邊境墻威脅著國家野生動物保護(hù)區(qū)

邊境墻威脅著國家野生動物保護(hù)區(qū)

Over the past 41 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been buying up land on the lower Texas-Mexico border to protect one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America from developers and farmers.

在過去的41年里，美國魚類和野生動物管理局一直在購買德克薩斯和墨西哥邊境的土地，以保護(hù)北美最具生物多樣性的地區(qū)之一不受開發(fā)商和農(nóng)民的破壞。

But the Rio Grande Valley of Texas is a hotspot for illegal immigration and drug smuggling, as well as biodiversity. That's why the Trump administration is planning to build 110 miles of border wall through the valley (which is actually a river delta).

但德克薩斯州的格蘭德河谷是非法移民和毒品走私以及生物多樣性的熱點。這就是為什么特朗普政府計劃修建穿過山谷的110英里長的邊境墻 (實際上是一個河流三角洲)。

Pieces of that wall will go directly through the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge because it is land already owned by the federal government. Elsewhere on the Texas border, construction of the president's wall is being slowed by difficulties acquiring private land. It can take months or years to take private property through eminent domain.

一部分墻將直接穿過下里奧格蘭德山谷國家野生動物保護(hù)區(qū)，因為它已經(jīng)是聯(lián)邦政府擁有的土地。在得克薩斯州邊境的其他地方，由于難以獲得私人土地，總統(tǒng)墻的建設(shè)正在放緩。通過征用權(quán)奪取私有財產(chǎn)可能需要幾個月或幾年的時間。

"It's a tragic situation," said Caroline Brouwer, vice president for government affairs at the National Wildlife Refuge Association, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates for the nation's often overlooked refuge system. "Fish and Wildlife staff have worked on this issue for decades and decades. And it's being torn down in front of our eyes."

“這是一個悲慘的情況，”美國國家野生動物保護(hù)區(qū)協(xié)會(National Wildlife Refuge Association)負(fù)責(zé)政府事務(wù)的副總裁卡羅琳·布勞威爾說。該協(xié)會是一家總部位于華盛頓的非營利組織，為美國經(jīng)常被忽視的保護(hù)區(qū)辯護(hù)。“魚類和野生動物的工作人員在這個問題上已經(jīng)工作了幾十年了?，F(xiàn)在這個問題正在我們眼前被推倒。”

Back in 1979. the idea was to save a strip of native habitat along the Rio Grande, known as Tamaulipan thornscrub in the rapidly urbanizing valley. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began to buy up pieces of land .

早在1979年，這個想法就是為了拯救格蘭德河沿岸的一片原生棲息地，也就是快速城市化的山谷中被稱為塔毛利潘荊棘灌木叢的狹長地帶。美國魚類和野生動物服務(wù)局開始購買整塊土地。

Today, the agency owns 135 individual tracts comprising nearly 105.000 acres, stretching along the last 275 river miles from Falcón Dam to the Gulf of Mexico. Fish & Wildlife has spent about $82 million and the refuge network is still growing. Under congressional authorization, the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge will ultimately have 132.500 acres.

今天，該機(jī)構(gòu)擁有135塊單獨的土地，占地近10.5萬英畝，沿著從法爾孔大壩延伸到墨西哥灣的最后275英里的河流。魚類和野生動物已經(jīng)花費了大約8200萬美元，保護(hù)網(wǎng)絡(luò)仍在不斷擴(kuò)大。根據(jù)國會的授權(quán)，下里奧格蘭德山谷國家野生動物保護(hù)區(qū)最終將擁有132.500英畝土地。

It did take time for some folks in the area to embrace the concept.

該地區(qū)的一些人確實花了一些時間來接受這個概念。

"When they first started buying up land I was very upset, didn't believe it could work, didn't want the federal government to be my neighbor," says Tony Zavaleta, a retired anthropologist with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. From the deck of his rustic cabin, Zavaleta has watched a rare mountain lion prowl his property. Now he's a believer.

德克薩斯大學(xué)里奧格蘭德河谷的退休人類學(xué)家托尼·扎瓦萊塔說：“當(dāng)他們第一次開始購買土地時，我非常沮喪，不相信這能奏效，不想讓聯(lián)邦政府成為我的鄰居。”在他鄉(xiāng)村小屋的甲板上，扎瓦萊塔看到了一只罕見的美洲獅在他的土地上徘徊。現(xiàn)在他是個信徒了。

"Forty years ago, there were no white-tailed deer anywhere near here. You had to go north or south to find white-tailed deer," Zavaleta says. "Today, the white-tailed deer are all over the place. And so it's been a huge success."

“四十年前，這里附近沒有白尾鹿。你不得不向北或向南尋找白尾鹿，” 扎瓦萊塔說。“今天，白尾鹿到處都是。所以這是一個巨大的成功。”

The border wall may impact 8.839 acres of native habitat on 30 separate tracts of its land. Wildlife conservationists are wondering how much of an obstruction the barrier will be to animals that range along the river.

邊境墻可能會影響到30塊土地上8839英畝的原生棲息地。野生動物保護(hù)主義者想知道這道屏障會給沿河活動的動物造成多大的阻礙。

Betty Perez runs a family ranch north of the town of La Joya and is past president of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a private group adamantly opposed to the border wall.

貝蒂·佩雷斯在拉喬亞鎮(zhèn)以北經(jīng)營著一個家庭牧場，她是野生動物走廊之友的前主席，這是一個堅決反對邊境墻的私人組織。

"The Fish and Wildlife land is what's been targeted first because it's easy. It's the first thing you can get to without having to worry about the process of buying land from people," she says, pausing while rolling out a round hay bale for her mama cows.

她停頓了一下，一邊為她的母牛鋪開了一個圓形的干草包，一邊說：“魚類和野生動植物的土地是最先被瞄準(zhǔn)的，因為它很容易。這是你第一件不用擔(dān)心從人們手中買地的事情。”

Perez helps sustain the wildlife refuges by raising native plants such as yucca, catclaw acacia and wolfberry that she sells to Fish and Wildlife. The agency uses the plants to revegetate farmland and turn it back into natural terrain.

佩雷斯通過種植絲蘭、卡爪金合歡和枸杞等本土植物來幫助維持野生動物保護(hù)區(qū)，她將這些植物出售給魚類和野生動物保護(hù)組織。該機(jī)構(gòu)利用這些植物重新種植農(nóng)田，并將其恢復(fù)為自然地形。