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Bypassing Laws to Build Border Fence Puts Endangered Plants, Animals at Risk

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published April 2, 2008 at 1:52 PM PDT
This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The Department of Homeland Security's recent waiver of laws along hundreds of miles of the U.S. Mexico border puts endangered plant and animal species in Southern California at further risk. KPBS Repo

Bypassing Laws to Build Border Fence Puts Endangered Plants, Animals at Risk

The Department of Homeland Security's recent waiver of laws along hundreds of miles of the U.S. Mexico border puts endangered plant and animal species in Southern California at further risk. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has details.

The Secretary of Homeland Security waived more than 30 laws along 470 miles of the border to clear the path for more border fencing.

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The government plans to build fencing and roads in the Otay Wilderness, between Tecate and Jacumba and from the Jacumba Wilderness 45 miles east to Arizona.

Kim Delfino is a director with Defenders of Wildlife . She says Otay Wilderness is one area at risk.

Delfino: In order to qualify as a federally designated wilderness area, it has to be considered very special, very pristine and very intact. And there's not many of those places in the United States. So this project would disrupt and destroy those very unique and special places that we have.

The Otay Wilderness is home to endangered plant and animal species including the Quino butterfly and the California gnatcatcher.

Amy Isackson, KPBS News.

Amy Isackson
Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.
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