--- title: How Would a Border Wall Affect the Environment? | TIME description: President Donald Trump's plan to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico has been greeted with cheers from his supporters but conservationists say it poses a threat to the local environment and ecosystems. canonical: https://time.com/video/8QwmIoEW/ og:title: How Would a Border Wall Affect the Environment? og:description: President Donald Trump's plan to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico has been greeted with cheers from his supporters but conservationists say it poses a threat to the local environment and ecosystems. og:url: https://time.com/video/8QwmIoEW/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8QwmIoEW/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Would a Border Wall Affect the Environment? twitter:description: President Donald Trump's plan to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico has been greeted with cheers from his supporters but conservationists say it poses a threat to the local environment and ecosystems. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8QwmIoEW/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How Would a Border Wall Affect the Environment? > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How Would a Border Wall Affect the Environment? [Watch (HLS stream): How Would a Border Wall Affect the Environment?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8QwmIoEW.m3u8) (1:33)  _Published 2017-02-27. President Donald Trump's plan to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico has been greeted with cheers from his supporters but conservationists say it poses a threat to the local environment and ecosystems._ --- Jul 28, 2023 4:22 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Trump Says He Never Claimed Mexico Would "Write a Check" for the Border Wall](/video/AQrgAITV/) ### Trump Says He Never Claimed Mexico Would "Write a Check" for the Border Wall [Politicians on Border Wall Funding](/video/mcZCGYQ9/) ### Politicians on Border Wall Funding [In Their Words: the Border Wall](/video/QM85D8KQ/) ### In Their Words: the Border Wall --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] My name is Sergio Avila I am a conservation research scientist at the Arizona- Sonora Desert Museum. There are different types of impacts to the environment if we think about barriers. If we block the movement, the natural movements of wildlife populations in any direction, we might be blocking those populations from moving to places where they can withstand the changing of the climate. There is also the longer term effect of blocking populations of plants and animals that eventually become separated genetically and, though this is very long term, creating a separation there is like a barrier to their reproduction. The infrastructure that is proposed along the border, is not only a while, we're talking about roads, patrols along those roads and helicopters and high- powered lights. And all of these different cases, destroy the habitat Other long term effects could be the destruction of so much habitat that then we lose complete populations of wildlife. This is a unique place for diversity of life in the world. If you don't see political lines Nature has no borders. Ultimately, the impacts to the environment are the most serious consequence of this infrastructure. 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