'Tear them down': Unused border lights threaten fragile species, conservation group says

More than 1,800 high-powered lights deployed on posts by the Trump administration, but apparently never switched on, now loom as threats to wildlife along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, a conservation group has concluded.

The Center for Biological Diversity counted the lights from the ground and the air and found that, if illuminated, they would eliminate the dark of night across more than 60 miles of protected federal lands in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area and the San Bernardino Valley. The longest stretch — 740 lights across 24.6 miles — is in Organ Pipe.

“It’s some of the darkest and least light-polluted areas of the United States,” said Ruskin Hartley, CEO of the International Dark Sky Association. His organization concurs with the Center for Biological Diversity’s ultimate request: Tear down the lights. The lights likely would be seen from dozens of miles in the distance, Hartley said, disrupting both the ecology and the human experience of southern Arizona’s wildlands.

The Center released a report, "A Wall of Lights Through the Wild," about the lights, outlining likely disruptions to migrating birds, insects, cactus-pollinating bats and the jaguars and ocelots that occasionally disperse from Mexico into Arizona. Some species would be drawn to the lights, altering their usual feeding and mating patterns, while others would be repelled, said Russ McSpadden, the Center’s Southwest conservation advocate. “If they ever flip them all,” he said, “all at once everything would change.”

The government installed the lights without conducting the usual environmental reviews for such a major project on federal lands, having secured a waiver for border-protection construction projects. In conjunction with the release of its report, the Center also sent a letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection asking it to remove the lights or at least complete an environmental study before turning them on. The group also asks that the agency consults with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the likely effects of turning on the lights.

In an email responding to The Arizona Republic's questions about the program, Customs and Border Protection on Thursday said the agency "will conduct a review of environmental impacts pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to install new lights where none exist and/or power on lights where lighting infrastructure had been installed."

The agency said officials will review the potential for environmental impacts and will take public comment, notify public officials, local communities, non-government organizations and tribes, and will consult with the Department of the Interior, which manages affected lands. The statement did not address the Center's request to have existing lights removed.

It’s not clear that the lights are functional, with a source of electricity for each. During McSpadden’s survey of the installations, he said, it appeared some had wiring, while others had wires that had been torn out of their boxes by packrats or other animals. He said the agency had not answered his questions or records requests about how many lights it says it has erected, how many could be functional immediately or what it plans for them.

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The lights were installed between 2019 and 2021. Hartley, of the Dark Sky Association, said it’s unclear what advantage border agents would gain by having lights on the border. It makes sense around ports of entry and heavily traveled areas, he said, but in general bright lights would likely disrupt other technologies for catching border crossers, such as night-vision goggles.

“There’s no evidence that it increases safety,” Hartley said.

The affected areas include the Sky Island mountain ranges and valleys of southern Arizona, which last month won a commitment of nearly $10 million in federal Inflation Reduction Act funding for restoration work to improve fire resiliency, protect wildlife migration corridors and conserve water for the San Pedro River. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., released a statement saying that the effort “builds on our work to ensure Arizona remains a safe and healthy place to visit and call home for generations to come.”

Spokespersons for Sinema and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, did not immediately respond to The Republic's requests for comment on the border light arrays.

Brandon Loomis covers environmental and climate issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Reach him at brandon.loomis@arizonarepublic.com or follow on Twitter @brandonloomis.

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: On the U.S.-Mexico border, 1,800 unused lampposts loom over wildlands