This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

The Trump administration’s plan to construct a border wall may push the United States to the brink of an ecological disaster. Under this plan, the destruction of habitats, and the eradication of species which inhabit them is certain, yet the magnitude and long-term damage caused by the wall is inconceivable. Please urge your federal legislators to protect the habitats and animals along the United States-Mexico border by rejecting all ill-conceived plans to build a wall.

Before the November midterms, the Trump administration approved plans to build six miles of the wall through The Natural Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas and its surrounding county in the Rio Grande Valley. The wall would split the Center in two, segmenting approximately 70 percent of the land onto Mexico’s side of the barrier, therefore jeopardizing the survival of hundreds of thousands of widely threatened butterflies and bees who visit this protected area every year.

Butterflies are just one of the many potential victims who will struggle to survive the disturbances inevitably caused by the construction, operation, and maintenance of a 2,000-mile wall. The diverse habitats along the border are home to “1,506 native animals and plants, including 62 species that are listed as critically endangered,” including Mexican gray wolves, jaguars, and ocelots.

A border wall will drastically reduce the ranges of animals to roam, migrate, forage, and mate, creating fragmented and genetically isolated populations that will need to compete heavily for limited resources. The physical barrier would also make the Rio Grande River inaccessible to animals who rely on it as their only water source, will increase flooding by preventing the flow of water during rainstorms, and will obstruct animals fleeing from wildfires and natural disasters.

What YOU Can Do:

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.