A non-profit environmental group says that a new section of the border wall built in southern Arizona will keep out more than just illegal immigrants.
A patch of border wall and a “paved road across Arizona’s California Gulch is blocking streamflow critical to the survival of one of only two U.S. populations of Sonora chub,” says a Center for Biological Diversity press release.
Such a “rare desert fish” can be a “small, moderately chubby fish that feasts on a variety of native food sources and has a unique and distinctly red coloration on the underside when in breeding condition,” it says.
Krista Kemppinen, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement, “The new wall and road will push these endangered fish to the brink of extinction.”
“For the Sonora chub to survive, it needs to be able to get to scarce desert water on both sides of the border, share genetic material with close populations in Mexico, and get more fish from Sonora moving upstream when there are droughts. “That can’t happen because of the new building,” she said.
This issue was brought up by the group just a few days before President-elect Donald Trump took office and stepped up his efforts to secure the border.
“Designating California Gulch as critical habitat is more urgent than ever to minimize other threats, such as by keeping cows out of the Sonora chub’s pools,” Kemppinen said in the report. “It’s also important that carefully planned culverts be added to the new border infrastructure so that streams can flow and move in a way that looks like nature.” The federal government needs to act now if they want to save this fish.
A heated argument broke out earlier this month over whether Democrats were to blame for California’s wildfires. Trump said that Gov. Gavin Newsom cared more about saving an endangered fish species called smelt than protecting people in the state from wildfires.
Trump caused a stir on Wednesday when he said on his Truth Social platform that Newsom wanted “to protect an essentially worthless fish” more than he wanted to protect Californians’ water needs. In any case, the statements are not new. In October, before the election in November, Trump claimed in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan.
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