Activists condemn felling of ancient trees for border wall

Federal contractors felled a centuries-old cottonwood on the U.S.-Mexico border Monday after U.S. Border Patrol agents removed protesters who had spent about 70 days trying to save it from President Donald Trump’s border wall expansion.

The tree in Lochiel, Arizona, known to activists as the “grandmother” tree, was the last of four old cottonwoods targeted for removal at the site. Conservation groups estimated its age at 200 to 250 years, the newspaper La Jornada reported.

Just brutal to see. DHS contractors just plowed through the last of the four ancient cottonwood trees in Arizona–a tree older than the border itself–to make way for a double border wall through critical jaguar habitat. A dozen protestors were arrested today trying to stop this travesty.

— Laiken Jordahl (@LaikenJordahl) October 6, 2026

Activists told the media that 10 people were arrested and another 10 were cited and released. They said agents used a cherry picker to forcibly remove one protester from the cottonwood — álamo in Spanish — before contractors brought it down.

Protesters said the camp was on private property, while U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the trees stood on federal land. The agency did not answer media questions about whether agents had a warrant to enter the encampment, which they did near sunrise on Monday.

Protesters alleged officers tackled demonstrators, kicked people in handcuffs and pushed others into barbed-wire fences. CBP did not respond to The Washington Post’s questions about those allegations.

The Tohono O’odham Nation, an Arizona-based Indigenous tribe whose members and ancestral lands extend into Sonora, condemned the operation in a statement reported by El Universal. Its territory is a popular route for migrants crossing into the United States.

“This is yet another demonstration of the federal government’s reckless disregard for cultural and natural resources in its hasty pursuit to build this useless wall,” the nation said.

CBP said the four cottonwoods had been identified for removal to make way for the wall. The agency said environmental monitors were present before the work and that preconstruction surveys found no active migratory bird nests.

The protest began in late July after contractors removed three neighboring cottonwoods. Activists rotated through a plywood platform in the remaining tree, receiving supplies by bucket and rope. Their occupation stalled construction immediately around it.

The project includes two parallel steel walls through the San Rafael Valley, across from the state of Sonora in Mexico. Conservationists describe the area as an important wildlife corridor, with the cottonwoods providing food, shelter and habitat for migratory birds near the Santa Cruz River.

Erick Meza, the Sierra Club’s borderlands coordinator, said that contractors also intended to remove another cottonwood straddling the border.

Organizer Kate Scott said resistance would continue, with a rally organized by the Tohono O’odham Nation scheduled for Wednesday.

“We are resolute,” she said. “This movement is not going anywhere. They have cut down our grandmother, but her roots are within us.”

With reports from La Jornada, El Universal, KJZZ, Washington Post and Lookout