Coastal Services Center

The border between the U.S. and Mexico is patrolled and often fenced. Visitors between the two countries have to go through official checkpoints, and may be searched or turned away. Mother Nature, however, has a way of ignoring political boundaries, which can cause headaches for coastal resource managers whose problems may come from the other side of the fence, but whose authority is stopped at the barrier.

Nowhere is this demonstrated more than at the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, located at the mouth of the Tijuana River in the most southwesterly corner of the continental U.S. Because about two-thirds of the 1,750-square-mile Tijuana River watershed is in Mexico, the reserve faces a unique set of challenges that affect resource management, protection, research, and education.

The work the reserve has done to unify U.S. conservation efforts with those of Mexico can provide other coastal managers with a "template to look at political boundaries and develop a mechanism to treat the ecological whole," says Mike Wells, the reserve's manager.

"Here, we're talking about an international border, but we have a good model for multi-jurisdictional management of resources, which could be state borders, as well."

Down Mexico Way

The Tijuana River Estuary is one of the few salt marshes remaining in Southern California. The 2,500-acre reserve is home to eight threatened and endangered species, and is an essential breeding, feeding, and nesting ground, and key stopover point on the Pacific Flyway for over 370 species.

Of particular impact to the environmental quality of the basin are the growing cities of Tijuana and Tecate on the Mexican side and Imperial Beach and San Diego on the U.S. side, which combined have a population of over four million. Most of the region's population is located within 15 miles of the ocean and 20 miles on either side of the international boundary.

"There is tremendous growth and development taking place on the Mexican side of the border, and a lot of it is unplanned," notes Wells.

When the Rains Come

"Activities on the Mexican side really affect the reserve," says Oscar Romo, the reserve's coastal training program coordinator, who is on contract from the Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association.

One of the biggest impacts is erosion on the Mexican side that ends up in the reserve. Even light rains can cause erosion and sedimentation in the lower watershed, and moderate rains bring massive flows of mud and trash to areas of the reserve.

The erosion and pollution problems have gotten worse as explosive population growth in Tijuana has left many without affordable housing. To find shelter, people are illegally moving onto Mexican federal lands in Los Laureles Canyon, where they dig into the steep sides of the gorge and build homes out of found materials, such as tires and garage doors.

"When it rains, a lot of those structures come right down the hillside causing deaths and property damage on the Mexican side. The sediment and debris from the erosion ends up settling in the estuary," Wells says.

This situation created a "confluence of interests" that has led to partnerships with a number of U.S. and Mexican agencies, city governments, and nonprofit organizations to address this and other issues.

Climbing Barriers

There are a number of challenges that must be overcome to work successfully with another country, says Wells. In addition to differences in political and administrative structures, there are legal, cultural, and language barriers, which can make it "difficult to make contact with the right people—the decision makers—on the Mexican side of the border."

The first step in crossing these barriers, Wells says, was to bring Romo on board as the coordinator of the coastal training program, which provides the opportunity for networking with and educating local leaders and decision makers across the region.

Getting Romo into the position was key, Wells says, because the Mexican national is binational, bicultural, and bilingual, has research experience, and is "well-known and well-respected" by local Mexican authorities.

"What I think is most important to making progress," adds Wells, "is identifying areas of mutual interest."

Sharing Common Ground

Through networking and cross-border training programs, Romo has been able to show Mexican authorities that the reserve serves both countries.

"Air quality has increased in the area because of the reserve, and species common to both sides of the border have been preserved," Romo points out. "The reserve belongs to and serves all the residents of the region."

To demonstrate this, the landmark step of adding the mayors of Tecate and Tijuana to the reserve's management authority was made last August.

The State of California is "recognizing the importance of investing funding in Mexico to prevent impacts on the U.S. side," says Romo. "That's new. It's never been done before, and Mexican authorities are very receptive."

Over the past two years, memorandums of understanding (MOUs) have been signed with the municipalities and Mexican nonprofit organizations to address the two areas that most directly impact the reserve. The MOUs implement the Los Laureles Canyon erosion control project, and begin work to establish El Matadero Canyon as a conservation park, which would create a physical extension of the reserve on the Mexican side of the border.

A newly formed Mexican nonprofit organization will be created to administer the conservation park, and the scope of work for this new organization is being written at the reserve, with assistance from Mexican officials. The reserve also will share information and data such as maps and surveys of plant and animal species, and other biological resources that are significant for the border region's conservation.

The Los Laureles Canyon project task force is working to stabilize the canyon's slopes, reduce flood damage, and generally enhance environmental quality in the canyon. "This transborder effort will promote a sustainable approach to the erosion control problem," Romo says.

"Have we seen a marked decrease in sedimentation? Not yet. But we are creating a framework to undertake on-the-ground projects in the future," Wells says. "We are also creating a template that can be exported to other areas along the Mexican border, and other borders as well."

Romo says he is creating a decision-making tool to help other reserves manage multi-jurisdictional situations. "We are developing a set of documents that explain what the process was, where we had success, and where we found obstacles or failures."

More Responsibility

Wells says that while the most fulfilling aspect of his job is "interacting with leaders and citizens in the Mexican part of our watershed," cross-border issues add a layer of complexity to managing the reserve's resources.

"It really is an added layer of problems for us," Wells acknowledges. "We're unique in the reserve system, and even our home state agency. It's hard to get other people to recognize the difficulties in dealing with a lot of different jurisdictions and approaches. We have to approach a lot of things with creativity."

For more information on the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve's international projects, contact Oscar Romo at (619) 575-3613 or oromo@tijuanaestuary.com. You may also contact Mike Wells at (619) 575-3615, or mwells@parks.ca.gov.