Congress Blocks Funding for Borderlands Wildlife

Related: Check out this video showing the diversity of life in the border lands.

Anti-environmentalists in Congress have landed another blow to borderlands wildlife, passing an amendment to the Fiscal 2012 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget that prevents it from meeting a commitment to provide the Department of the Interior with funding to repair environmental damage and impacts to wildlife caused by the border wall, E&E News reported yesterday.

Since 2005, DHS has waived dozens of laws, including the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air and Water Acts, to expedite construction of some 700 miles of border wall and other infrastructure that now divide the U.S. from Mexico.

Researchers say that the wall blocks wildlife from migrating between habitats on both sides of the border and has caused major flooding in towns along the wall in the U.S. and Mexico — among other environmental impacts.

Researchers say that the wall blocks wildlife from migrating between habitats on both sides of the border and has caused major flooding in towns along the wall in the U.S. and Mexico — among other environmental impacts.

Since 2009, DHS has only spent a little more than 10 percent of $50 million in funding it had initially promised for mitigation during the Bush administration. A significant component of the planned mitigation involves the acquisition of land in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas to reestablish movement corridors for the critically endangered ocelot. The measure passed yesterday removed language needed to allow DHS to transfer funding to Interior Department to make the purchase.

“We are extremely disappointed that wildlife opponents in Congress succeeded in blocking funding that would finally have allowed DHS to fulfill a pledge it made two and a half years ago to help the ocelot and other imperiled wildlife harmed by the border wall,” said Mary Beth Beetham, Defenders’ director of legislative affairs. “Defenders will be urging the Senate to restore the language in its version of the DHS funding bill, so that this long-promised commitment can finally be kept.”