‘So much worth saving': Botanists scour US-Mexico border to document forgotten ecosystem
There has been a groundswell of initiatives to document the borderland’s flora and fauna as climate change coupled with habitat loss, pollution and development have hammered the world’s biodiversity
By Julie Watson • Published May 19, 2024 • Updated on May 19, 2024 at 1:42 pm
Near the towering border wall flanked by a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle, botanist Sula Vanderplank heard a quail in the scrub yelp “chi-ca-go,” a sound the birds use to signal they are separated from a mate or group.
Then silence.
A quail on the Mexican side called back, triggering a back-and-forth soundtrack that was both fitting and heartbreaking in an ecosystem split by an artificial barrier.
Vanderplank was among several botanists and citizen scientists participating in the Border Bioblitz near the Mexican community of Jacumé, about 60 miles east of San Ysidro and Tijuana and just south of Jacumba.
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/california/botanists-mexico-border-bioblitz-ecosystem/3518282/
