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The recent news of new jaguar sightings in southern Arizona has generated a lot of conversations about the potential comeback of this emblematic and extremely rare species of the southern Arizona borderlands.
The biggest barrier for this species to recover besides illegal hunting and habitat loss is an actual physical barrier, the presence of the border wall. It is no coincidence that the sightings of jaguars have happened in an area that remains unwalled as they come from Mexico. This is the same area where former Governor Doug Ducey installed his shipping containers.
Erick Meza, the coordinator of the Sierra Club Borderlands program said, “Wildlife in the borderlands just need an opportunity to move and connect to thrive --but we continue to deny it with the construction of more barriers, increased militarization, and the pushing of asylum seekers to remote areas of the desert.”
Sierra Club has been advocating for wildlife openings in areas where walls were constructed and for storm gates to be opened all year long to provide movement of water as well as for wildlife corridors. We have gotten storm gates opened permanently in a few important priority areas thanks to a hard-fought settlement agreement with the federal government relating to unlawful expenditures of federal dollars. There will be dozens of small wildlife openings–some of them are already in place and we will continue to advocate for more.
The small wildlife openings are not the only solution to improving the movement of species in these large territories but a combination of many more large wildlife openings are needed, plus no more wall construction in critical wildlife habitat, more habitat restoration, immigration centers to process asylum seekers at ports of entry, and meaningful collaborations with countries where people are fleeing climate change, violence, and lack of economic opportunities.