作者 Dan Oko
2000年11月13日
德州和墨西哥之間邊境地帶，長久以來處於政治衝突之中。在分隔美國和其南鄰的Rio Grande河衝突區域裏，一個人們只能生活在陰影處的地方，希望在輔助軍隊的行動中找到喘息的空間。
這隻豹貓可沒有九條命
照片來源：美國漁業及野生物管理局
當美國移民局(INS)在90年代後期決定在Rio Grande河谷下游加派軍力，如此會使得沿著德州南部幾個小鎮之間很難有機會找到灌木叢藏匿。但INS並不了解，增加巡邏隊、移除地面物、建立圍欄、舖設道路、在河的四周設置明亮的照明燈等措施，不僅會造成非法移民及走私者的壓力，亦會減少兩種瀕臨絕種的生物－豹貓和獺貓－的生存機會。
這些貓科動物僅在美國西部少數區域出現。根據最近一次計算，在德州僅有少於100隻的豹貓，牠們多數棲息於Rio Grande河谷中的諸多聯邦野生物保護區內，美國漁業及野生物管理局(USFWS)的Johnny French稱之為「我們的珍珠串似的保護區」，因為，和大多數的自然保護區或國家公園不同的是，這些土地並非屬於一塊完整的區域。如家貓般大小的獺貓，數量上甚至遠少於豹貓，自上次近10年前的統計調查中，唯一經過證實、在德洲被看到的獺貓，已死於公路意外。
被光線弄瞎了眼睛？一隻獺貓
這兩種敏感的貓比較喜歡在有昆蟲、鳥類及嚙齒動物棲息的濃密草叢中漫步，而拜加速的發展及將草原改成牧場之賜，這種生態體系在德州及其它地區正快速地消失當中。French指出，「我們正失去野生生物的棲地」。「這是和私有地相關的問題，所以我們無法對其有多大的控制，但我們可以藉由邊境巡邏隊的幫助來保育這些貓科動物的更多棲地。這並不容易，但我確信我們會找到方法解決它。」
French特別提到，這個地區裡危及生態考量的人權問題及經濟懸殊的議題，讓原本緊張的局勢更為複雜。
邊境，法庭中的邊境
去年環保人士曾提出訴訟，指控INS在沒有適當的公共意見或環境檢測的條件配合下，就展開在Rio Grande河的軍事行動。根據野生生物守護組織、Sierra協會及Audubon學會的Frontera分會指出，法令執行機構對於在邊境架設燈光的舉動有所疏忽，而且當他們觸及瀕臨絕種動物法案時，亦未適當地向相關的聯邦機構進行諮商。
INS的助理邊境巡邏隊長Rey Garza辯稱，環保人士以技術性問題刁難他的部門。他說該部門的主要缺失，是沒有按照國家環境政策法案的要求，讓這個計劃公諸民眾；但他堅稱INS和USFWS就Rio Grande河的軍事行動上，已有3年的定期會商。
沿著Rio Grande河的貓族主要棲地
在9月達成的協議中，USFWS 和環保署（EPA）將會投入一個有關Rio Grande河軍事行動的正式調查，而且將會查閱和豹貓和獺貓有關的瀕臨絕種動物法規。一份完整的環境衝擊報告書將在明年夏 天前完成，民眾可在報告公佈後2個月時間內提出意見。在該報告完成前，INS會關閉11條沿著動物常經過之通路的附近道路、減少破壞河谷平原的水草地、避免架設新的燈光、柵欄、船用下滑水道以及舖設道路。在INS未來針對美墨邊境的計劃中，這個案例將可提供一個可為大家接受的範例。
這個協議令德州Audubon的成員Mary Lou Campbell十分高興，她也曾經與邊境巡邏隊合作，讓INS的作為對環境更為友善。「有時我們必須透過公眾的行動來讓這些聯邦機構遵守法令，但我們還是必須保持樂觀。」Campbell說，「這是一個生物多樣性極豐富的區域。它剛好地處於熱帶及亞熱帶生態系交界，是許多熱帶生物生存的一個最北界線。」
INS 的Garza說，他相信在長遠看來，國家安全和環境政策是可以相容共存的。「當然，我們相信國家安全是比較重要的，」他說，「但這之中還有相當的爭議，而且我想我們已經證明，我們可以一起合作並且將此轉為助力。」
Dan Oko是一個得過獎的記者，他報導美國西部環境議題已有近10年的時間。現在他住在德州的奧斯丁，他最近的作品見於Sports Afield, Trout, 和 Austin Chronicle.
