See the Impact
Real footage from Big Bend. Click a marker to watch video from that exact location and see the landscapes and ecosystems that may be affected by proposed construction.
Tap any red marker on the map to view video footage from that location. Pinch to zoom.
What the map shows
Every marker on the map above is a place in the Big Bend region where we or our contributors have filmed on the ground. The footage is unedited field video: the Rio Grande where it bends through Santa Elena Canyon between limestone walls as much as 1,500 feet high, the Chisos Mountains rising from the desert floor, and the river corridor that wildlife depends on to move between Mexico and Texas.
The region is one of the most ecologically significant in North America. Big Bend National Park alone protects more than 800,000 acres of Chihuahuan Desert, holds the darkest measured night skies of any national park in the lower 48 states, and supports species found nowhere else in the United States. The river crossings, arroyos, and desert flats in this footage are the same terrain crossed by current federal border infrastructure contracts, including a planned crossing at Mariscal Mountain.
We publish this footage so that anyone can see what the landscape looks like today, from the exact locations where construction would change it. For the documented record of current construction activity, see the field update on our homepage; for the research behind these pages, see the sources database.