Big Bend Ranch State Park

US District Judge Kathleen Cardone granted the order following more than four hours of court testimony, blocking federal contractors and the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out any further ground-disturbing activities.

The ruling halts infrastructure work across a five-hundred-mile stretch of West Texas, directly protecting Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and environmentally sensitive lands along the Rio Grande while a federal lawsuit challenging the project moves forward.

The court order stems from a federal lawsuit filed in April by the Center for Biological Diversity alongside local property owners and regional preservation advocates.

Co-plaintiffs include the Friends of the Ruidosa Church, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving historic adobe landmarks in Presidio County, and Danny William Miller, a local Rio Grande river guide and landowner.

What all backpacking did you do when, during your time at Big Ben?

So it was exclusively in Big Bend or Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Yeah.

And we did, on my way down, I stopped.

I, I would love to draw...

Uh, so speaking of quail, I did get drawn for a quail hunt at Big Bend Ranch State Park a couple years back.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, I, I think there were eight hunters there total, and between us over three or four days, like a single quail got shot.

No, it, it was a cool trip.

It was a, it was nice getting out there.

And, and again, it's, uh, just so people don't get confused, this is Big Bend Ranch State Park, not Big Bend National Park.

Mm.

In total, there are more than 5,000 distinct documented organisms in this park.

Like the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area, 1,500 miles to the northeast, Big Bend National Park is just one part of a binational complex of protected lands, including Big Bend Ranch State Park and Black Gap Wildlife Management Area in the U.S., and Cañon de Santa Elena, Maderas del Carmen, and the Ocampo Flora and Fauna Protection Area in Mexico.

This massive transfrontier area is bisected by the Rio Grande River, which itself is doubly protected as not only a part of Big Bend National Park, but also as a wild and scenic river in the United States and the Monumento Natural Rio Bravo del Norte in Mexico.

Together, these lands encompass more than 3 million protected acres and more than 200 miles of river, forming one of the largest transboundary protected areas in North America.

In March, DHS awarded federal contracts for three separate border wall projects, Big Bend 1, Big Bend 2, and Big Bend 3, covering roughly 175 miles through Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, and Presidio counties, the stretch running northwest from the Big Bend region outside the national park.

Big Bend 1, running from Sierra Blanca toward the Hudspeth-Jeff Davis County line, went to Barnard Construction for $1 billion.

Big Bend 2, running from Rio Dosa down to near the Madera Canyon campgrounds inside Big Bend Ranch State Park, went to Fisher Sand and Gravel for $1.2 billion.

Big Bend 3, filling the gap between them and passing through the tiny town of Candelaria, went back to Barnard for $960.4 million.

Big Bend Country covers over 38,000 square miles of the Chihuahuan Desert, the Rio Grande, and over 500 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.

It also includes Big Bend Ranch State Park.

In early August, Jason and other residents got sudden news that heavy machinery was breaking ground at Santa Elena Canyon, a 1,500-foot cliff, to start construction of a border barrier.

Well, we realize how absurd it is that the very first place that they choose to bulldoze in the national park is in the shadows of a 1,500-foot cliff.

That's, that's all I did was follow the money.

Why? Why is Will Hunt on the, on the, uh, found- the, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation? Well, his grandfather, great-grandfather, I don't really know the whole family bush, but they're, but, uh, they, they gave Texas Parks and Wildlife the, uh, Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Mm.

Yeah.

There will be no moving of earth or dirt of any kind on Big Bend 2 and 4.

Yeah, this covers areas around Big Bend National Park and the Big Bend Ranch State Park.

But we're not stopping our fight.

The religious freedom rights of the Lippant Apache members and the economic rights of far-flung outfitters and to many of you in this community need to be addressed.