08/22/2026
This is the letter I sent last week to Sens. Lankford and Armstrong, Rep. Cole and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Please, write to your congress critters and others to stop this desecration.
SAVE BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK FROM THE BORDER WALL
If you believe in a Creator – and by all accounts you do – surely you believe we are to be stewards of Creation.
What’s happening in Big Bend National Park, Texas is a violation of that stewardship. God created it, and men with vision protected it, but men without souls and ethics are destroying it.
Using the excuse of securing our borders, heavy equipment is scouring this arid land and bulldozing trees with nesting birds in the riparian area along the Rio Grande River. Though Markwayne Mullin and DHS/CBP are not sharing the true plans for this area, and the National Park Service is not consulted or kept informed, the damage being done may be irreversible.
SENT PHOTO
This is the Rio Grande and the little town of Boquillas, Mexico, viewed from Big Bend National Park. Think what a border wall, or the roads and lights and guard towers, will do to this scenery? To the wildlife that can no longer cross – black bears, panthers, javelinas, and more.
And for what? For the less than one percent of all illegal border crossings that happen here? Not only is this a sin against the Creator, this is also a waste of taxpayer dollars. Billions are being given bid-free to two companies who support Trump. If a Democrat gave away this kind of money for a meaningless project, wouldn’t you be demanding answers? Why are you letting Trump and DHS get away with this?
Big Bend was the first national park I worked in as a park ranger. I was in my mid-50s, and my career as an artist in Maine ended due to the Great Recession. This is one of my all-time favorite places – one of America’s treasures.
National Parks and public lands such as Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments were set aside to preserve in perpetuity habitat, wild lands, cultural sites, and historically significant sites for the American people. These lands belong to the American people, not to Trump or DHS to do as they wish.
Environmental laws have been waived with impunity so cronies can be rewarded with contracts, “illegals” stopped, and profits made from mining and other activities the land was supposed to be protected from. Please don’t send me a form letter saying this isn’t happening. There is enough evidence to the contrary. Have your staff research it for you.
Maybe you have never experienced the soul-enriching vistas and wildlife, the thoughtful cultural and historical sites preserved along with habitat for wildlife, that visitors to national parks and public lands enjoy. Maybe you need to take a trip to Big Bend National Park and the other places you have turned a blind eye toward protecting. Or maybe you just need to ask yourself if the God you worship would approve of the devastation happening to America’s Best Places.
Please do your duty as a patriotic American and put an end to this misappropriation and destruction of Big Bend National Park and adjacent areas, to include Big Bend Ranch State Park, and to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, and any other of OUR lands slated to be removed from protection.
Thank you.
Cindy McIntyre
I am a US Army veteran, former National Park Ranger, former public affairs specialist for the Department of the Army, and currently working in social services.
P.S. Yes Lankford did send a form letter, in which he said, "the government cannot efficiently manage the lands it currently controls...Wildlife and environmental management on federal lands is cumbersome and expensive, causing the federal government to spend millions of dollars a year on environmental reviews, endangered and threatened species mitigation, and invasive species control. These are activities that are often better left to local governments or private entities."
VOTE THEM ALL OUT!
