US The government shutdown

. What the border fence has kept out instead, according to environmentalists, scientists and local officials, is wildlife. And the people who have spent decades acquiring and restoring border habitat say that if President Donald Trump makes good on his promise to turn the border fence into a continuous, 40-foot concrete wall, the situation for wildlife along the border — one of the most biodiverse areas in North America — will only get worse.

. Right now, a mix of vehicle barriers and pedestrian fencing covers only about one-third of the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Even with all those gaps, experts say the barriers have made it harder for animals to find food, water and mates. Many of them, like jaguars, gray wolves and ocelots, are already endangered.

Congress let the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ignore all the environmental laws that would’ve required the agency to fully study how the barrier would affect wildlife.

When you envision the U.S.-Mexico border, you might think of a barren, dusty desert. But it actually ranks among the most biodiverse places in North America — particularly the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. The Valley is home to some of the last remaining tracts of sabal palm forest in the country — a lush, subtropical ecosystem that is prime habitat for an endangered wild cat called the ocelot.

Two major migratory bird paths also converge in the region, and several tropical bird species there can’t be found anywhere else in the United States. More than 100 other endangered species may be impacted by construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to an analysis of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data. /QUOTE]

. Jesse Lasky, a biologist at Penn State University who studied the impacts of the fence on mammals, reptiles and amphibians, found that the U.S.-Mexico barrier reduced the range for some species by as much as 75 percent. Impacts were particularly acute on smaller populations of wildlife that occur in more specialized habitats like the endangered jaguarundi — another small wild cat.

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Free movement of wildlife is especially important after droughts or natural disasters that can wipe out subpopulations, Flesch said.

The only species we know that’s going to make it through the wall are people,” he added.


Scientists say Trump's border wall would devastate wildlife habitat
 
The reach of this shutdown is astonishing, along with the complete disregard for the lives of nonhuman inhabitants of this earth. I so wish society would come around to the need to share the planet with others besides humans.

In my area, food banks and free dinners are popping up all over for the folks who work TSA at the airport and for the Coast Guard. TSA employees don't make a lot, so many live paycheck to paycheck. I am so incensed that the only ones suffering because of the petulant child in the White House are working people and our animal friends. All because an immature, narcissistic so-called leader can't get what he wants. So he does what he's always done: screw the little guy.
 
The reach of this shutdown is astonishing, along with the complete disregard for the lives of nonhuman inhabitants of this earth. I so wish society would come around to the need to share the planet with others besides humans.

In my area, food banks and free dinners are popping up all over for the folks who work TSA at the airport and for the Coast Guard. TSA employees don't make a lot, so many live paycheck to paycheck. I am so incensed that the only ones suffering because of the petulant child in the White House are working people and our animal friends. All because an immature, narcissistic so-called leader can't get what he wants. So he does what he's always done: screw the little guy.
He bought them MacDonalds burgers, served on silver plates, if I remember correctly. What more can you wish for?! :rolleyes: