June 22, 2026
As I start to pack up for my section hike this year, I want to post a quick plea in a departure from my regular hiking adventure posts. Many of you may have heard of the move towards the horrifying construction in and around Big Bend National Park. As a public lands advocate and native Texan, this hits close to home. Link below to a quick overview of the proposed (and already starting) project.
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/7b9dcd3f418b4086988532ace99a4bfc
Background:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is planning to construct vehicle barrier system and roads in Brewster County, Texas, including areas in and around Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Park. On June 9, 2026, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a waiver covering certain laws, regulations, and other legal requirements to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads.
Please read, share, and submit your comments a way to exercise our rights as American citizens and protect the land that we collectively own. I’ve probably posted this quote before, but it rings so true and is something we should never forget.
From Dayton Duncan, the main writer of the Ken Burns National Parks documentary:
“At the heart of the national parks idea is this: By virtue of being an American, whether your ancestors came over on the Mayflower, or whether they just arrived, whether your daddy owns the factory, or your mother is a maid, you, YOU are the owner of some of the best seafront property this country’s got. You own spectacular views of mountains and waterfalls. You own amazing canyons and vistas. They belong to YOU. They’re YOURS. And all that’s asked of you is that you put it in your will, for your children, so that they can have it too. Hopefully you won’t let it be despoiled. Hopefully you won’t let it be sold off. Hopefully you’ll provide for proper maintenance of this property that is yours, but that’s all you have to do…now, that’s quite a bargain.”
Here’s the article from Marfa Public Radio, instructions for submitting comments, and what I sent. Use mine as a template, or just copy and paste it, I don’t care. Use your voice to fight back!
How to Submit Comments:
CBP will be accepting comments until July 13, 2026. Comments can be emailed to CBP at BigBendComments@cbp.dhs.gov. Please include “Brewster County Vehicle Barrier System Construction” in the subject of your email. Comments received in response to this letter, including names and addresses of those who comment, will become part of the public record.
Helpful comments are fact-based, include links to data or research, and provide specific information concerning potential impacts to environment, culture, quality of life and commerce, including potential socioeconomic impacts. If known, your response should include any state and local restrictions, permitting or other requirements that CBP should consider during project siting, construction, and operation.
You may also provide comments, questions, or concerns by calling (833) 412-2056 or by mailing:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Program Management Office Directorate 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. 6.5E Mail Stop 1039 Washington, D.C. 20229-1100 ATTN: Michelle Barnes
My letter:
To U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
I am writing as a native Texan to strongly oppose the proposed Brewster County Vehicle Barrier System Construction project in and around Big Bend National Park, including the planned vehicle barriers, patrol roads, detection infrastructure, lighting, bridges, staging areas, laydown yards, utility poles, utility shelters, and related construction activity.
Big Bend is one of the places that made me proud to be from Texas, and the idea of permanently scarring it for this project is unconscionable.
I support responsible and effective border security. This proposal is neither responsible nor justified. It is a massive industrial construction project in one of the most remote, ecologically important, culturally significant, and visually irreplaceable landscapes in the United States. The plan to construct approximately 17 non-contiguous miles of vehicle barrier system and approximately 205 miles of patrol roads, potentially up to 24 feet wide and equipped with detection technology, is wildly disproportionate to the documented level of border activity in the Big Bend Sector.
Big Bend National Park is not empty desert. It is not unused land. It is not a construction zone waiting to happen. It is a national park, a globally significant dark-sky landscape, a refuge for wildlife, a place of extraordinary cultural and archaeological significance, and an economic engine for Far West Texas communities. More importantly, it is public land. National Parks are the birthright of all Americans. This is our land, held in trust for the people, and no administration has the moral right to permanently scar it for an unnecessary and destructive project.
The proposed construction threatens everything that makes Big Bend sacred to Texans and treasured by Americans.
I am particularly concerned about the following impacts:
First, the scale of road construction is unacceptable. A 205-mile network of patrol roads, some potentially up to 24 feet wide, would permanently fragment desert habitat, scar viewsheds, increase erosion, alter drainage, and create long-term maintenance impacts. In steep and rugged areas such as canyon country, road construction could require major grading, retaining structures, drainage work, bridges, and possibly blasting or other destructive methods. This is not minor access work. It is an industrialization of a national park landscape.
Second, the proposal threatens Big Bend’s dark skies. The region’s darkness is not incidental; it is one of the park’s defining resources and a major reason people travel there. The proposed utility poles, luminaries, surveillance systems, shelters, and grid-powered infrastructure risk introducing artificial light into an area where darkness itself is a protected public value. Even shielded lighting, if placed across remote desert corridors, can degrade night skies, affect wildlife behavior, and diminish the visitor experience.
Third, the project risks damaging cultural and archaeological resources. Big Bend contains thousands of years of human history. Clearing land for roads, barriers, staging areas, laydown yards, utility shelters, drainage structures, and underground conduit creates a serious risk of disturbing archaeological sites and cultural landscapes. Waiving federal laws does not erase the federal government’s responsibility to protect these resources. It only makes the process more reckless.
Fourth, the proposal could damage water, soil, and drainage systems in a fragile desert environment. The project description references drainage gates, erosion-control structures, low-water crossings, ditches, riprap, water for construction, and dust suppression. That alone shows how much hydrology and soil disturbance this project could create. In a desert landscape, damage to drainage patterns, biological soil crusts, vegetation, and washes can last for decades.
Fifth, the project threatens the local economy and quality of life in Brewster County and the wider Big Bend region. Visitors come to Big Bend for wilderness, solitude, dark skies, scenic beauty, birding, hiking, river canyons, and an experience that feels unlike anywhere else in the country. Industrial infrastructure, construction scars, lighting, road cuts, towers, utility shelters, and staging yards would reduce the very qualities that support tourism, small businesses, guides, lodging operators, restaurants, outfitters, and local communities.
CBP should not treat Big Bend as a blank space on a map. It is a national park. It belongs to the American people. It should be protected for future generations, not sacrificed to rushed construction enabled by waivers of environmental, historic preservation, and public review laws.
I ask CBP to take the following actions:
- Fully withdraw the Brewster County Vehicle Barrier System Construction proposal.
- Do not construct new border barriers, patrol roads, utility corridors, lighting systems, surveillance towers, staging areas, laydown yards, bridges, or related industrial infrastructure in Big Bend National Park or surrounding protected public lands.
- Do not rely on legal waivers to bypass environmental review, historic preservation obligations, public accountability, or meaningful consultation with affected communities and Tribal nations.
- Publicly release all detailed maps, road alignments, staging locations, water sources, lighting plans, cultural resource surveys, biological surveys, hydrology analyses, and long-term maintenance plans related to this proposal.
- Provide a public explanation for why CBP is pursuing massive permanent infrastructure in a sector that reportedly accounts for only a very small share of overall border apprehensions.
- Permanently protect Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, canyon country, riparian areas, cultural landscapes, dark-sky resources, wildlife habitat, archaeological sites, and high-value viewsheds from this construction.
- Pursue border security only through methods that do not permanently damage national park lands, public lands, cultural resources, wildlife habitat, desert hydrology, dark skies, or the visitor experience.
The American people can support border security without accepting the destruction of Big Bend National Park. This project is not necessary. It is not justified. It is not an acceptable tradeoff.
National Parks are the birthright of all Americans. Big Bend is our land. It belongs to the public, not to any one administration, agency, contractor, or political project.
This proposal should be fully withdrawn. Anything less would be an illegal and unacceptable assault on our public lands.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[City, State]
Mexico to Canada 2023 (and beyond) 