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Like others in her profession, Fleming is convinced there is a
better way to go about addressing Florida’s development needs.
The ideal solution, she says, is bringing together landowners, res-
idential and commercial developers, wildlife advocates, and con-
servation experts, with the goal of getting everyone to agree on
a plan for an entire landscape. Fleming explains what is needed:
A plan where those who are fighting to keep wildlife and
their habitats on the map actually get to influence where
development projects go, and where they don’t. Instead of
battling each project on its own and risking a loss, we could
make certain that the most important habitats are declared
“off limits,” protecting them from not one or two but ALL
development projects planned for decades to come.
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A POTENTIAL CATASTROPHE FOR WILDLIFE
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump talked a great deal about a
border wall between the United States and Mexico. That border spans nearly 2,000
miles (3,219 km), so construction would take years and cost billions of dollars. With
all the hurdles involved, no one knows if the wall will ever be built. But one thing
is known: Such a wall would be catastrophic for wildlife. The border that winds
along the southern edge of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California serves as
habitat for hundreds of wildlife species, and the wall would cut through the habitat
and fragment or destroy it. The wall would also overlap four wildlife refuges that
are home to a variety of animals that would no longer be able to migrate in order
to hunt, mate, and nd water. “It will choke off life from both sides,” says wildlife
biologist Jeff Corwin.
One animal that is threatened by the wall is the jaguar, the largest cat in the West-
ern Hemisphere. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, jaguars roamed
freely throughout the American Southwest. Today wildlife of cials know of only two
adult male jaguars in the United States. If their population is ever going to grow, the
cats will need to mate with female jaguars from Mexico. That is already a challenging
feat because of the distance they must travel. If their efforts are met with a three-
story-high concrete wall, it will mean the end of wild jaguars in the United States.
Quoted in Daniella Silva and Suzanne Gamboa, “Trump’s Border Wall ‘Catastrophic’ for Environment, Endangered
Species: Activists,” NBC News, April 22, 2017.
