National Butterfly Center Obtains Temporary Restraining Order Against Brian Kolfage and We Build the Wall
Mission, Texas, Dec. 4, 2019 – The North American Butterfly Association has been granted a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed in state district court in Texas to stop construction of a “border wall” on the banks of the Rio Grande River by We Build the Wall, Inc., and its founder Brian Kolfage of Miramar, Florida.
“In order to protect our investment and preserve the land on which the National Butterfly Center sits, we have no choice but to take legal action, especially when confronted with a man-made threat like this,” said Dr. Jeffrey Glassberg, president and founder of the North American Butterfly Association, a nonprofit organization that has been at the forefront of the battle against the seizure of private property for border wall construction for more than two years.
The government’s planned border wall in the Rio Grande Valley would not be built on the banks of the river in the floodplain but would follow the path of an existing inland earthen levee. The Kolfage/We Build the Wall project would be a freestanding structure that does not connect to any of the barriers authorized and funded by Congress and overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
We Build the Wall began as a Go Fund Me campaign to help fund the Government’s proposed border wall. After discovering that the raised funds could not be donated to the United States Government, We Build the Wall decided to construct its own wall on private property along the southwestern border. Even though the not-for-profit entity has been in existence for less than a year, it has already come under criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Services, which has oversight of nonprofits and charities in the state.
After building less than one-half mile of wall on private property in Sunland Park, N.M, earlier this year, We Build the Wall has come to Mission to build three miles of wall on property owned by Neuhaus & Sons, LLC, near the National Butterfly Center.
According to the suit filed in Hidalgo County on Dec. 3, We Build the Wall “has entered into an agreement with Defendant Neuhaus to build an unpermitted and potentially illegal barrier on the banks of the Rio Grande River.” Furthermore, the organization has ignored the official request of the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) to cease construction of the wall until the agency has received and reviewed the studies and engineering plans necessary to ensure compliance with international treaties. Under 22 U.S. Code § 277d–34, the IBWC is authorized “to preserve the Rio Grande and the Colorado River as the boundary by preventing the construction of works which may cause deflection or obstruction of the normal flow of the rivers or of their floodflows.”
The North American Butterfly Association asserts that the construction of a permanent steel barrier within the Rio Grande floodplain would cause a redirection of surface water during flooding events. This redirection of water, upstream and down, along with the accompanying debris, would cause permanent damage to neighboring properties, including the National Butterfly Center in Mission.
The National Butterfly Center is committed to “Growing Connections” between people, plants, and the winged wonders that pollinate and propagate all that grows around us. We do this through educational and environmental initiatives that cultivate meaningful understanding of the processes that create sustainable ecosystems. The Center is open to the public, for visitors and members, seven days/week.
To learn more about the National Butterfly Center and how you can join us, visit www.nationalbutterflycenter.org or call 956-583-5400. Your annual membership or charitable gift impacts the beauty of our community and helps preserve the biologically diverse, natural treasures of deep South Texas.
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Emmy Award-winning Film Maker to Speak at 24th Annual Texas Butterfly Festival
(Mission, TX) – The keynote speaker for the 24th annual Texas Butterfly Festival is Emmy Award-winning film maker Ann Johnson Prum. Producer and cinematographer for the PBS Nature feature film, Sex, Lies & Butterflies, filmed in part at the National Butterfly Center, Prum is delighted to return to the Rio Grande Valley to observe and learn more about the incredible biodiversity located here, as well as the deleterious effects of Trump’s proposed border wall.
When asked about her previous experience at the center, she stated, “I am excited to revisit the National Butterfly Center and the Rio Grande Valley! In most cases, my films focus on one species at a time, because I like to do a deep dive and learn all I can in order to bring that to the viewer—and there is so much more to see, here.”
Concerning butterflies and the annual festival, Prum asserts, “There are so many butterfly stories that haven’t been told. Beyond the Monarch, most people know very little about the plethora of pollinators that make life sustainable on planet Earth.”
She continues, “Why do we only know about this one species, when they all matter?”
National Butterfly Center Hits a Wall—And Keeps Going
As Published in American Butterflies, Summer 2019
A pre-dawn awakening ahead of a beautiful day at the National Butterfly Center, used to be filled with anticipation of Guatemalan Crackers, Malachites and an untold measure of magnificent creatures!
Each morning was filled with dew and a long list of ‘to-dos’, designed to keep us growing. Staff meetings focused on guest experience, educational programs and maintenance tasks, inventory management and upcoming events. Not so long ago, I felt attuned to the seasonal changes of the place, the peculiar rhythm of the plants, never static, and the special magic of the center, bustling with happy energy and contagious curiosity from members and schoolchildren.
But that was before the battle for border wall began.
In retrospect, I relished the routine—that routine—before the ‘disaster tourists’ and MAGA hats started showing up, asking us to show them where Trump’s monument would be built from sea to shining sea.
For those who have not followed us on Facebook or seen the stream of headlines related to the “Butterflies vs. the Border Wall,” allow me to bring you up to speed on how your project and our mission have been affected by a national agenda in direct conflict with environmental conservation.
Rio Grande In Memoriam
Border Community to Hold Public Response to Regulated Theft of Its Beloved River
(Mission, TX)-- A public ritual is planned to mourn the end of a way of life and inspire resistance. On Sunday, May 26, the day before the Memorial Day holiday, the No Border Wall Grassroots Coalition and other sponsoring organizations are planning an alternative celebration, more reckoning than relaxing. At 4:00 - 8:30 pm the public is invited to the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, to partake in a multi-faceted experience at the banks of the Rio Grande—invocation, procession, offering, community sing/voces del pueblo, and a meal—to memorialize the river that will be lost if the federal government walls it off from South Texas communities and the rest of the United States.
“We, who reside on the Rio Grande Delta, will not cede our river without a fight for our heritage,” said Jonathan Salinas, an organizer of next Sunday’s event and a spokesman for the coalition. “In Memoriam Rio Grande is not designed as a regular protest with speeches, signs and chants. This is something different, something meant to go deeper—a protest of the soul, if you will.”
Weber's 'Checkpoint Carlos' Coming to the National Butterfly Center
(Mission, TX) – ‘Checkpoint Carlos’ by Doerte Weber, is coming to the National Butterfly Center, December 30, 2018. This large-as-life artwork representative of the border wall will arrive before the bulldozers are scheduled to show in February, to give Valley residents and visitors a taste of what the landscape will look like once the center is bisected by 36 ft of concrete and steel.
Weber, a dual citizen of Germany and the United States, created this exhibit named after Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall, to challenge viewer’s impressions of security, sovereignty and beauty.
“Growing up in West Germany, it was always difficult to cross to East Germany,” Doerte explains. “It was not a pleasant time. One never knew what might happen to you; how long they might hold you at the border crossing.”
Given the increasing militarization of the border, where concertina wire is strung and troops have been deployed, the idea that people will sacrifice freedom for some sense of protection, even if it is an illusion, is particularly relevant. For this reason Doerte’s tapestries, depicting butterflies and steel bollards, woven from plastic newspaper delivery bags, are timely and terrible.
“Contemplating this wall, my first thought is that a free press is fundamental to a free society, however, we live in an era of warring ‘news’ machines and media distrust,” states Marianna Trevino Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly Center. “Then I marvel at how the artist has recycled materials—plastics that have a devastating impact on wildlife and the environment—and made them into something beneficial by transforming refuse into art.
“While it is hard to escape the damage that will be done to private property in the short-term, this depiction of the wall tells another story,” continues Wright. “It is one of decay. As the plastic dries and cracks, exposed to the elements, so will the concrete crumble and disintegrate, one day, destroyed by Nature or by Man.”
Doerte’s walls will go up inside and outside the National Butterfly Center for several reasons. First, the artist insists her art is for all to see, regardless of status, education, age or income; second, this wall of plastic recalls the temporary “safety fencing” used to create barriers to entry for construction zones, which the center will soon be; and third, because the artist intends for everyone who passes to understand that plastics—like policies—have the potential to help and to harm.
To learn more about the ‘Checkpoint Carlos’ exhibit and future plans for the artist’s reception, call 956.583.5400. To learn more about the National Butterfly Center, and how you can join us, visit www.nationalbutterflycenter.org. Your annual membership or charitable gift impacts the beauty of our community and helps preserve the biologically diverse, natural treasures of deep South Texas.
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The National Butterfly Center is committed to ‘Growing Connections’ between people, plants, and the winged wonders that pollinate and propagate all that grows around us. We do this through educational and environmental initiatives that cultivate meaningful understanding of the processes that create sustainable ecosystems. The Center is open to the public, for visitors and members, seven days/week.
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