Outstanding photos of the border fence region accompany this article in the printed edition of Coast & Ocean.

RASA GUSTAITIS

IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE in Imperial Beach, take a walk to the westernmost block of Imperial Beach Boulevard and gaze south. Your eyes will travel across a great green marshland of the Tijuana River Valley, coming to rest on the Border Highlands. When oceanside mist softens the rugged hillsides and etches their ridgeline against the sky, this is one of the grand vistas on the southern California coast.

The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (TRNERR) begins at the sidewalk's edge, right where you stand. Tidy city streets and houses cluster behind you, while directly ahead, only a few feet away, a snowy egret might be stalking its dinner in the pickleweed. Off to your right the ocean shimmers beyond the beach, interrupted at the Mexican border by a fence descending into the surf.

This is a place that calls out to the imagination, an ecological, political, and symbolic borderland long riven by conflict, abused and degraded, which nevertheless supports an abundance of life. Most of the valley's tidal and brackish marshlands and some of the uplands are encompassed within the 2,500-acre reserve, while the riparian floodplain and the rare coastal scrub and maritime chaparral habitats of the border highlands are included as a Core Biological Area in the City of San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program.

For the past 16 years, the consortium of 10 agencies and organizations that constitute the TRNERR Management Agency, along with scientists, educators, and citizens from both sides of the border, have been working to restore the natural resources of this unique landscape and improve parklands and trails. Around $15 million of public funds have been spent on these efforts thus far. In addition, a whopping $341 million has recently been laid out for a binational sewage treatment plant, built to help resolve one of the area's most pernicious problems, crossborder sewage contamination.

Now, however, just as the estuary's health is improving, fears have arisen that much of this patiently crafted effort might be undone by a massive road and fence project, now under way, designed to seal the 14 westernmost miles of the border against illegal crossings. The U.S. Border Patrol has begun to reinforce the fence completed in the early 1990s with a second, stronger and higher fence, and in the corridor between these two fences it is building a near-level road flanked by lights, sensors, cameras, and other detection devices. "The goal is to secure the border 365 days a year, in all weather conditions," explains Kenneth R. Stitt, assistant chief patrol agent, San Diego Sector.

The 15-foot fence is to run from the lowtide zone east to the western slope of Otay Mesa. Two eastern segments are already up, totalling 3.5 miles. To build the 1.8-mile piece planned across Smuggler's Gulch, one of the westernmost canyons, massive earthmoving would be required. The gulch would be filled with millions of cubic yards of material cut from two adjacent mesas, one of which, Spooners Mesa, was acquired by San Diego County this year as an addition to Tijuana River Valley Regional Park. Both mesas harbor areas of rare and unique habitat.

Some scientists, agency staff, and citizens working in the reserve and the valley believe that such a project would seriously damage irreplaceable natural resources, increase sedimentation and erosion, and greatly compromise public access improvements, especially those now being planned for Border Field State Park; and that it also would undermine binational projects in the Tijuana River watershed, two-thirds of which is in Mexico. Many question the need for such mammoth fortifications at a time when illegal crossings have greatly diminished in San Diego County and have largely shifted inland.

"The project's footprint would be equivalent to building an interstate road along the border," commented Paul Blackburn, the Sierra Club's conservation chair for San Diego County.

"To face a threat like this is a real irony, given the taxpayers' investment in the restoration of the borderlands and some real progress having been made," commented Jim King, who has worked in the estuary for a decade as the Coastal Conservancy's staff representative. "It's just this simple. The design mandated by Congress is out of touch with reality here and it needs to be reassessed."

ALARMING WAIVER
TWO MORE FENCES and roads between them (in addition to the fence now in place) are mandated by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, PL 104-208. This law's Section 102, written by Rep. Duncan Hunter of San Diego, instructs: "The [U.S.] Attorney General shall provide for the construction along the 14 miles of the international land border of the United States, starting at the Pacific Ocean and extending eastward, of second and third fences, in addition to the existing reinforced fence, and for roads between the fences."

