pologne #forêt #Biélorussie -
‘Stabbed in the back’: Biden’s border wall U-turn leaves Indigenous and climate groups reeling
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/1020582#message1020774 -
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Border Report Live: Environmentalist decries miles of planned border buoys, new border wall
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Lynx is the text web browser.
▻http://lynx.isc.orgcd /usr/local/src
curl -O ▻http://lynx.isc.org/lynx2.8.8/lynx2.8.8.tar.gz
tar -xzvf lynx2.8.8.tar.gz
cd lynx2-8-8
./configure —mandir=/usr/share/man
make
sudo make install-
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@fil : et comment qu’on insère des balises code, d’abord ?
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#script To Automate Browsing Actions Using #lynx | UNIXy
▻http://blog.unixy.net/2009/06/script-to-automate-browsing-actions-using-lynxPratique pour automatiser la connexion au portail captif de la fac…(Permalink)
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Duck Duck Go Search
►https://duckduckgo.com/tty -
une colle #http : pourquoi #curl ne parvient-il pas à récupérer l’url suivante, alors que #lynx ou #firefox y arrivent ?
(utilisant curl -v je vois qu’il échoue au bout de n redirections sur un domaine www10 inexistant…)
(URL : ►http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/how-intellectual-property-reinforces-inequality)
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octo-juk-3:euler-lua julienkirch$ curl -v “►http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/how-intellectual-property-reinforces-inequality”
About to connect() to opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com port 80 (#0)
Trying 170.149.168.153...
connected
Connected to opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com (170.149.168.153) port 80 (#0)
> GET /2013/07/14/how-intellectual-property-reinforces-inequality/ HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.24.0 (x86_64-apple-darwin12.0) libcurl/7.24.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8x zlib/1.2.5
> Host: opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com
> Accept: /
>
< HTTP/1.1 303 See Other
< Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 13:59:45 GMT
< Server: Apache
< Location: ▻http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/how-intellectual-property-reinforces-inequality/&OQ=_rQ3D0&OP=b7574667Q2FQ7DQ3B)Q3DQ7Df3yQ7DwwwQ7DQ3CyQ2AGQ7DzQ26Q7Bm
< Content-Length: 0
< Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
<
Connection #0 to host opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com left intact
Closing connection #0curl -v “▻http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/how-intellectual-property-reinforces-inequality/&OQ=_rQ3D0&OP=b7574667Q2FQ7DQ3B)Q3DQ7Df3yQ7DwwwQ7DQ3CyQ2AGQ7DzQ26Q7Bm”
About to connect() to www.nytimes.com port 80 (#0)
Trying 170.149.168.130...
connected
Connected to www.nytimes.com (170.149.168.130) port 80 (#0)
> GET /glogin?URI=▻http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/how-intellectual-property-reinforces-inequality/&OQ=_rQ3D0&OP=b7574667Q2FQ7DQ3B)Q3DQ7Df3yQ7DwwwQ7DQ3CyQ2A HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.24.0 (x86_64-apple-darwin12.0) libcurl/7.24.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8x zlib/1.2.5
> Host: www.nytimes.com
> Accept: /
>
< HTTP/1.1 302 Found
< Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 14:00:05 GMT
< Server: Apache
< Set-Cookie: NYT-S=0MdwwKEzk0V1PDXrmvxADeHwoJrgcFjUKAdeFz9JchiAIUFL2BEX5FWcV.Ynx4rkFI; expires=Tue, 10-Sep-2013 14:00:05 GMT; path=/; domain=.nytimes.com
< Location: ▻http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/how-intellectual-property-reinforces-inequality/?_r=0
< Content-Length: 0
< Cneonction: close
< Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
<
Connection #0 to host www.nytimes.com left intact
Closing connection #0curl -v —cookie “NYT-S=0MdwwKEzk0V1PDXrmvxADeHwoJrgcFjUKAdeFz9JchiAIUFL2BEX5FWcV.Ynx4rkFI; expires=Tue, 10-Sep-2013 14:00:05 GMT; path=/; domain=.nytimes.com” "▻http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/how-intellectual-property-reinforces-inequality/?_r=0"
About to connect() to opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com port 80 (#0)
Trying 170.149.168.153...
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 —:—:— —:—:— —:—:— 0* connected
Connected to opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com (170.149.168.153) port 80 (#0)
> GET /2013/07/14/how-intellectual-property-reinforces-inequality/?_r=0 HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.24.0 (x86_64-apple-darwin12.0) libcurl/7.24.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8x zlib/1.2.5
> Host: opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com
> Accept: /*
> Cookie: NYT-S=0MdwwKEzk0V1PDXrmvxADeHwoJrgcFjUKAdeFz9JchiAIUFL2BEX5FWcV.Ynx4rkFI; expires=Tue, 10-Sep-2013 14:00:05 GMT; path=/; domain=.nytimes.com
>
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 14:01:13 GMT
< Server: Apache
< Pragma: no-cache
< Cache-control: max-age=238, must-revalidate
< Vary: Cookie
< Last-Modified: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 14:00:11 GMT
< Transfer-Encoding: chunked
< Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
<WIN
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moi j’ai le même problème avec les doc sur github
irrécupérable par curl :(
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#Lynxlet : #Lynx for Mac OS X
►http://habilis.net/lynxletLynxlet is an application for launching the text web #browser Lynx in a Terminal window. Lynxlet is a #Termlet - a class of applications designed to make #Terminal based programs easy to use.
pour ceux qui sont allergiques au Terminal mais qui pourraient vouloir vérifier de temps en temps leurs pages web en mode texte…
A noter le même auteur propose aussi less, vi, emacs, nano, spaceinvaders etc.
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c.e.r.d.i.c@07:01 - c’est beau la #reconnaissance_faciale
#LYNX RULEZ au pays du #user_agent !
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Mais de qui tu parles ?
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Ça doit être de Monsieur @georglob, dont la photo apparaît là :
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/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59190707/Myscelia_ethusa_female__2003_Oct_21__Santa_Ana_NWR__Hidalgo_Co__TX__JGlassberg2F8cmyk2.0.jpg)
