Fisher Sand & Gravel Topples 200-Year-Old Arizona Tree for 30ft Trump Border Wall
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 10
Fisher Sand & Gravel Topples 200-Year-Old Arizona Tree for 30ft Trump Border Wall
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 10
Summary
More than 80 federal agents cleared protesters from a private camp at dawn Monday before contractors used an excavator to push over the 200-year-old cottonwood known as the “grandmother” in Lochiel, Arizona.
The tree had been occupied for more than 70 days in a tree-sit launched after other ancient cottonwoods were felled on 27 July, with activists trying to block wall construction in the San Rafael valley.
Dozens of land defenders have been arrested since Monday, and witnesses said some protesters were shoved, tackled or maced as authorities enforced a road closure around the border-wall site.
The project has already completed 88 miles of secondary wall, with another 444 miles under construction, much of it in Arizona under funding from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Environmental groups say the 30ft wall is cutting through a key US-Mexico wildlife corridor and threatening endangered riparian habitat, while local opponents argue the remote valley has little history of illegal crossings.