Center for Biological Diversity

Protecting endangered species and wild places of western North America
and the Pacific through science, policy, education, and environmental law.

with the SOUTHWEST ALLIANCE TO RESIST MILITARIZATION (SWARM)


News Release: Thursday, June 28, 2001


U.S. BORDER PATROL "PANIC-TOWER" PLAN THREATENS DESERT WILDLIFE AND WILDERNESS ON CABEZA PRIETA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE & BARRY M. GOLDWATER RANGE.

GROUPS ALSO RECOGNIZE IT AS PLOY IN
LARGER
BORDER MILITARIZATION SCHEME.


Contact:
Daniel Patterson, Desert Ecologist, CBD 520.623.5252 x 306, 520.906.2159 cel
Chris Ford, SWARM 520.624.8321
Bruce Eilerts, Associate Director & Wildlife Biologist, CBD 602.421.1270 cel


SONORAN DESERT, AZ ­ Environmental and human-rights activists recently learned of a U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) plan to build at least six environmentally damaging "panic-towers" on critical public lands habitat in W. Pima County and E. Yuma County (map available upon request). According to information obtained this week by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), these towers would be at least 30 feet tall with a bright strobe light flashing day & night and noise making flag at the top. Reportedly, the towers' main purpose would be a "panic button" which would summon USBP when pressed. However, it is also likely that USBP would eventually install more surveillance equipment on the towers.

CBD and SWARM see the USBP plans to build "panic-towers" on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and Barry M. Goldwater Range (BMGR) as a ploy to give the USBP greater access to this pristine and ecologically sensitive area. They also recognize the predictable build-up by USBP and Joint Task Force 6 on the Cabeza and BMGR as part of a larger strategy of militarizing the US-Mexico border region. This strategy has nearly quadrupled the number of USBP agents along the US-Mexico border and has lead to hundreds of migrant deaths and massive ecological damage.
"This tower plan by the Border Patrol is clearly not about saving lives, but about opening up pristine desert for patrols." said Chris Ford of SWARM. "If the Border Patrol truly wanted to save lives, they would stop their deadly policy of pushing people out into these remote and dangerous places."

Many of the tower sites are not currently accessible by road and would require more road building, further fragmenting fragile habitat and damaging the wilderness character of the area. At least one of the towers is proposed to be built within congressionally designated wilderness within the Cabeza Prieta NWF directly adjacent to a critical Sonoran Pronghorn fawning site in the San Cristobal Valley, near the Pima/Yuma county line.

"It is likely these towers would hurt the pronghorn, which is already near extinction." said Daniel Patterson, CBD's Desert Ecologist. "Imperiled wildlife such as the Lesser long-nosed bat may be harmed by the strobe lights and young desert tortoises would be killed more by raptors and ravens using the unnaturally high towers as perch sites."

The endangered Sonoran Pronghorn is highly threatened by human encroachment and development caused stress which disrupts animal movement, foraging and reproduction.1 The Sonoran Pronghorn is one of the most endangered mammals in the nation, with the U.S. population currently estimated at 100 individuals or less and declining.
"The military should be aware that increased threats to the pronghorn, such as Border Patrol towers, will likely trigger more restrictions on military training." said Bruce Eilerts, Wildlife Biologist & CBD's Associate Director who was Chief of the BMGR Natural & Cultural Resources Section from 1993-99. "In the past, non-target structures have been bombed and shot at by thrill-seeking pilots. If migrants are near the towers and it happens again, people will be killed."

SWARM offers that the way to save lives is to end harsh economic policies like structural re-adjustments and trade policies like NAFTA that have impoverished the majority of the Mexican population. Since NAFTA took effect in 1994, wages in Mexico have dropped by 33%, and the number of people living in poverty has risen from 27% to 51%.


*** CBD/SWARM ***

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