Home / Environment / Desert Oasis Faces Extinction Due to Border Wall
Desert Oasis Faces Extinction Due to Border Wall
24 Jul
Summary
- Quitobaquito Springs, home to rare species, is threatened by a new border wall.
- The O'odham people consider the springs sacred, calling it A'al Vaipia.
- Construction could destroy critical habitat and desecrate gravesites.
Environmentalists are warning that planned border wall construction poses a severe threat to Quitobaquito Springs, a unique desert oasis in southwestern Arizona. This area, sacred to the O'odham people as A'al Vaipia, is the sole natural habitat for the Sonoyta pupfish and springsnails, and the only US home for the Sonoyta mud turtle.
The planned 30ft-tall secondary wall, to be built just 90-150 feet from an existing barrier, could destroy part of the pond and vital mesquite groves used by the turtles for burrowing. This construction comes despite negligible illegal border crossings in the remote area.
Researchers are urgently planning to relocate animals, including up to 250 turtles, to temporary artificial habitats. Backup populations of snails and pupfish also exist, but this is not a long-term solution.
Beyond environmental devastation, Indigenous leaders fear the wall will desecrate more than 40 gravesites and block access to the sacred springs, which have served as a traditional O'odham route for millennia. Concerns are also rising over the project's impact on the aquifer feeding the springs.
