This article originally appeared on Arizona Public Media, Southern Arizona’s PBS and NPR station.
Contractors uprooted three cottonwood trees in rural Santa Cruz County Monday morning to make way for new border wall construction, despite outcry from conservation groups and local residents, who say the sprawling trees hold deep cultural and ecological significance.
The Sierra Club estimates the trees, located in the small ranching community of Lochiel, are more than 200 years old.
“Once again, rushed destruction has claimed one of the most iconic and biodiverse areas in the entire Arizona-Sonora border,” said Erick Meza, borderlands coordinator for the Sierra Club, in a statement.
When AZPM visited the site in June, the cottonwoods had remained intact, their branches offering a sturdy canopy against the summer heat.
On Monday, another visit to the San Rafael Valley told a different story. Using excavators, contractors tossed cottonwood branches into a pile as a massive trunk lay on its side.
For weeks, volunteers had been monitoring the area as contractors with Fisher Sand & Gravel inched toward the cottonwood grove. Entry onto the construction site itself is prohibited for members of the public, but a nearby homeowner granted volunteers permission to watch and document the construction from her property.
“That’s why I’m here,” said volunteer Kate Scott. “We were given the opportunity to witness this and document this.”
Scott, co-founder of the nonprofit Madrean Archipelago Society, stood beneath the shade of one remaining cottonwood tree Monday as construction whirred nearby.
“As we know, we don’t always succeed,” Scott said. “But if you don’t try, then that’s the day you die, right?”
Daniel Ramirez, AZPM
Laurie Butler, whose home sits adjacent to the border wall construction, described the cottonwood grove as “the heart” of the San Rafael Valley in an interview last month.
“We’re not going to stop the wall,” Butler said. “I mean, that’s a done deal. But what we can mitigate [are] the damages through the little town of Lochiel.”
The razing of the trees comes as the Department of Homeland Security continues to clear the way for two parallel walls that would run across most of Arizona’s southern border.
On Monday, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office arrested one individual attempting to monitor the construction.
Santa Cruz County Undersheriff Gerardo Castillo confirmed that Logan Miller had been arrested for criminal trespassing. He was released on his own recognizance later that day.
Footage circulated on social media by conservation groups Monday shows two Sheriff’s Office deputies handcuffing Miller at the construction site.
“I do this to show that people in America can take a stand to stop the destruction going on across this country,” Miller says in the video as deputies pat him down.
Active nesting season
The cottonwood trees were torn down on July 27. The date falls squarely within Arizona’s active nesting season — a crucial survival period for migratory birds.
Citing correspondence with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Sierra Club said the federal government had pledged to ensure certain safeguards for active nesting bird species.
“If the work is scheduled to take place during Arizona’s active nesting season,
environmental monitors will perform a preconstruction survey for migratory bird species to identify active nests prior to the start of any construction or clearing activity,” CBP stated in a June 18 letter published by the Sierra Club.
To protect migratory birds, the contractors would “establish a buffer zone around active nests until nestlings have fledged and abandoned the nest,” the letter said.
But as tree demolition unfolded Monday, the Sierra Club said no environmental monitors were onsite to check for active nests.
Daniel Ramirez, AZPM
CBP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Last year, however, DHS waived federal environmental laws to expedite border wall construction in the San Rafael Valley, where the cottonwood grove is located.
“Projects executed under a waiver are critical steps to secure the southern border and reinforce our commitment to border security,” the agency said in a statement at the time.