Former National Park Service officials renewed their plea to the Trump administration to “avoid wholesale and unaccountable destruction” in Big Bend National Park, as the Customs and Border Protection advances plans to build new barriers and roads in the region.
In a Monday letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, former top park officials lamented the decision to waive dozens of environmental laws, along with state and local laws and regulations.
DHS announced in May it would waive those regulations, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, along a 60-mile stretch of the Rio Grande in Texas. The agency finalized that decision earlier this month, despite pushback from park proponents and environmental groups.
“This was devastating news, though not unexpected,” wrote former Big Bend park superintendents Bob Krumenaker, Cindy Ott-Jones, Bill Wellman, John H. King, Robert Arnberger and H. Gilbert Lusk and former Deputy Superintendent David Elkowitz.