全文及圖示詳見：http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/maindish/
oko111300.stm
版權歸屬 Grist Magazine 環境信託基金會 (楊璧如 譯，李欣哲 審校)
中英對照全文詳見：http://news.ngo.org.tw/issue/animal/issue-animal
00122001.htm
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by Dan Oko
13 Nov 2000
The Texas-Mexico border has long been a setting for political skirmishes, a conflict zone where figures hide in shadows hoping to find a loophole in the paramilitary operations that attend the Rio Grande, the river that separates the U.S. from its southern neighbor.
This ocelot doesn't have nine lives.Photo: U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife.
When the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) decided in the late '90s to beef up its border operations in the lower Rio Grande Valley, it followed that it would become harder to hide out in the brushy habitat stretching between the small towns of south Texas. But the INS didn't realize that by increasing patrols, clearing ground cover, erecting fences, paving roads, and shining bright lights along river basins, it would not just put pressure on illegal immigrants and smugglers but also diminish the chances of survival for a pair of endangered wildcats, the ocelot and jaguarondi.
These cats persist in only a few areas of the American West. At last count, there were fewer than 100 ocelots in Texas, most making their homes in the various federal wildlife refuges that dot the Rio Grande Valley, which Johnny French of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) calls "our string-of-pearls refuge," because, unlike most national preserves and parks, the properties are not part of a complete whole. The housecat-sized jaguarundi may be even more rare than the ocelot: The only confirmed jaguarundi sightings in Texas since the last census nearly a decade ago have been roadkill.
Blinded by the light? A jaguarundi.
Both of these sensitive kitties prefer to roam in thick native grasses that harbor insects, birds, and rodents, the kind of ecosystem that is fast disappearing from Texas and elsewhere thanks to increased development and the conversion of grasslands into cattle ranches. "We're losing habitat all over the place," says French. "It's a private lands issue, and we just don't have a lot of control over that, but we can preserve more habitat for the cats with the help of the border patrol. It's not going to be easy, but I'm sure we can find a way to work this out."
Complicating the already tense situation, French notes, are human rights questions and issues of economic disparity that threaten to dwarf ecological concerns in the region.
Border, Border in the Court
Last year, environmentalists filed a lawsuit accusing the INS of initiating Operation Rio Grande without adequate public comment or environmental review. According to Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, and the Frontera chapter of the Audubon Society, the law enforcement agency was negligent when it started placing lights along the border, and it had not adequately consulted with fellow federal agencies when it came to the Endangered Species Act.
Defending the INS, assistant border patrol chief Rey Garza says that the environmentalists tripped up his agency on a technicality. The agency's main failure, he says, was to not make its plans available to the public as required under the National Environmental Policy Act, but he maintains that for three years, the INS had regular consultations with the USFWS over Operation Rio Grande.
Prime kitty habitat along the Rio Grande.
Under the terms of a settlement reached in September, the USFWS and the EPA will be involved in a formal review of Operation Rio Grande and will consult endangered species statutes with regard to the ocelot and jaguarundi. A full environmental impact statement (EIS) will be completed by next summer, and the public will get two months to comment. Until the EIS is completed, the INS will close 11 roads along the wildlife corridor, limit mowing in the Rio Grande floodplain, and refrain from installing new lights, fences, boat ramps, and roads. As the INS looks at future projects along the U.S.-Mexico border, this case may provide a model for what's acceptable.
The settlement pleases Mary Lou Campbell, a Texas Audubon member, who has been on the ground working with the border patrol to make the efforts of the INS more environmentally friendly. "Sometimes it takes public action to get the federal agencies to follow the law, but we have to be optimistic," says Campbell. "This is a region of enormous biodiversity. It's a meeting place between tropical and subtropical ecosystems, and serves as a last frontier for many of these species."
Garza of the INS says he believes national security and environmental policy can be compatible in the long run. "Of course we believe national security is more important," he says, "but there was quite a bit of controversy and I think we've shown that we can work together and turned this into a positive thing."
Dan Oko is an award-winning journalist who has covered environmental issues across the American West for nearly a decade. He currently lives in Austin, Texas, and his recent work has appeared in Sports Afield, Trout, and the Austin Chronicle.
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/
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