Originally posted August 7, 2026
Heavy construction equipment has appeared inside Big Bend National Park in southern Texas as contractors for Customs and Border Protection begin a land assessment. The work is a precursor to a massive border security project that opponents say will profoundly reshape the character of one of the state’s most pristine landscapes.
As onlookers stood by, bulldozers crashed through native cottonwoods and willows growing alongside the Rio Grande, scattering birds and pig-like javelinas. Raymond Skiles, a former wildlife biologist and wilderness coordinator who worked in the park until 2018, posted on social media that the event would go down as “a day of infamy.”
“The needless border wall’s rip and tear across the fabric of this national treasure began yesterday,” he said in a Facebook post, adding that “in the desert, there is no more valuable habitat than where the trees grow. … This is what they chose to destroy first.”
Read the full story on SFGate.com.
Photo Credit Natalie Newman
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