"We will build the fence, and a smooth all-weather road," Rep. Hunter's aide Gary Becks said in July. "But it seems that with the level of control we're getting at the border the third layer will not be necessary."

The legislation includes a waiver of the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act "to the extent the Attorney General determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads."

This waiver is extremely disturbing to resource managers and others. "I spend my time working with many nations, making sure they do environmental assessments on protected areas," said Mark Spalding, a consultant on international environmental policy and law. "If the U.S. does something like this without an environmental impact statement, I don't believe we'll have any credibility whatever."

In September 1997, having seen no proposals or environmental documents for the project - although an inland segment had already been constructed - the Coastal Commission notified the Border Patrol and the Army Corps of Engineers that a consistency determination would need to be submitted for proposed land acquisitions and the fence, including a finding as to whether the project is "consistent to the maximum extent practicable with the California Coastal Management Program."

Some details of what is intended emerged recently, after the TRNERR's Management Authority, concerned because nothing had been submitted to it on paper, asked the reserve's newest member, the Border Patrol, for information. The Border Patrol responded with a meeting on April 30, at which Chief Warrant Officer Carl Anderson of the California National Guard unrolled engineering drawings. These showed the road and fence crossing Smuggler's Gulch and either cutting through Border Field State Park or wrapping around Border Field Mesa. "Driving in would feel like driving into a prison," said Lee McEachern, a planner for the Coastal Commission. "This would all but destroy any use of that park."

The Border Patrol explained that the drawings were no more than preliminary conceptual sketches that reflected what the Border Patrol knew "would work extra well for us from an enforcement perspective." It is hoping to adopt a strategy of "forward deployment" that would reduce its need for manpower. Instead of continuing to patrol two miles from the border northward, it would like to concentrate surveillance on a 500-foot-wide corridor next to the border, To do that, it needs better vehicular, visual, and surveillance access to the immediate border.

There was, as yet, no design, the Border Patrol said. That would be produced by the Army Corps of Engineers out of Ft. Worth, Texas, which would also do the environmental assessment and build the project. In the absence of a design, the Border Patrol thought that these concerns were premature.

These explanations did not allay fears. Nan Valerio, coordinator for planning at the border for the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), recalled that no environmental documents were submitted to SANDAG, the regional clearinghouse for environmental review, when the first fence was built. After being briefed about the current project, however, SANDAG's executive committee voted to write to the U.S. Attorney General requesting that endangered species and environmental protection law requirements not be waived. The committee pointed out that the entire southern part of the county is identified as sensitive habitat, and that large parts of it are accorded protection by the Multiple Species Conservation Program.

Valerio noted that the municipal government of Tijuana was also concerned that it might not be consulted. "At a time when there's a whole lot of consultation and information exchange on police, health, transportation planning, and other matters, all we can tell them is that we haven't been consulted either," she said.

Across the border, Oscar Romo, director of Ecoparque, a wastewater treatment and recycling project operated by the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, said, "No one on the Mexico side was consulted. No one knew."

Ecoparque began as a project of the Coastal Conservancy. The hope is that it can be replicated, providing inexpensive yet effective sewage treatment to other communities without sewer systems in this watershed. "I'm involved in conservation of the two canyons and the estuary," said Romo. "This has been a perfect demonstration of binational cooperation." But now, he said, "binational cooperation disappears. We are offended. The road will be environmentally aggressive. It's wrong. When we've been trying to cooperate on this border for three years, why not on this issue? I understand that the goal is to stop the immigration - but there are other solutions."

INTENSE CONCERNS
IS A DOUBLE FENCE with a road corridor our best answer to border problems? Among those who don't think so are Michael and Patricia McCoy, founders of the Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association (SWIA), who led the way to the estuarine reserve's creation in 1981 and were recently honored by the Environmental Law Institute's National Wetlands Award. They are now working with other groups to establish a national wildlife refuge in San Diego Bay and to have the Tijuana Estuary designated wetlands of international importance.

