WorldNetDaily.com 9/29/06 – “Activists and some wardens with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are worried about the barriers’ potential effect on a wildlife corridor linking northern Mexico and the U.S. southwest known as the ‘Sky Islands,’ according to Reuters. In that stretch of 40 mountain ranges are scores of species from both southern and northern climates such as the jaguar and the parrot of the Mexican Sierra Madre Mountains and the black bear and the Mexican wolf of the U.S. Rocky Mountains. ‘Bisecting the area with an impermeable barrier such as a double reinforced wall or fence could really have a devastating effect on these species,’ said Matt Skroch, a wildlife biologist and executive director of the environmental non-profit group Sky Island Alliance in Tucson, Ariz., according to the news service. ‘If they build it, we could really say goodbye to the future of jaguars in the United States,’ he added…William Radke, manager of the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge near Douglas, Ariz., is worried the fencing ‘would have a negative effect on everything from the insects that would now be flying around the lights instead of pollinating the cactuses, to the birds that eat them, right up to the large predators like the jaguars.’ Snakes, turtles, wild turkeys and road runners also would be prevented from crossing, he told Reuters, and the bright lights would interfere with birds’ ability to navigate by the stars. Radke also is concerned the barrier would cut off the highland trails used by ‘pioneer’ jaguars crossing from Mexico and repopulating the Peloncillo mountains east of Douglas after decades of absence. Radke explained that the jaguars are coming north because their habitats are filling up in Mexico. ‘If we cut off that access they are going to be restricted to areas where they are going to be in conflict with their own populations, it would have a negative impact,’ he told Reuters.”
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