Posted on 03/15/2010 6:54:08 AM PDT by laotzu
US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today suggested combining the Big Bend National Park in west Texas with the Monumento Natural del Rio Bravo across the river in Mexico, to form the Big Bend/Rio Bravo International Park.
"The United States and Mexico are neighbors sharing a beautiful treasure," Salazar said today during a tour of the Big Bend. "Our two nations could and should engage in an even higher level of cooperation to conserve this remarkable area and its wildlife, while providing more opportunity for visitors to enjoy it."
Actually, the idea of combining the two parks is not new...it was discussed by Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Manuel Avila Camacho back in the 1930s.
Salazar said he has had talks with Mexican Interior Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada about the idea. Salazar was the guest of Congressman Ciro Rodriguez, who's district includes the Big Bend.
"I'm proud to represent this area and look forward to having a dialogue with the Secretary about how best to preserve and enhance the park using stimulus funding and other resources," Rodriguez said.
Salazar said combined, the Big Bend and Rio Bravo constitute one of the largest and most important conservation areas in North America, and a combined park would help officials on both sides of the Rio Grande better address issues from water and air quality to management of wildfires.
Rio Bravo del Norte is the name for the Rio Grande used in Mexico.
[NO way. what is ours stays as ours only.
how can the US take a states territory and make it part of a foreign nation anyway?
That is allowed in the Constitution?]
The park is our land, just like the taxes the govt spends, the money is ours. It’s easy to spend other people’s money and give away other people’s land.
Rodriguez is fighting for his political life and will use ANYTHING he thinks will up his polling in the hispanic community. That should tell you what a complete imbecile he’s been. He “represents” my district in San Antonio. Here’s hoping the Rep runoff gives us somebody able to beat him like a drum. If it’s Will Hurd, he can use his background as a former CIA type to ride the national security horse.
Colonel, USAFR
No. We cannot allow this to happen.
I love the Big Bend area — except when the smog blows north out of Mexico and a blue sky turns to yellow haze. Right now those illegals who seek to cross to the US side, when caught, are transpored to Del Rio where they are shipped back to Mexico, which is often hundreds of miles from where they crossed. They don’t like it. Also, there are really only two routes into and out of the US side of the Big Bend, and both are patrolled. This region has not been a preferred route for illegals; however, to open up this region as Salzar wants will ensure an increased flow of traffic of illegals. That’s the idea behind this move in the first place.
bookmark for later
The waiters in Lajitas wade to work every day, or used to !!
On our side,it's the Big River (Río Grande), and on their side, it's thge Wild River (Río Bravo).
“I know exactly what this is all about - money! The USA will just use this new impetus as an excuse to funnel more money to Mexico.”
The usual plan. The US gives, Mexico takes.
That's a long story, going back to Renaissance times, when the Spaniards dubbed it the Wild River, while it was the Big River in the languages of the various Indian tribes that lived along the waterway.
FWIW, we already have the Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park on the northern border. Since the 30s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterton-Glacier_International_Peace_Park
Salazar is showing his true colors, and I think he is an outright traitor.
You're late to the party, the ones who are steering the ship of state now started going crazy way before that.
The tourists running the RIo Grande will soon find their rafts bumping into the floating heads of cops and other victims of the narcotraficante mobs. Hikers in the Chisos Mts. will risk encounters with drug goons.
Anyone who has been out to Big Bend in the last couple decades already knows that it IS an International Park. Lots of human and drug smuggling going through there on a daily basis.
It’s almost that way now. The Border Patrol checkpoints are north of the Park now on the two access highways. In fact, most of the southern US checkpoints leave vast amounts of US territory unattended now. These just catch illegals who try to travel by paved road into the core of the country...
Regardless, it is a bad idea. In the past 30 years, I have been to BBNP countless times. Law enforcement in the park consists of county, state, and Federal (NP, DEA, BP). As an international park, then what? The UN blue shirts?
High Lonesome should stay that way.
(i)The waiters in Lajitas wade to work every day, or used to !!(/i)
It became illegal to come over at the local crossings a few years ago - Pasa Lajitas, Boquillas. The nearest legal crossover is Presidio-Ojinaga. From those I know in the area, the day-workers, shoppers, and school kids pretty much don’t cross anymore. I talked to one area contractor who is paranoid now about using illegals for construction jobs - the penalties are severe.
Another day, another meaningless feel-good initiative from the Obama administration.
Too late, there already three of them on the Canadian border.
......The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is the name of the union of the Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and the Glacier National Park in the United States. Both parks are declared Biosphere Reserves by UNESCO and their union as a World Heritage Site.
The union of the parks was achieved through the efforts of Rotary International members from Alberta and Montana in 1932. The dedication address was given by Sir Charles Arthur Mander, second baronet. It was the world’s first International Peace Park, symbolising peace and friendship between the two countries........
There is a precedent in Montana/Alberta.
I recently visited Big Bend and there is not much but wilderness on the other side of the river. On the eastern end, the villagers cross the river in skiffs to place there wares on display for sale to visitors.
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