Posts about #keepbigbendwild

Photo ©Rebecca L. Latson

"I stand with the Keep Big Bend Wild coalition"

I stand with the Keep Big Bend Wild coalition in their mission to secure official Wilderness designation for Big Bend National Park's untouched backcountry. This fight isn't new—the National Park Service first championed it in 1974, during my tenure as Director, and reaffirmed the call in 1978. Now, it's time for Congress to act. By enshrining permanent, statutory protection, we can ensure Big Bend’s breathtaking landscapes remain shielded from policy shifts or development threats. It's heartening to see the backing of former NPS Directors, united in our commitment to safeguarding America's wilderness legacy so future generations can continue to embrace its solitude, beauty, and ecological richness."

~ Ronald H. Walker, NPS Director 1973-1975

A detail from a panel that could be impacted by wall construction. Vibrations from heavy equipment can even damage sites not directly in the path of construction. (Photo credit: Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center Archive)

The Border Chronicle | Trump’s Border Wall Is Coming for Some of the Oldest Murals in North America

On June 3, the Department of Homeland Security awarded its largest upfront border wall contract to date to Fisher Sand & Gravel, a North Dakota company with a checkered[…]

The Alpine Avalanche | Border Wall Outcries Fall on Deaf Ears

The ongoing controversy involving the building of a border wall in Big Bend looks to be forging ahead, despite multiple organizations and conservation advocates’ pleas, as well as comments[…]

San Vicente schoolteacher Iva Lee Bales poses with her class at Glenn Springs. The residents of San Vicente were forced out of what's now Big Bend National Park during the 1940s. Photo courtesy of the Archives of the Big Bend, Steve and May Bennet Collection.

Big Bend Sentinel | ‘We already lost it once’: Eminent domain returns to the Big Bend

When Everett Ewing Townsend, a 23-year-old customs inspector stationed on the border in the Big Bend, saw the South Rim of the Chisos Mountains for the first time, he[…]

The Rio Grande cuts through the desert between the U.S. and Mexico as seen from an aerial view over Big Bend National Park on May 24, 2026. Kaylee Greenlee for The Texas Tribune

Valley Central.com | Proposed ban on Big Bend border wall fails in U.S. House funding panel

A proposal to bar the Trump administration from building a border wall in Big Bend National Park died Wednesday in the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, after the GOP-controlled panel[…]

More than a half-million people visit Big Bend National Park each year. The plans for miles of 4-foot-tall metal barriers through the park, part of the Trump administration's border security infrastructure, would bring permanent changes to a timeless landscape. Austin American-Statesman

Austin American-Statesman | This is the edge of America. Why would we change it?

We stood at the doorstep of a foreign land and a gorge millions of years in the making. I told my kids: This is the edge of America.

Rounded peaks rise from the desert northwest of Panther Junction, Big Bend National Park, Texas. Dan Leeth/Dallas Morning News

Austin American-Statesman | Texas Democrats, former Big Bend leaders urge halt to border barrier plans

Every Democratic member of the Texas congressional delegation has joined seven former Big Bend National Park leaders in calling for the Trump administration to halt plans to construct border[…]

National Parks Traveler Podcast

National Parks Traveler | Wilderness Lost

Across the United States, from Alaska to Puerto Rico, there are about 112 million acres of officially designated wilderness. That amounts to about 5 percent of the country’s land[…]

Big Bend Entrance Sign. NPS File photo.

National Parks Traveler | Congressional Democrats Express Opposition To Waivers Issued For Big Bend Border Wall

In a letter sent to Secretary of Department of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin on June 16, Congressional Democrats expressed strong opposition to the agency’s recent decision to issue waivers[…]

Homeland Security Secretary Mullin is being urged to scale back construction plans that could lead to "unaccountable destruction" of Big Bend National Park/Rebecca Latson file.

National Parks Traveler | Former Big Bend National Park Officials Urge Homeland Security Secretary Not To Allow “Wholesale And Unaccountable Destruction” Of The Park

Former Big Bend National Park officials, whose first letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin asking that he not waive environmental regulations to allow construction of a border wall[…]

The Rio Grande, in the Santa Elena canyon on 11 April 2026 in Big Bend national park, Texas. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

The Guardian | ‘It’s massive destruction’: outcry in Texas over waivers to allow border wall in Big Bend national park

The Trump administration has waived a slew of environmental and historical preservation laws that would allow it to build a towering border wall that cuts through Big Bend national[…]

Support Keep Big Bend Wild

Click this button to add your name to the growing list of individuals, businesses, and organizations supporting a wilderness designation for the undeveloped lands of Big Bend National Park.

If you would also be willing to help support Keep Big Bend Wild financially please click Donate. 

Every contribution helps defray the cost of our volunteers to produce materials and travel to meetings to build awareness and strengthen our coalition. 

Contributions supporting Keep Big Bend Wild are managed by the El Paso Community Foundation and are tax deductible as allowed by law.

© 2026 Keep Big Bend Wild.
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Images © Rebecca Latson.

Keep Big Bend Wild
P.O. Box 66
Big Bend National Park, TX, 79834