What we tear down if we build a wall.

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”

-Theodore Roethke

Most Americans have never explored the southern border of Texas. It requires deliberateness to spend enough time in this vast region to grasp the scope of the dramatically beautiful borderlands stretching for 1,254 miles along the Rio Grande.

While the landscapes vary wildly from forest to desert to dramatic canyon, and from bustling city to remote solitude, the region is defined uniformly by peacefulness and a quietly thrumming energy.

The border between Texas and Mexico isn’t just a line between two countries — it’s a place unto itself.

On a cloudy, cool morning in 2018, I traveled traveled through rural Texas to a section of the Rio Grande near McAllen. With camera in hand, I explored the quiet Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge considering how this region of my beloved Texas would be permanently changed by construction of a border wall.

Here’s some glimpses of what I saw that day.

Studies conclude that areas in the Rio Grande floodplain would be at risk of severe flooding after construction of a wall impeding storm water flow.

Biologists have stated that endangered species, including the ocelot and jaguarundi cats, would be severely impacted by a border wall dividing their habitats.

The ecologically-rich Rio Grande Valley is a stop for migrating birds and butterflies and home to multiple species of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. The creatures depend on that specific ecosystem for survival.

In Hidalgo County alone, 6,500 acres of state park land and nature preserves, including the National Butterfly Center, would be dramatically impacted by border wall construction. Large sections would be inaccessible to visitors.

The Rio Grande Valley region is native habitat for the endangered ocelot cat: There are about 50 left in the entire US.

Traffickers routinely fly drones, well above proposed wall height, to perform surveillance and carry drugs across the border.

Illegal immigration into the US has been steadily declining since 2005.

The border region is home to generations of innumerable families. “People don’t want their property divided or taken from them.”

Overlooking the Rio Grande, February 2nd, 2018.

Anne-Charlotte Patterson is the granddaughter of sharecroppers, the great-granddaughter of immigrants, and a fifth generation Texan. She is not afraid of borders.