The destruction of some of Big Bend National Park’s most sensitive ecosystems can now continue after a Monday decision by the Supreme Court.
The decision means that President Trump’s administration can move forward with border wall construction in this national park on the Texas-Mexico border. Construction began in August on this latest phase of Trump’s border wall expansion plans, which includes barriers and surveillance equipment along a 500-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Video footage from the initial stages of construction was posted online soon after. It showed bulldozers destroying the park’s critical river habitats, which support the wildlife in the vast desert surrounding Big Bend.
The footage galvanized opposition to the construction from environmentalists, but also, more surprisingly, ranchers and Texas politicians. Critics of the project pointed out that the construction would cut off river access, threaten nearby crops and cattle, and permanently alter the sensitive landscape.
In an 8-1 unsigned decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has now granted permission for construction to resume. Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
Texans Unite For National Park
Texas has only two national parks: Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains. Big Bend is known for its mountainous desert vistas and unique ecosystem along the curving Rio Grande that separates Texas from Mexico.
After video showed bulldozers plowing through some of the park’s most sensitive riparian areas on August 6, environmental groups called it “a day of infamy.” That led to a coalition to oppose further construction. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott even claimed he stopped the project by calling Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Regardless, the construction was officially halted in October after an El Paso judge blocked further work in the park. That came after a lawsuit filed by several environmental groups. The damage already done to the national park was described as “horrific” by the environmentalists and park advocates who fought to prevent the construction.
The Trump administration waived more than a dozen environmental rules to move the project forward. In the Supreme Court decision, the justices wrote that “the Government’s interest therefore outweighs any aesthetic, recreational, and environmental harm alleged by respondents.”
