Construction activity for the new double border walls in southeastern Arizona intensified this week, with conservation groups documenting explosive blasting on the outskirts of Coronado National Memorial. According to video captured by the Center for Biological Diversity, crews detonated charges Wednesday in an area designated as critical habitat for several endangered species, including jaguars and Mexican spotted owls.
The footage shows debris and dust drifting across fragile slopes of the Huachuca Mountains, where the endangered beardless chinchweed plant also grows. Conservationists say the blasts were used to clear hillsides for wall foundations and to quarry rock needed for concrete, part of a fast-tracked construction effort enabled after the Trump administration waived dozens of long-standing environmental laws.
The activity comes at a particularly sensitive moment for wildlife advocates. Just a day before the blasts, newly released remote-camera images confirmed the presence of a jaguar in southern Arizona — a rare sighting that underscored the biological importance of the borderlands. The ongoing construction sits at the convergence of Coronado National Memorial, Coronado National Forest and the San Rafael Valley, a region long known as a crucial wildlife passage.
"This wall is being ripped through a living landscape that's vital to endangered animals and plants," said Russ McSpadden, a Southwest conservation advocate at the Center who recorded the blasting.
Maps provided by the organization show the quarrying area and detonation zone situated directly within pathways used by jaguars, ocelots, and numerous other species that move between the United States and Mexico. The San Rafael Valley, in particular, functions as one of the last intact wildlife corridors in the Sky Islands — a region where isolated mountain ranges create unique ecosystems linked by critical natural passages.
The Center for Biological Diversity warns that the ongoing wall construction threatens to permanently disrupt these routes, isolating wildlife populations on both sides of the border. The group argues that the fracture of migration pathways could undermine decades of conservation work aimed at restoring jaguars to the Southwest.
Beyond wildlife concerns, environmental scientists have raised red flags about soil disruption, water quality impacts and the loss of native vegetation tied to blasting operations. With federal environmental reviews bypassed, watchdog organizations say they are preparing legal and scientific challenges they believe will be necessary to protect remaining habitat.
As construction accelerates, the tension between expedited border infrastructure and the protection of sensitive ecosystems is drawing sharper attention — especially as new wildlife documentation continues to show the region's ecological significance.
Originally reported by My Herald Review.
