u/IndividualFar5477

TEXAS — Amid ongoing controversy concerning border barriers in the Big Bend area, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has requested public comment on planned construction in Brewster County.

The West Texas county contains Big Bend National Park and a sliver of Big Bend Ranch State Park. It’s also home to Terlingua, a small town that has shown staunch anti-border wall sentiment over the past few months.

According to the Tuesday request from the CBP, Brewster County will receive a vehicle barrier system and roads. This comes after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin issued a waiver on June 9 that expedites these construction efforts.

**The public can submit comment to** BigBendComments@cbp.dhs.gov **until July 13. The subject line must read: Brewster County Vehicle Barrier System Construction.

All comments, names and addresses will enter public record.**

According to the CBP, the planned construction includes new detection systems, about “205 miles of new or improved patrol roads” and roughly “17 miles of non-adjoining sections of low-profile post on rail vehicle barrier.”

Steel posts with continuous steel rail supports and alternatining rail heights will make up the vehicle barrier.

The barrier and roads seemingly take the place of a previously planned 30-foot border wall that would have ran through the Big Bend parks region. In May, the CBP told Spectrum News that construction project was not moving forward, and any contracted construction “does not involve the construction of a 30-foot-high barrier in Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park or the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.”

A contract the Department of Homeland Security gave Southwest Valley Constructores Company in early May stated that border construction had begun with an expected end date of December 2028.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) laid out a plan to break the gridlock in the House by attaching the SAVE America Act to the $1.15 trillion defense spending bill, possibly jeopardizing its path to passage on the floor.

Johnson unveiled the plan Monday night as the House Rules Committee met to advance the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) pledging to sink the bill if her voter identification amendment is not attached.

“We’re going to pass a MIRV, or what’s better known as a merge, onto the rule, so what that means is when Republicans vote for the rule, they will be voting not just for the NDAA and everything else is there, but they’ll be voting to merge onto that the SAVE America Act that we passed back in February, so that will send both of those items together over to the Senate,” the speaker told reporters.

Happy Victory Day!!!

More petroglyphs have been destroyed, this time at the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming!

Has anyone else heard about this?

Here is the BLM's press release regarding the vandalism:

https://www.blm.gov/announcement/rock-art-vandalism-collecting-or-damaging-artifacts-public-land-illegal

The House Appropriations Committee has passed a funding bill that undermines the Endangered Species Act: It includes 21 poison pill riders that would remove protection for vulnerable species. It includes provisions that delist wolves nationwide, delist grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, and block protections for wolverines. Section 125 of the bill not only delists gray wolves, but also prevents judicial review; which is especially sinister.

The bill also slashes the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s budget by 5%, and slashes the ESA listing budget by $7million. In addition to this, the bill cuts EPA funding by 20%, and enforcement by $169million.

A descriptions of all poison pill riders are listed here in a letter sent to the Appropriations Committee by a group of over 80 conservation groups.

Here’s a statement by the Center for Biological Diversity on the bill.

Urge your congressional reps to remove the riders in the spending bill that undermine wildlife and the environment.

Here are public comment periods I have found for oil and gas leasing. I have included the project names, due dates, and links to each project's home page.

Wyoming - JUNE 4TH 2026 Third Quarter Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale https://eplanning.blm.gov/Project-Home/?id=13BAFCAB-17F7-F011-8406-001DD804183B

Arizona - JUNE 11TH December 2026 Oil and Gas Lease Sale 30-Day Scoping Period https://eplanning.blm.gov/Project-Home/?id=c5f10790-8349-f111-88b4-001dd8084607

Nevada - JUNE 11TH September 2026 Oil and Gas Lease Sale https://eplanning.blm.gov/Project-Home/?id=6824e840-5501-f111-8407-001dd8084607

Ohio - JUNE 17TH September 2026 Lease Sale Expressions of Interest, Wayne National Forest, Monroe and Washington Counties in Ohio https://eplanning.blm.gov/Project-Home/?id=798d6bf4-a7f2-f011-8407-001dd80bcf93

Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas - JUNE 22ND (BLM has listed multiple parcels for these states under the same projects)

Carslbad Office- Q4 2026 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale - Carlsbad Field Office https://eplanning.blm.gov/Project-Home/?id=85CDA022-E347-F111-88B4-001DD802F839

Farmington Office- Q4 2026 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale - Farmington Field Office https://eplanning.blm.gov/Project-Home/?id=8E2495A0-E347-F111-88B4-001DD802F839

Oklahoma Field Office- Q4 2026 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale - Oklahoma Field Office https://eplanning.blm.gov/Project-Home/?id=7D22C15A-E247-F111-88B4-001DD8029ED0

Alaska - JULY 6TH Production Site Development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska https://eplanning.blm.gov/Project-Home/?id=0270fccb-9850-f111-bec6-001dd8029ed0

These are projects I have managed to find with open comments remaining.