"We're trying to foster good will. With Mexico getting on its economic feet, I honestly believe that in a few years a project of this magnitude will be redundant." said Patricia McCoy. "I also believe that the fence-road-fence configuration is not conducive to officer safety. It escalates the danger and could well become a trap."

As word about the project spread, phone calls, faxes, and letters poured in to various elected and other officials. The Border Patrol arranged another meeting, this time in Smuggler's Gulch, to answer questions, clear up misunderstandings, and lay fears to rest.

A handful of people were expected, but 25 showed up, representing a wide array of organizations and agencies. Because not all who would have wanted to come could make it, and questions remained, a third meeting was set up, this time through the good offices of San Diego Dialogue, a community-based public policy center at the University of California, San Diego, Center for U.S.-Mexican studies. More than 35 people gathered in the offices of the San Diego Sector of the Border Patrol. Later, Stitt said: "It was a surprise to me, personally, that this came up this way" - that is, while the project was still at an early stage.

Some of those present, however, thought it was late rather than early to consider alternative concepts, perhaps something less offensive than a military-style barrier between two friendly nations. This fence threatened to wreck cross-border initiatives they had been nurturing for years, building a foundation for binational watershed stewardship.

The binational citizens group pro esteros, founded to protect coastal wetlands, is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Schoolchildren have been tracking the migration of black brant between Alaska and Mexico, reporting to each other by e-mail. Scholars and university students are collaborating on projects of mutual importance. All this is laying the foundation for ever greater international cooperation. Just this spring, with the help of the Coastal Conservancy, SWIA held a two-day workshop in Tijuana on erosion in Goat Canyon, which is known as Cañon de los Laureles on the other side of the border. This canyon is west of Spooners Mesa, and is the focus of a SWIA-Conservancy plan for habitat restoration and erosion control. Would the people from Cañon de los Laureles, who have participated so enthusiastically, want to hear further suggestions from behind that new fence?

The Border Patrol told the June 12 gathering that it had no intention of circumventing environmental review requirements and wanted to be part of the community. Its expertise, however, is in law enforcement, not in building projects. As he was unable to answer many of the questions raised, Stitt urged people to write to Eric W. Verwers, assistant director of the INS Architect-Engineer Resource Center, Corps of Engineers, at Fort Worth, Texas. Only a 1.8-mile section across Smuggler's Gulch was now being planned, he said. No one knew what would be needed the rest of the way to the ocean's edge.

To this Jim Peugh responded that "piecemealing" violates planning principles. The 14-mile project had to be viewed as a whole. If that was not done, added the Coastal Commission's McEachern, that 1.8-section could well "set the stage for having to continue to the water."

In any case, critics argued, wasn't the border already under effective control with Operation Gatekeeper, which in 1994 more than doubled the Border Patrol's manpower and provided more technological assistance? Stitt replied that yes, indeed, Operation Gatekeeper was very effective. "Last year we had the lowest number of apprehensions in the San Diego area in 17 years, and this year there has been a decline of another 21 percent." Between October 1996 and September 30, 1997, apprehensions within the 7,000 square miles patrolled in the county numbered 283,889, less than half the 524,231 recorded in the same months of 1994-95, according to Supervising Agent Mario Villarreal. The Border Patrol's San Diego Sector now has formidable enforcement tools: 10 helicopters; the IDENT system, which identifies repeat offenders; seismic, magnetic and infrared sensors; and boroscopes, a new technology that reveals hidden compartments in gas tanks. It has 2,300 agents, compared to about 900 before October 1994. As a result, except during storms and on foggy nights, not many people attempt to cross at the estuary now. In June 1998, the number of people apprehended in Imperial Beach was 1,537, compared to 17,614 - more than ten times as many - in June 1994, and not all were illegal travelers. However, Stitt explained, there is no guarantee that the current level of funding will continue. The $12 million for the fence project is available now, and Congress expects prompt action.

Among local residents who support the fence project is Carolyn Powers of Citizens Against Recreational Eviction, who "has had a lot of input into this project," according to Rep. Hunter's aide Gary Becks. "Once that money - almost an excessive level of funding - dries up," she said, "we will once again be besieged." Her daughter, who lives in Imperial Beach, used to hear dogs barking, car doors slamming, and footsteps "all night long," before Operation Gatekeeper.

