require extraordinary measures.
Sometimes that argument is justified. Sometimes it is not.
The challenge is determining when national security truly requires sacrificing part of our national heritage and when alternatives exist that can protect both.
The history of our national parks offers an important lesson.
The Day the Military Wanted Olympic's Trees
During World War II, the United States faced an existential threat. American factories were producing aircraft at an unprecedented rate, and military planners worried about supplies of high-quality Sitka spruce and Douglas fir needed for aircraft construction.
Their eyes turned toward the towering forests of Olympic National Park.
The park contained some of the finest old-growth forests remaining in America. Many of these trees had stood for centuries before the United States even existed. To military planners, they represented a potential source of strategic materials for the war effort.
To the National Park Service, they represented something else.
They were irreplaceable.
Park Service officials pushed back against proposals to log portions of Olympic National Park. Their argument was not that national security was unimportant. Rather, it was that national parks were established to preserve exceptional resources for future generations and that those resources should only be sacrificed if absolutely necessary.
The Park Service's position ultimately prevailed.
As additional investigations were conducted, suitable timber sources were identified outside the park. The military obtained the materials it needed without cutting down Olympic's protected forests. The proposed logging operation was abandoned, and Olympic's ancient trees remain standing today.
The lesson was profound.
The question was never whether national security mattered.
The question was whether destroying part of a national park was truly necessary.
A Familiar Debate Returns to Big Bend
That same question is now confronting another national park.
In 2026, the Department of Homeland Security waived numerous environmental and cultural resource laws to accelerate construction of border barriers and roads in and around Big Bend National Park and the broader Big Bend region of Texas. Officials argue the projects are necessary to address border security concerns and illegal crossings.
Supporters of the project frame the issue as a choice between protecting the border and protecting the environment.
But history suggests that is a false choice.
Big Bend is not simply another stretch of federal land. It is one of America's most spectacular national parks, a landscape of desert mountains, deep canyons, dark night skies, wildlife corridors, archaeological sites, and extraordinary opportunities for solitude.
Road construction, vehicle barriers, and other permanent infrastructure can alter these landscapes for generations. Once roads are blasted into backcountry terrain, the wilderness character that drew visitors there in the first place may never fully return.
Just as the proposed logging of Olympic's ancient forests would have permanently changed that park, new roads and barriers threaten resources in Big Bend that cannot easily be replaced.
Security First: But Not Security Only
None of this means national security should be ignored.
National parks are part of the United States, and there may be rare situations when their resources must be used or altered to address genuine national emergencies.
But the Olympic example established an important principle:
National parks should be used for national security purposes only after alternatives have been thoroughly explored and found inadequate.
That standard matters because park resources are often unique.
A road can be rebuilt.
A centuries-old Douglas fir cannot.
A pristine backcountry canyon cut by new infrastructure may never fully recover.
The burden should therefore be on federal agencies to demonstrate that park impacts are truly unavoidable.
Alternatives Already Exist
In Big Bend, numerous alternatives exist that deserve serious consideration before permanent infrastructure is imposed on protected landscapes.
Modern border security is no longer limited to walls and roads.
Today's technologies include:
- Remote surveillance cameras.
- Ground sensors.
- Radar systems.
- Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).
- Mobile monitoring platforms.
- Advanced communications systems.
- Rapid-response law enforcement deployments.
These tools can provide extensive situational awareness while leaving much of the landscape intact.
In fact, many local officials and residents have argued that Big Bend's rugged terrain is uniquely suited to technology-based monitoring combined with targeted patrols rather than permanent barriers and extensive road construction. The region's mountains, canyons, and remote desert landscapes already function as natural obstacles to movement.
Increased coordination between Border Patrol and National Park Service personnel could further strengthen security while minimizing damage to park resources.
None of these approaches eliminates border enforcement.
They simply seek to achieve the same objective with less harm.
That is exactly the approach that ultimately saved Olympic's forests during World War II.
The Real Choice
Too often, debates over public lands are framed as all-or-nothing choices.
Protect the park or protect the country.
Save the trees or win the war.
Preserve the landscape or secure the border.
History shows those choices are frequently false.
When the military sought Olympic's timber, alternatives were found.
When national security concerns arise today, alternatives should again be examined before irreversible damage is done.
National parks belong not only to us but to future generations. Once ancient forests are logged, wildlife corridors severed, or wilderness roads carved into previously untouched landscapes, those losses can persist for decades or centuries.
The National Park Service understood that during World War II.
Its leaders recognized that the agency's mission was not to oppose national security, but to ensure that park resources were sacrificed only when no reasonable alternative existed.
That remains a sound principle today.
What You Can Do
Organizations such as the Center for Biological Diversity are challenging efforts to waive environmental protections and fast-track border infrastructure projects in the Big Bend region. Their goal is not to eliminate border security but to ensure that federal agencies fully consider alternatives and comply with laws designed to protect public lands and wildlife.
If you believe America's national parks deserve careful stewardship, consider supporting organizations working to defend these landscapes.
You can:
- Support the Center for Biological Diversity and other public lands organizations.
- Contact your elected representatives and urge them to seek solutions that protect both national security and national parks.
- Share information about the impacts of proposed developments in protected areas.
- Visit national parks and speak up for their preservation.
The debate unfolding in Big Bend is not really about choosing between national security and conservation.
History has already shown that we don't have to choose.
We can have both.
The old-growth forests of Olympic National Park stand today as proof.
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