Try your best to personalize your comment as best as possible! A simple "I AM FOR / OPPOSE THIS PROEJCT" will usually not be accepted.

I hope I'm allowed to post this here. Just a reminder if your staying in the loop about the Rice whales endangered status here is some good info and steps you can take. The info below is from the Capitan Paul Watson Foundation.

What's happening with the Rice Whales?:

On March 31, 2026, the Trump administration convened the Endangered Species Committee, often called the “God Squad” because of its power to override the Endangered Species Act.

In its first meeting in decades, the committee voted unanimously to exempt the entire Gulf oil and gas industry from ESA protections, removing mitigation requirements for all protected species in the region.

The decision came despite the fact that Gulf drilling operations had never once been halted due to ESA consultation requirements.

Five weeks later, the federal government announced a formal status review of the Rice’s whale that could ultimately remove the species from the endangered list entirely.

This is the danger:
First remove protections.
Then remove the species from the list.

Together, these actions leave a population of 50 whales with virtually no legal safeguards.

But we have seen this before.

In 1992, a similar “God Squad” exemption threatened protections for the northern spotted owl. Environmental groups challenged the decision in court, where judges later found that illegal political influence had shaped the vote. The exemption was ultimately withdrawn, and stronger protections followed.

Today, multiple legal challenges to the Gulf exemption are already underway, led by Earthjustice, the Southern Environmental Law Center, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The fight is far from over.

What you can do to help:

The Rice’s whale status review is open for public comment until July 6, 2026. Every public comment becomes part of the official legal record that conservation attorneys can use in ongoing and future court challenges.

Click HERE to submit your comment. Tell NMFS what you know about the threats facing Rice's whales, including oil and gas activity, vessel strikes, the Deepwater Horizon legacy, habitat destruction, and the inadequacy of current regulatory protections. Personal statements about why you care are welcome. Scientific references, published studies, and supporting documentation strengthen the record further.

Your comment becomes part of the permanent public record and must be considered by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The deadline is firm. Comments received after July 6, 2026 will not be considered for this review.

Click here to Call or Click here to email your federal representatives using ready-to-use scripts.

With only 50 Rice’s whales remaining, this fight is no longer theoretical. If the ocean dies, we die. That is not a slogan, it is ecology. The Rice’s whales cannot walk away from this fight. Neither can we.

Almost 80,000 acres of public land in northwest Arizona could be opened up for oil and gas drilling in December. That’s the basis of a May 12 proposal from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to allow leasing in the region near Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument and the town of Littlefield.

Existing oil and gas wells in the area proposed for leasing are mostly abandoned or were for exploratory purposes and are not productive, according to a map by the Arizona Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

The BLM’s proposal comes after the major tax and spending cuts bill President Donald Trump signed into law last year, which prioritizes expanding oil and gas production nationwide.

“Arizona remains an important oil and gas state in our administration's priority on strengthening American energy production,” said Bill Groffy, the BLM’s acting director, in a press release announcing the leasing proposal. “This lease sale, which will be the first to be held in Arizona since 2018, will extend our streak of successful oil and gas lease actions under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

The public comment period ends on June 11.

This is the first time I have read about this Administration using "Eminent Domain" for land acquisition. The admin states it will be installing fencing, security lights, and security cameras through Mount Cristo Rey.

“Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to protect spectacular wilderness rivers just like this very stretch of the Rio Grande. The administration’s decision to waive the act and dozens of other environmental laws lays the groundwork for the destruction of one of the wildest places in America,” said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Today’s waiver authorizes construction of new fencing, barriers, roads and sensors across a remote segment of the border extending east of the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area deep into the Lower Canyons toward Amistad Reservoir. This is roadless canyon country only accessible by floating for multiple days on the river.

On Feb. 17 the Department of Homeland Security waived 28 environmental and cultural resource protection laws to fast-track construction in the Big Bend region — including through Big Bend Ranch State Park — and it has since awarded construction contracts for much of the work. According to local media reports, contractors have been surveying inside Big Bend National Park.

In April, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Ruidosa Church and a Big Bend-area river guide and landowner filed a federal lawsuit, represented by the Texas Civil Rights Project, saying the Department of Homeland Security is exercising powers Congress never authorized. The suit contends the waivers violate the major questions doctrine, which requires explicit congressional approval for actions with vast economic and political consequences.

TODAY IS THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT COMMENTS ON THE DEWEY BURDOCK URANIUM MINE!

DON'T DELAY!

Here is a direct link to submit your comment on the BLM page:

https://eplanning.blm.gov/Participate-Now/?id=7f4eccd0-4137-f111-88b4-001dd8084607&ppid=9ac93c06-6f07-f111-8407-001dd803d7d3