While riding or hiking, Powers would meet groups of illegal travelers. "I didn't mind, truly, running into them on the trail," she said. "They'd stand back and wave me on. But the criminal Mexican smugglers, with identical backpacks and tattooed tears on their faces, they'd stand across my path. I carry a machete and have a fast and intuitive horse, but I'd assume a humble position, I'd subjugate myself, and they'd let me pass. I'd hate to see the money cut off and a return to that." However, she said, "instead of topping the fence with razor - concertina - wire, why not top it with Mexican and U.S. banners? Have a celebratory fence."

(There is no wire atop either of its fences, says the Border Patrol, and none is planned. "That would be inhumane.")

WOULD IT WORK?
WITH CALIFORNIA'S ECONOMY booming and many employers continuing to seek cheap labor, people from south of the border continue to arrive. The traffic has shifted, however, to the mountainous Cleveland National Forest and to the All-American Canal, beyond the county. Most people found dead of hyperthermia, hypothermia, or other traumatic causes near the border are now found on the east side of the county, according to Mandy Reyes, a computer specialist at the County Medical Examiner's office. Still, in fog and rain, some people do try to cross the estuary and drown. It will take much more than a strong fence to stop the flow of poor people driven by despair and hope.

Operation Gatekeeper has reduced chases across the wetland and the consequent damage by tires and trampling. A second fence might eliminate them. Meanwhile, illegally set fires, a new network of trails, and other damage has increased in the Cleveland National Forest, according to Michael Jerrett, assistant professor of geography at San Diego State University, who is researching the costs of environmental degradation on both sides of the border.

A BIGGER PICTURE
ON A JUNE AFTERNOON, I rode with Pat Flanagan, director of education for the San Diego Museum of Natural History, across the valley and into the highlands. Following one of the rough dirt roads that have been cut into the hillsides for the Border Patrol, we arrived atop the mesa east of Smuggler's Gulch to find a grand view and a fragrant remnant of rare native scrub habitat. Laurel sumac and black sage were in bloom. A kestrel dropped into the grass and rose again; a kite hovered above the western slope. Below us lay the Tijuana River Valley, willows marking the course of the river. Point Loma stood dark against a gleaming sea. The border patrol's green and white vehicles perched on lookout points carved into canyon sides.

We descended into Smuggler's Gulch and then worked our way up to Spooners Mesa, along another Border Patrol roadcut. The Army Corps has expressed an interest in running the fence to a peak of 850 feet on the south side of this mesa, which was purchased with Proposition 70 funds for parkland. The federal government would need to condemn it or get approval from the State Legislature, a county parks official said.

Clinging to the steep western edge, a bushmallow was in bloom, its pink-lavender petals almost translucent in the slanting late-afternoon light. Though not a rare plant, it was exquisite, and the ravaged hillside behind it only highlighted its fragility. To the south, beyond the rusted first border fence (built of landing mats used in desert warfare), Mexican automobile traffic was thick, much of it going to or from the San Ysidro border crossing.

"Since we have to have a fence, here on this cherished last mile to the sea, why don't we just build one that's able to do the job - like the bollard fence behind the new sewage treatment plant - and take down the ineffective landing mat fence?" mused Flanagan. "Then the roads we have might be enough. The solution is not fences and roads. It's pretty clear you have to solve the problem in Mexico, not at the border."

Because so many people care about this landscape and have made their concerns known, a door to more creative approaches to the border problem has now been opened. They now hope that a full review of the effects of the entire 14-mile project will be undertaken in compliance with environmental laws, so that its cumulative impacts are considered. This process would necessarily include public hearings.

These statutes were created for resolving profoundly difficult conflicts, such as those associated with the border fence, by directing focus to project purpose and design, environmental impact, and alternatives. This unique and significant area, which includes delicate, scarce habitats, clearly warrants this work, and the fledgling efforts for binational watershed stewardship demand it. Much is at stake here.