• Damage from border wall includes blown-up mountains, toppled 100-year-old cactus

    Damage from border wall includes blown-up mountains, toppled 100-year-old cactus

    Dec 17, 2020 07:37 PM EDT

    ... wildlife refuges and Indigenous territory the government owns in Arizona and New Mexico, avoiding the legal fights over private land in busier crossing areas of Texas. The work has caused environmental damage, preventing animals from moving freely and scarring unique mountain and desert landscapes that conservationists fear could be irreversible ...

  • Trump fast-tracks environmental rollbacks to deliver on campaign promises

    Trump fast-tracks environmental rollbacks to deliver on campaign promises

    Jul 01, 2020 05:53 PM EDT

    ... racism.” The populations of Webb and Zapata counties are nearly 96 percent and 95 percent Hispanic or Latino, respectively. In April, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, along with 66 U.S. representatives and 22 senators, sent a letter to Wolf, Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper ...

  • Trump agencies push forward on rollbacks as pandemic rages

    Trump agencies push forward on rollbacks as pandemic rages

    Mar 24, 2020 01:06 PM EDT

    ... or advisories as officials struggle for medical supplies to face a new contagion that has no known vaccine or treatment. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat and chairwoman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, separately wrote the agency of the "massive disruption" of the coronavirus emergency and ...

  • Monarch butterflies drop 53 percent in wintering area officials say

    Monarch butterflies drop 53 percent in wintering area officials say

    Mar 13, 2020 11:33 PM EDT

    MEXICO CITY (AP) — The number of monarch butterflies that showed up at their winter resting grounds decreased about 53 percent this year, Mexican officials said Friday. Some activists called the decline "heartbreaking," but the Mexico head of the World Wildlife Fund said the reduction "is not alarming." WWF Mexico director ...

  • Native or invasive species? The distinction blurs as the world warms

    Native or invasive species? The distinction blurs as the world warms

    Jan 17, 2020 04:37 PM EDT

    ... have arrived in the temperate kelp forests of the eastern Mediterranean. Elkhorn corals from the Caribbean now sprout in thickets off the coast of Galveston, Texas. The trend is expected to continue as the climate crisis deepens, with species that societies rely upon for a wide range of economic, cultural ...

  • U.S. officials granting $29 million for coastal protection

    U.S. officials granting $29 million for coastal protection

    Nov 18, 2019 11:37 PM EDT

    ... reefs. The program got 176 applications, including far more high-quality projects than the 44 the fund was able to support, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s director of coastal conservation, Erika Feller said after the news conference at a project site in suburban New Orleans. The Texas General ...

  • Historic cemeteries and family memories stand in the path of Trump's border wall

    Historic cemeteries and family memories stand in the path of Trump's border wall

    May 30, 2019 10:34 PM EDT

    ... recently and has led her family's fight to save them. "We know we're a small voice, but we're a voice nonetheless." In Texas, construction could begin any day on walls that would also cut through national wildlife refuges; farmland that grows onions, cantaloupes, and corn; and properties ...

  • Disputes at Mexican border also about environment, private land

    Disputes at Mexican border also about environment, private land

    Jan 13, 2019 09:57 PM EDT

    ... barrier. Julián Aguilar: Well the people that supported that that's what they say and I think a lot of folks that aren't from Texas or even are from the border in Texas and they don't realize it at least in Texas we have the 1254 miles of ...

  • Trump says walls work. It's much more complicated

    Trump says walls work. It's much more complicated

    Jan 10, 2019 12:36 AM EDT

    ... border patrol agents. WATCH: For a ‘smart’ secure border, ‘we need need some creativity,’ says Rep. McCaul A 2014 report from Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, then the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, detailed how each part of the border needs its own unique set of fixes. The Yuma ...

  • What's the status of Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall?

    What's the status of Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall?

    Dec 19, 2018 06:35 PM EDT

    ... One conservation-related legal challenge was heard on Tuesday in federal court in Washington. The groups argue the project in New Mexico would displace rare wildlife, including the aplomado falcon and Mexican gray wolf. In South Texas, almost 70 percent of the land at the National Butterfly Center, which provides ...