{"id":558891,"date":"2018-04-07T10:33:09","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T16:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=558891"},"modified":"2018-04-08T08:03:38","modified_gmt":"2018-04-08T14:03:38","slug":"along-the-border-500-miles-of-desert-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/04\/along-the-border-500-miles-of-desert-species\/","title":{"rendered":"Along the border, 500 miles of desert species"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_558897\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-558897\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/BioBlitz-5-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Kevin Weitemier \" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/BioBlitz-5-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/BioBlitz-5-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/BioBlitz-5-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/BioBlitz-5-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/BioBlitz-5.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Norma Jean Gargasz \/ High Country News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kevin Weitemier uses the iNaturalist app to identify bladder pods during the Border BioBlitz at Coronado National Memorial on March 3.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One early March morning in southern Arizona\u2019s Coronado National Memorial, an uneven line of scientists and amateur naturalists in floppy hats and hiking pants crept up a steep hillside through yellowed grasses and dark shrubs. Plant names \u2013 scientific and common \u2013 flitted through the cool air, as the group covered the terrain, moving at the pace of lichen.<\/p>\n<p>The dry winter suppressed plant growth, making for challenging botanizing. \u201cAny ideas on this little guy here?\u201d one participant asked, pointing to what appeared to be a leaf emerging from parched soil.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hcn.org\/issues\/50.6\/us-mexican-border-along-the-border-bioblitz-records-500-miles-of-desert-species?utm_source=nmpolitics.net&amp;utm_medium=web\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">High\u200b \u200bCountry\u200b \u200bNews<\/a>\u200b,\u200b \u200ba\u200b \u200bnonprofit\u200b \u200bnews\u200b \u200borganization\u200b \u200bthat\u200b \u200bcovers\u200b \u200bthe\u200b \u200bimportant\u200b \u200bissues\u200b \u200bthat define\u200b \u200bthe\u200b \u200bAmerican\u200b \u200bWest.\u200b \u200b\u200b<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hcn.org\/subscribe?src=header\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Subscribe<\/a>\u200b,\u200b \u200bget\u200b \u200bthe\u200b\u200b \u200b<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hcn.org\/enewsletter\/commons-email-signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">enewsletter<\/a>\u200b,\u200b \u200band\u200b \u200bfollow\u200b \u200bHCN\u200b \u200bon\u200b\u200b \u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/highcountrynews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>\u200b\u200b \u200band\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/highcountrynews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>\u200b.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI just put, \u2018It\u2019s green?\u2019 \u201d his companion replied.<\/p>\n<p>The group was there to spend the day cataloging the plants and animals along approximately four miles of undulating desert grassland. Nine other teams were doing the same thing on either side of some 500 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, from Baja California to western New Mexico, along with one team in Texas\u2019s Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge. It was the first Border BioBlitz organized by N-Gen, a professional network of Sonoran desert researchers. More rigorous and thorough field studies would be needed, but this was a necessary first step toward a baseline, said Myles Traphagen, a biogeographer at the nonprofit Wildlands Network, who organized the BioBlitz. If border wall construction goes forward, these experts can watch and record what that means for the ecosystems being bisected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are getting an idea of what is here,\u201d Traphagen said. \u201cOnce you do that, then you can start to monitor over time what changes occur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Southeastern Arizona \u2014 at the intersection of the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Madre, the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts \u2014 is one of the country\u2019s most biodiverse places. Since Coronado\u2019s creation in 1941, biologists have found more than 900 species of plants and vertebrates in these seven square miles alone.<\/p>\n<p>That richness is part of what first drew herpetologist Taylor Edwards to the region. In the late 1990s, Edwards helped survey all of the park\u2019s reptiles and amphibians. He and others documented 22 species not previously recorded in the park, including a western hognose snake, a 2-foot-long splotchy serpent that digs through the soil for toads, using its upturned nose, and fakes dying when threatened. \u201cIt went through its whole death throes, like, \u2018<em>Blaaargh! Aaaargh!\u2019<\/em>`\u201d he recalled, twisting his body like a noodle. \u201cWe were like, \u2018Hey, little guy, it\u2019s all right. Chill!\u2019 \u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Edwards didn\u2019t expect to find any \u201cherps\u201d on this cool day. Instead, he wanted to see how the park has changed since his last survey. Back then, Edwards could walk up to a barbed wire fence and gaze into Mexico. Now, approximately half of that three-and-a-half mile international border is blocked by pedestrian fencing, with vertical metal bars that are more than 17 feet high and too close together for humans to slip through. Still, Edwards saw the day as a celebration of \u201cthe biodiversity of that really remarkable part of both of our countries.\u201d It was also a chance to have fun, which for this group meant photographing hoverflies and poking through coyote poo.<\/p>\n<p>The BioBlitz had just been given more urgency: In February, a U.S. district judge ruled that the Trump administration could waive federal regulations and fast-track construction without environmental analyses, leaving no record of the ecological trade-offs being made for a border barrier. The federal spending bill, passed a few weeks after the BioBlitz, may force some environmental review, but in the end, studies like this may provide the only documentation of what was here before the wall.<\/p>\n<p>On a rocky hillside trimmed with cacti, the group found a small cave. Inside were what appeared to be the tracks of a young javelina traveling alone \u2014 strange, because javelinas generally live in family groups. \u201cMaybe it was hiding from Border Patrol,\u201d Traphagen remarked to a few volunteers, who laughed.<\/p>\n<p>N-Gen has not taken an official position on immigration policy, much to Edwards\u2019 disappointment. He argues that poor immigration policy harms the Borderlands environment, and that scientists have an obligation to get involved. But other board members worried about the impacts of advocacy on federal employees and citizens of different nations. After months of discussion, N-Gen decided to keep its work science-oriented and let the BioBlitz serve as its response to the politicization of the border.<\/p>\n<p>All the BioBlitz participants are desert devotees, but not all are professional scientists. Amateur birder Robert Weissler confided to me that he was drawn here from California 17 years ago by the bird diversity: Southern Arizona is \u201cthe hummingbird capital of the United States,\u201d he said. More than twice as many species visit the region than most other places in the West.<\/p>\n<p>At the top of a rise, the group paused beneath the burned husk of a massive, 20-foot-tall alligator juniper and listened to the clear, high notes of a bird. \u201cRock wren,\u201d Elaine Nakash, an employee of the U.S. Geological Survey\u2019s bird-banding laboratory, said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCanyon wren,\u201d Weissler suggested, noting a discordant buzz in the wren\u2019s sweet call. It lingered in the clear desert air long after the group moved on.<\/p>\n<p><em>Maya L. Kapoor is an associate editor for\u00a0<\/em>High Country News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Trump\u2019s wall lurches forward, &#8216;BioBlitz&#8217; records the Borderlands\u2019 biodiversity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":558897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,3307,147],"class_list":["post-558891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-donald-trump","tag-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}