“Waiving environmental laws to ram a $1.7 billion border wall through Big Bend National Park is fiscally reckless, ineffective, and an unconscionable sacrifice of one of America’s most irreplaceable wild landscapes,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “It sets a terrible precedent for our ability to consider and address environmental impacts of development projects in other parks.”
Proof that the National Park Service is but an afterthought to the Trump administration can be traced, at least, to March when we asked Interior Department staff whether the Park Service had any concerns about impacts to Big Bend if a border wall was built in the park. We were told to ask the “Department of War.”