As we’ve mentioned here before, border wall construction is going on even as we speak, despite the best efforts of many MSM outlets to claim otherwise. One of the latest stretches going up is located in Arizona on the edge of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Crews are on site with heavy equipment, grading the land and making preparations for the thirty-foot high bollard barrier to be sunk nearly a dozen feet into the ground. This stretch of the wall will cover somewhere between forty and fifty miles of the border.

But since this is a monument dedicated to a couple of particular types of cactus, a few of them will either have to be relocated (tricky at best) or simply sacrificed in the name of national security. This has cactus activists (which is apparently a thing) feeling a bit prickly. Yes… I know. I’ll be here all week. Try the veal. (KVOA News)

Border wall construction is underway in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The construction is causing concern after a video posted on social media shows a cactus being bulldozed on the protected land.

“I’ve been posting updates most recently of Saguaro Cactuses literally being ripped out of the ground. Organ Pipe is designated to protect cactus like the Organ Pipe and Saguaro Cactuses,” Laiken Jordahl said, “It’s understandable, people are outraged to see the very species of this monument was designated to protect be destroyed.”

Jordahl is a Border Lands Campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity. He shared the video of the cactus being bulldozed online.

Here’s the incriminating video of the helpless cactus screaming for mercy as a bulldozer shoves it across the construction site as tweeted by an activist who clearly doesn’t think much of the President’s border policies.

VIDEO: Saguaros are being bulldozed for the #BorderWall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Trump's reckless border hysteria is destroying our environment and killing the very species this national monument was designated to protect.

Footage by Kevin Dahl, @NPCA. pic.twitter.com/XceszFIRKd

— Laiken Jordahl (@LaikenJordahl) October 4, 2019

Reading a bit further into the coverage, combined with a little research into the distribution of various cactus species, we learn that the Saguaro Cactus is found across the southern part of both Arizona and Californa, as well as being prevalent across northern portions of Mexico. The organ pipe cactus is indeed quite rare… in the United States. This national monument is at the northernmost tip of its natural range. But it’s also found all the way down the Baja peninsula as well as along the western side of Mexico stretching approximately halfway down that country’s length.

The number of these cactuses (cacti?) that are sitting precisely on the thin strip of borderland where the wall is going up is pretty small. The people involved in documenting this work also admit that some of the plants that can be safely dug up are being relocated, but a few will probably be lost to the bulldozer.

Their other complaint is that the border wall will stop migratory animals from crossing the border. I looked up some of the studies (like this one) analyzing the impact of the wall on wildlife and there may be something to that. But mostly they talk about populations of wildlife that exist on both sides of the border and could be “cut off” from the others. No specific land animals that actually “migrate” back and forth seasonally were listed. (Strangely enough, they did list an owl that migrates as being affected, but I was under the impression most of them have wings.)

Look, it’s a construction project. The value of the barrier drops to zero if we leave big holes in it so the Sonoran pronghorn can wander back and forth. If there’s a breeding population on both sides and you’re really worried about them evolving away from each other, maybe we can set up some sort of pronghorn catapult or something.

In any event, the work is in progress and thus far the opponents haven’t managed to find a way to stop it in court. Chalk up roughly fifty more miles of the wall when it’s finished and let’s get on with the work.