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BISBEE — A new Bureau of Land Management report paints a bleak picture of the impact of illegal immigration and drug smuggling on public lands in Arizona, with estimates that as much as 25 million pounds of trash were left in the state’s borderlands during the 2000-2005 fiscal years.
During the current year, however, the situation presents more of a mixed bag, BLM officials say. While conditions have improved markedly along the San Pedro River, for example, public land in the state’s central areas continue to suffer.
Meanwhile, environmentalists suggest the increasing militarization of the border is becoming a greater ecological threat than the migrants themselves.
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The new BLM report summarizes the accomplishments of a bureau-led effort known as the Southern Arizona Project that sought to mitigate the environmental degradation of public lands over a three-year period. Volunteers recovered 25,000 pounds of trash, 600 abandoned vehicles and 1,725 discarded bicycles while also working to rehabilitate illegal trail routes and maintain roads, the report says.
The study also addresses the damage done to lands in Southern Arizona by illegal immigration. In terms of trash, the BLM estimates each migrant discards 8 pounds of litter during his or her journey, and about 86 percent of that garbage is left on federal and tribal lands in the state’s border region.
Furthermore, important natural and cultural resources, as well as sensitive wildlife habitats, also are harmed by illegal immigration, the study says.
The BLM concludes the problem is “substantial, increasing in amount and spreading.”
The study, however, addresses a period leading up to Sept. 30, 2005. Since then, the Border Patrol has begun to report a decline in the number of apprehensions of illegal entrants in Arizona, which has suggested an overall decrease in migrant traffic through the state.
In southern Cochise County, where apprehensions are down almost 48 percent in the current fiscal year, BLM spokesman Bill Childress said he has noticed a marked change in the impact of illegal immigration.
“Here on the San Pedro, we are just not seeing as many undocumented immigrants as we have in past years,” said Childress, who serves as manager of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. “And we also have not observed as much trash accumulation at traditional pickup sites and camps.”
Because migrant activity has slowed, Childress said his office has been able to focus greater energy on recovering garbage left behind during past years in the more remote areas of the SPRNCA.
“We have gathered trash this year that has obviously been around for many years,” he said.
The BLM’s team leader for Arizona, however, offered a more ambivalent outlook for the state’s public and tribal lands.
“Yes, some areas, like the San Pedro, seem to be showing a decline in the amount of immigrants,” Shela McFarlin said. “But patterns fluctuate, and reports suggest that the (drug and human) smugglers are moving toward central areas.”
As a result, McFarlin said environmental degradation is continuing at the Ironwood and Sonoran Desert national monuments, as well as at the Tohono O’odham Nation.
McFarlin noted that while Border Patrol apprehensions are down in Arizona, drug seizures are up. And she said many of the current problems — abandoned cars and bikes, illegal roads and pathways — appear to be related to the movement of drugs.
The Border Patrol has attributed the recent decrease in migrant apprehensions to a buildup of agency technology, infrastructure and manpower in the state. But both Childress and McFarlin said they had seen little evidence that increased Border Patrol presence on BLM land had itself contributed greater environmental degradation.
They say the BLM and the Border Patrol have communication channels in place to confront any potential problems, and McFarlin said the Border Patrol’s increased use of public land was being mitigated by the National Guard and military reservist units now working to improve access roads.
But Peter Galvin, conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, disagreed. He said the buildup of law enforcement along the border had already begun to show a significant environmental impact.
Galvin said Border Patrol vehicles have damaged lands around the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and that the construction of border fencing has sealed off migratory routes for antelope in western sectors. And he worries similar fencing around the San Pedro River could negatively impact bird migration as well as efforts to rehabilitate local jaguar populations.
“We certainly agree that there are environmental impacts associated with illegal immigrants,” Galvin said. “But those impacts actually pale in comparison to the impact of the militarization of the border.”
View the new Bureau of Land Management report online at: http://www.blm.gov/az/undoc_aliens/complete_summary_03-05.pdf
nicole ray wrote on Jun 21, 2009 3:35 PM: