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Natalie Newman

@ntlnwmn

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△ Observing Life, Pursuing Passion, Creating Art, Being.
☮︎ Conservation + Coexistence
𖠘 Usually Horseback or Hiking
𓅫 Migratory but TX Mostly

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BREAKING: DHS contractors are toppling the last of four ancient cottonwoods to build double border walls across the San Rafael Valley.

The wall cuts through the key remaining wildlife corridor for endangered jaguars between Arizona and Sonora, where human border crossings are seldom seen.

A protest camp had occupied and protected this tree for more than 60 days, halting construction. The camp was raided and campers were arrested this morning.

This wall will effectively lock the remaining jaguars in the U.S. into solitary confinement, while permanently marring one of the last remaining wild places along the Arizona border. taken in Lochiel, Arizona by @ntlnwmn

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2 days ago

‘La Frontera, a multimedia exhibition curated by regional advocate Yolanda Alvarado, brings together artists whose work examines the Texas-Mexico border at a moment of profound threat.
Featuring artists @brianfinke , @hannahgentiles , @jordan_vondy, @hillaryfierce , @ntInwmn , @como_la_flor_tx and Yolanda Alvarado, the exhibition presents multiple perspectives on a landscape that is simultaneously home, wilderness, political boundary, cultural history, and contested space.
Proceeds from La Frontera will benefit No Big Bend Wall
(NBBW), supporting efforts to protect Big Bend communities, private property, wildlife habitat, cultural resources, and the unique landscape of the region.’

This weekend I’m in some mighty fine company, exhibiting some images & mixed media from the border by several different artists and activists. Come see some imagery & hear some sounds of the unfolding of the last few months in Big Bend.

*So much gratitude to @como_la_flor_tx for including me in this important show alongside some really inspiring folks.*

Poster by @labeccabright 🙏🏻🙏🏻

An aerial shot looking down on the Rio Grande at the U.S .-Mexico border as it flows through the Quitman Mountain Range in South Hudspeth County, Big Bend Sector 1. Taken on September 28, 2026. While legal battles brewed and construction paused inside the national park, work pushed forward on the sector’s remote western edges, where the rugged terrain of the Quitman Range offered a stark, natural defense now being marked for heavy modification.
Photo by: Hannah Gentiles

A show of force against illegal border crossings, U.S. troops deployed under the Trump
administration stand watch at the Texas border along the Rio Grande River. The picturesque
mountains of Mexico rise in the distance.
Photo by: Brian Finke (Valentine, TX, 2025)

Standing atop “The Point” above Santa Elena Canyon, watching the sun set over Big Bend
National Park as the Rio Grande flows into the distance to the East.
Photo by: Jordan Vonderhaar April 12, 2026.

Jesus “Huevo” Hernandez is a landowner in Redford. A border wall would cut through his property, restricting access to both water sources—his well and the Rio Grande—and taken in Marfa, Texas by @ntlnwmn

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2 days ago

Well it’s a little late but I’m camped out and finally have some down time to reflect on everything that has happened recently…

Our fight to protect Big Bend from unnecessary, destructive border infrastructure isn’t over, but we do have a pretty good reason to celebrate thanks to the most incredible team @centerforbiodiv.

As overjoyed as I am for this win, my heart goes out to so many other communities that have witnessed their own beloved land suffer immense harm from border infrastructure outside of the Big Bend Sector. My single greatest hope in all of this is that the work that has been done in Big Bend will have a positive impact on the way all borderlands are managed in the future.

When I decided to commit to protecting Big Bend, it was largely driven by my desire to protect the wildness of this landscape that has been the most influential place in my personal life. But my life also happens to take place elsewhere as I’ve been living out of my truck for the past 6 years mostly migrating between Texas and Wyoming, mostly on public land.

I cannot begin to describe how important it is to me to protect public land and to preserve the wildness of public lands, so, that’s what I’ll be trying to do forevermore.

#ProtectPublicLands taken in Big Bend by @ntlnwmn

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3 days ago

When I first visited the Tetons in 2021, I spent most of August and September just getting to know the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and exploring this incredible place. I returned in summer 2022 to work as a naturalist guide in both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Then again in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

I’ve been living out of my truck for most of the last 6 years primarily splitting my time between Big Bend in the winters and Jackson Hole in the summers. What a dream it’s been to migrate between these two incredibly special environments. Last year, my season in Jackson Hole ended with a broken leg and a prolonged stay into the fall while I went through surgery and early recovery.

I continued my healing over the winter in Big Bend.

And then, before I could even make plans to return once again to the Tetons, the border wall news dropped and I committed to staying in Big Bend this year, not knowing what was going to happen, but feeling certain that I needed to be present for whatever it was.

All year long, I’ve been hoping I’d be able to sneak away for a visit to my second favorite place, and all year long I was hoping it’d be in September, when the leaves are changing and the elk are bugling.

When we got work paused in Big Bend National Park toward the end of August, everything fell perfectly into place.

A week and a half is a pretty short visit when I’m used to spending half the year here, but damn, what precious, precious time.

I’ll be sharing more about this trip soon, but for now, I just need to share this morning’s sunrise and all my gratitude for the way things unfold. Endless love and gratitude for all my friends, old and new, in Big Bend and in Jackson Hole, for helping make this little trip a really big deal to me. My heart and soul needed this. Thank you, I love you. taken in Tag Responsibly, Keep Jackson Hole Wild by @ntlnwmn

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8 days ago

A coalition of landowners from the Big Bend region alongside the @nobigbendwall team just filed a lawsuit against CBP and DHS to protect Texas land sovereignty.

At a press conference this morning, Lico Miller, lifelong resident of the Big Bend shared these words—

“Thank you for coming to hear our stories today. I’m here as a little guy, and for the little guy.

I’ve been working with other small landowners to unite and get our concerns out in broad daylight.

I want to close today by cutting straight to what is actually at stake here.

This isn’t a theoretical debate in Austin, Texas, or Washington D.C..

This is about real land, real water, real livelihoods.

Our families didn’t arrive on this land yesterday.

We’ve worked it, conserved it, loved it.

We’ve paid taxes on it for generations.

When you run cattle, farm, or run a recreational company, the river isn’t scenery, it’s survival.

Cutting off our access to the Rio Grande with steel barriers doesn’t secure the border.

It severs our access to water.

It cripples our operation.

And it destroys working family businesses.

Private property rights are, and have been, the bedrock of Texas sovereignty since 1836.

The moment we allow any government, state or federal, to come in and seize private land, and tell us what is good for us and what constitutes an emergency, we set a precedent that will come back and bite every single Texan.

If they can take our land along the river today, they can come for yours tomorrow.

It won’t stop at unnecessary border walls.

It will be the next high voltage power corridor through the hill country, the next massive data center outside Dallas, or whatever project government planners decide overrides your deed.

Once the government establishes that your deed is negotiable, nobody’s property is safe.

Using eminent domain to strip multi-generational landowners of their land, their water, their livelihood, is fundamentally wrong.

It’s un-American and it’s flat out un-Texan.

Texas has always stood on the principle that the person who owns the land has a say in what happens to it.

We are 230 landowners strong, and we’re not backing down, not on my watch.”

#nobigbendwall taken in Big Bend by @ntlnwmn

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23 days ago

Work in Big Bend National Park is paused for now, but the needless destruction continues just outside of the park and across the Big Bend Sector.

This is only a snapshot, read everything I think you need to know about what’s happening in Big Bend via the link in my bio to Substack.

Check out NoBigBendWall.org for more info and DONATE to The Big Bend Sentinel to support LOCAL journalism from the people on the ground. taken in Big Bend National Park by @ntlnwmn

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a month ago

Over the Rim of Santa Elena Canyon.
August 3, 2026

Day 1.
August 5, 2026

Punta De La Sierra.
August 22, 2026

Starting Point of CBP Road.
August 22, 2026

Sundial.
August 22, 2026

Solis.
August 22, 2026

Dry Veins Lie Dormant.
August 22, 2026

Cut Between.
August 22, 2026

Diamondback.
August 3, 2026

Disturbed Habitat.
August 5, 2026

Desolation.
August 22, 2026

Desperation.
August 13, 2026

Cerro Castellan.
August 13, 2026

Santa Elena Excavator.
August 7, 2026

Mule Ears and Emory.
August 22, 2026

East Side of SE Trailhead.
August 13, 2026

Equus Boquillas.
August 8, 2026

Clawing at Mariscal.
August 16, 2026

Terlingua Abajo from Above.
August 22, 2026

Path of Destruction.
August 23, 2026 taken in Big Bend National Park by @ntlnwmn

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a month ago

Bulldozer and SWVC contractors in front of Santa Elena canyon this morning. As of noon today, August 5, they are actively surveying and putting stakes in the ground to show their working limits for the clearing that is to take place. They are working in the Rio Grande floodplain and critical riparian habitat.

@nobigbendwall taken in Big Bend National Park by @ntlnwmn

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2 months ago

Summer Sunset Basin Sine

There’s a very special spot you can camp in the summer to see the Chisos Basin Summer Sunset Sine Wave and I was privileged enough to snag it for a few nights in late June. It was during the time I was doing a little recon mission along the CBP route following their “Smart Wall Map” to see where exactly they proposed putting a new road. Shortly after completing preliminary documentation operations around the most accessible areas, the project was put on hold because the backcountry roads were rendered impassable by monsoon rains. I couldn’t get to the other areas I needed to document along the route for weeks.

I spent most of July working on other things like participating in the #BigBendBioblitz2026 to document species diversity along the route, attending county commissioner meetings and other such bureaucratic affairs trying to fight this thing, and also making time to enjoy Big Bend while I still can.

The sine curve represents oscillations of a constant magnitude, the highs and lows of a cycle. These days have been some of the lowest lows and highest highs I’ve ever experienced. It’s no pleasure at all to witness this sacred place be ripped open, but for now, I can still retreat to the cool mountains or lay down in shallow waters and I can feel the heat but not let it burn me.

The roads have reopened but I have not had a chance to resume work on my project to document the path before destruction. Destruction has begun and now I must bear witness to it. At least they decided to begin in one of the most accessible areas of which I had already documented. I’m unsure if I’ll be able to get to the undocumented areas before they do. There is so much uncertainty, and yet I trust there is another high coming around. taken in Big Bend National Park by @ntlnwmn

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2 months ago

The Messenger. taken in Big Bend National Park by @ntlnwmn

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2 months ago

If I could be the clouds and envelope all of the Chisos in my wispy, formless arms, I could begin to display my love for this strange place. Summertime here has been full of wonders— my first time witnessing real flash floods, agaves blooming, fledglings learning to fly, wild fruits ripening, giant bugs emerging, waterfalls flowing in the heart of the desert.

Photos from a particularly pleasant morning in the mountains, watching clouds roll over the rim of the basin and fill every crevice in the rock spires. taken in Big Bend National Park by @ntlnwmn

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3 months ago

“In a lifetime spent in traveling, here I came upon the greatest wonder. The mantle of God touches you;
it is what Beethoven reached for in music; it is panorama without beginning or end.
No fire can burn so bright, no projection can duplicate the colors that dance over the desert or the bare rock
formations that form the backdrop. No words can tell you, and no painter hold it. It is only to be visited and looked
at with awe. It will make you breathe deeply whenever you think of it, for you have inhaled eternity.
There is no tree, no house to measure things by. You are in scale with the cactus plant, the stone in the distance
— the all-important and the nothing.”
-Ludwig Bemelmans on Big Bend (1956)

A few beautiful things from this weekend in #BigBendNationalPark

1. Waterfall pouring out of the Chisos Basin
2. Black throated sparrow and desert cottontail
3. Old man’s beard clematis and Acmaeodera mixta
4. Shades of purple from prickly pear tuna and desert lantana
5. Lampetis drummondi
6. The approach to the falls and Dythemis maya
7. Agave flower stalk above low clouds taken in Big Bend National Park by @ntlnwmn

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3 months ago