Highway robbery federal style …how US Fish & Wildlife gets funds to study bats because US Customs and Border Protection built a fence on the border
by Hugh Holub on Oct. 18, 2010, under border issues, environment water and energy, politics
There was an article in the Citizen about how US Customs and Border Protection agreed to give $50 million to US Fish and Wildlife (an agency within the US Department of Interior), for studies about wildlife on the border.
An initial $6.8 million was agreed to be given by CPB to Fish & Wildlife for studies of things like bat conservation. The funding settles a dispute Fish & Wildlife had with CPB over construction of the fence on the US-Mexico border.
First, one has to ask the question…how does constructing a border fence impact bats? One assumes bats could fly over the border fence.
Here is where the initial $6.8 million is being allocated for…
The First Mitigation Projects:
Sasabe Biological Opinion Arizona $2,119,000
Organ Pipe Cactus NM Biological Opinion Arizona $980,000
San Bernardino Valley Mitigation Arizona $657,480
Rio Yaqui Fish Studies Arizona $441,250
Peninsular Bighorn Sheep Study California $230,000
Coronado NM Agave Restoration Arizona $274,873
Northern Aplomado Falcon Reintroduction and Habitat Restoration New Mexico $499,700
Border-wide Bat Conservation Arizona $925,000
What folks need to understand is the interaction within the federal government between various agencies.
US Customs and Border Protection is part of the Department of Homeland Security. CPB was under a Congressional mandate to build the border fence. Congress wisely exempted Homeland Security from having to do a lot of environmental impact studies before the fence was constructed, because EIS work can take years to complete.
The US Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service is part of a different Cabinet level arm of the federal government, and opposed the border fence because of alleged impacts on wildlife. Among the Fish & Wildlife arguments was that the fence would impede the jaguar from coming from Mexico to the US. [Note...this is the same jaguar whose listing as an endangered species was based on bogus claims there were lots of jaguars living in Arizona.]
In order to get the Fish and Wildlife folks off their backs, CPB ended up paying what amounts to extortion to Fish and Wildlife so Fish and Wildlife employees can run around studying bats. Money from the CPB budget is now being transferred to Fish and Wildlife.
Whether Congress would have appropriated money to Fish and Wildlife to study bats is doubtful, especially in this tight economy.
But Fish and Wildlife doesn’t need to go to Congress. What they do is throw up all sorts of objections to other federal projects in the name of protecting endangered species or whatever, block those projects, and then raid other agencies’ budgets to keep their projects going.
US Fish and Wildlife held up the Central Arizona Project for over $100 million to fund, among other things, poisoning bullfrogs in stock ponds in southern Arizona as part of efforts to save the Chirichahua Leopard Frog.
Protecting the environment has turned into a racket, with one federal agency holding other federal agencies hostage so the money apporopriated by Congress for stuff like building a border fence ends up being diverted into studying bats.
Congress needs to reign in US Fish and Wildlife.
Here is the press release issued by Interior and Homeland Security. Note that a very positive spin is being placed on the deal. Sort of like smiling after one is raped and saying “thank you”.
Projects to Benefit Environment on the Southwest Border
10/13/2010
The First Mitigation Projects: a. Sasabe Biological Opinion Arizona $2,119,000 b. Organ Pipe Cactus NM Biological Opinion Arizona $980,000 c. San Bernardino Valley Mitigation Arizona $657,480 d. Rio Yaqui Fish Studies Arizona $441,250 e. Peninsular Bighorn Sheep Study California $230,000 f. Coronado NM Agave Restoration Arizona $274,873 g. Northern Aplomado Falcon Reintroduction and Habitat Restoration New Mexico $499,700 h. Border-wide Bat Conservation Arizona $925,000
Contact: CBP Public Affairs (202)344-1780
DOI Public Affairs (202) 208-6476
Washington, DC– The U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have completed the first InterAgency Agreement under the 2009 Memorandum of Agreement to fund environmental mitigation projects that will benefit several species of fish and wildlife affected by border security projects in the Southwest. Signed September 28, the agreement will fund $6.8 million in projects and represents the first of a series of efforts designed to mitigate impacts from the construction of fencing and other security measures along the U.S. Border with Mexico.
“CBP is committed to protecting our country’s natural resources and wildlife while performing our security mission,” said CBP Deputy Commissioner, David Aguilar. “CBP is responsible for sound environmental stewardship and energy conservation as an integral part of their mission activities.”
“The projects we are announcing today are, in effect, part of a down payment on mitigating the impact on wildlife and its habitat from the on-going effort to secure our southern border,” Assistant Secretary Rhea Suh said. “In the future, we will continue to work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to fund new projects that ensure threatened and endangered species and other wildlife along the border are conserved and the fragile ecosystems they depend upon are protected.”
