A 200-year-old cottonwood tree near the US-Mexico border, known as the “grandmother”, has been destroyed to make way for the construction of Donald Trump’s border wall, despite a months-long effort by protesters trying to save it. In late July, land defenders began a tree-sit in the ghost town of Lochiel, Arizona, taking turns occupying a platform high in the tree’s canopy. The group remained there for more than 70 days.
Then, on Monday at dawn, more than 80 federal agents swarmed the protesters’ camp, which is located on private land, making arrests and preventing people from reaching the cottonwood. Some agents in a steel basket on an extendable crane lift forcibly removed the person in the tree platform, according to videos and photos shared on social media and descriptions of people there at the time. Others were shoved and tackled as they tried to rush toward the tree to prevent its destruction, according to witnesses.
Contractors with Fisher Sand & Gravel, a company building this section of wall, then used an excavator to push over the tree, which cracked and crashed to the earth. Land defenders shrieked, cried and yelled at the federal agents. Now, he added, “there’s a community response of outrage.
People are pissed off.” The cottonwood’s toppling was filmed by a team from Turning Point USA, the far-right political group, who appeared to be embedded with border patrol and allowed free access to roam throughout the closed off public road. One of the land defenders had scaled another ancient cottonwood tree situated right on the border with Mexico. On Thursday, CBP and Mexican police, who have been present for several days and visibly working with American authorities, removed the tree-sitter’s platform, food and water supplies, according to Alex Chabbott, a land defender who has been present at the camp on and off for over a month.
Late on Friday, the tree-sitter came down on their own volition after not being resupplied for several days. The agents involved include border patrol officers, part of CBP, and a special forces tactical unit called Bortac, whose self-described purpose is to “respond to terrorist threats”. The tree-sit began shortly after contractors knocked over and killed three other ancient cottonwood trees nearby on 27 July.
Two 30ft-tall walls are being built throughout this area, known as the San Rafael valley, a remote and once idyllic high elevation prairie where the movie Oklahoma was filmed. The valley, and the Patagonia and Huachuca mountains on either side of it, form one of the most important regional wildlife corridors between the US and Mexico, providing passage to animals including jaguars, ocelots, bears and even beavers and porcupines in recent years. Already, government contractors have finished 88 miles (140km) of secondary wall, which is a second 30ft fence set at some distance from a primary wall of the same height.
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