The initial mitigation projects include funding to restore habitat for lesser long-nosed bats in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona; re-establish the Aplomado falcon in New Mexico; install a fish barrier at San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona to preclude competition with invasive species; study movement of bighorn sheep in California; survey and monitor jaguars and their habitat in Arizona.
Customs and Border Protection is funding these projects under a 2009 Memorandum of Agreement between CBP and the Department of the Interior for mitigation of unavoidable impacts to natural and cultural resources due to construction of border security infrastructure. Under this agreement, CBP will fund DOI up to $50 million over the next few years for mitigation needs.
Over the past three years, CBP has constructed about 670 miles of fence along the southwest border as an integral part of the nation’s strategy to improve border security. CBP has committed to responsible environmental stewardship throughout the life-cycle of the tactical infrastructure, from construction through operations and maintenance.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of U.S. borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the United States while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.
October 18th, 2010 on 9:05 am
First, that money goes toward the salaries of folks that go out and buy things in our communities. Second, and more importantly, we live in the most biologically diverse spot in the lower 48, the sonoran desert and its mountains are where the tropics of central and south america meet the forests of Canada. Knowing how populations are changing around here can tell us a lot about changes to come everywhere. So, your proposal is to wait to study these plants and animals until we stop seeing them completely? Interesting plan, kind of sounds like the conservative argument on regulating the mortgage industry…deregulate, let the system fall to pieces, then try to clean up the mess.
October 18th, 2010 on 10:44 am
The core problem of the environmental movement today…the end justifies the means…in this case hijacking money from the project to build a fence on the border to pursue your agenda. Would you place national security secondary to your goals?
October 19th, 2010 on 8:03 am
Since when is studying the impact of a project hijacking its money? If you want to build a store on a corner of a busy street…you’re going to have to improve the intersection, maybe even put in a bus stop! Are they hijacking the project? Conservatives seem to think that the fence is the panacea to illegal immigration. Obama’s policies…actually just the implementation of policies already in place that weren’t implemented by Bush…have done more to deal with illegal immigration than anything in decades.
October 19th, 2010 on 9:54 am
I live and buy things in the community. And I want a new big screen TV. There are no jaguars living in Southern Arizona. As the gent who wrote the piece pointed out one might assume a bat will fly over the fence when it runs into it. That is what i might do if I were a bat It’s good to see such efficient use of tax $$ when they reported this past Friday a $1.3 trillion deficit while taking in $2.1 trillion in gross tax receipts to go with the $13 or $14 trillion deficit. As Dave Letterman once said: No wonder everybody hates us.
October 18th, 2010 on 11:23 am
You mention the study is of wildlife, but then make a joke about bats flying over the fence.
Larger animals, however can no longer cross freely anymore across an imaginary fence. If the border was a river, then it makes some kind of geographical sense, but a fence in the middle of the desert?
There are migration routes across the desert. The fence directly affects these, and this in turn affects everything else. It’s all connected. Animals spread seeds, animals get eaten by other animals, animals keep other populations in check (predator-prey cycles).
There is absolutely no NATURAL justification for the border fence. Beware that you don’t fall into the same trap that Sarah Palin did when she made fun of all the research money going into fruit flies…
October 18th, 2010 on 11:24 am
or another study on worms… the Republicans were quick to make fun of that… because what good are worms?
Except if you want to have healthy soil and feed a nation that is…
October 18th, 2010 on 2:46 pm
If Mexico would control the droves of it’s own citizens who refuse to obey U.S. Immigration Law and illegally enter the U.S. both the fence and it’s impact on wildlife would be a moot issue. Instead, Mexico appears to be aiding and abetting the exodus of it’s own citizenry. Perhaps if our neighbors would quit producing dope for U.S. consumption and find ways to create a free market system in Mexico that would produce jobs for Mexicans, all this border talk about bats and fences would cease. How would you propose getting Mexico to give something more than lip service to solving the problem of Mexicans illegally entering the U.S. ?
October 18th, 2010 on 5:28 pm
In an ideal world with immigration law reform where people who want to work are able to get work visas and not cross through the desert, and some useful soution to the drug demand in the US that fuels the cartels…the fence would not be needed.
Meanwhile, the issue is not the fence. It is the raiding of one agency’s budget by another agency. I fail to see how mitigation of the fence relates to bats.
October 18th, 2010 on 12:09 pm
The Great Wall of China. Has that stopped the world from turning. The fence should stop ding bats. The weather service should get money to study the effect of the fence on the wind and weather.
Nature has and will always take care of itself by adoptation. This is your evalution.