Instagram story viewer> @sc_borderlands> Posts

Sierra Club Borderlands

@sc_borderlands

4.8K

followers

808

following

Sierra Club Borderlands works to protect and restore the natural values of the U.S.- Mexico borderlands for future generations. Join us!

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Assembly + Screening on Rising Local Threats in the Rush for AI
—with art, music, film, poetry, and community leaders in conversation

Tucson AZ 10/22 —Desert Dispatch Media hosts Hyperscale Threats in the Desert Region on day one of the Music Against the Machine arts and music fest.

This free event explores how AI investment is rapidly expanding regional mining, militarization, surveillance, data centers, and other harms.

Community leaders and experts will talk about relevant threats they are currently confronting, pertinent history or context, and ways for community members to increase their engagement and resilience in this crisis.

• Coordinated with the community support of Kairand Bellinger and the No Desert Data Center Coalition

• Hosted at the Dunbar Pavilion Cressworth C. Lander Auditorium, 325 W 2nd St, Tucson AZ

• Tabling by Living United for Change in AZ and Veterans Power America

• 6:00pm - Community meet and greet with light refreshments, featuring LaPira of El Conjunto LaPira

• 6:45pm - Screening The Mirage: Inhumane Tech in the Silicon Desert (2026) (15 min), produced by Desert Dispatch Media, edited by Jodi Darby, with an original score by Sage Bond and Kevin Van Winkle

• 7:00pm - Opening reading by poet and multi-media artist Mariana Rivera

• 7:05pm - Conversation moderated by Sierra Club Borderlands Coordinator Erick Meza, featuring

Tohono O'odham Nation San Xavier District Chairman Austin G. Nuñez

Living United for Change in Arizona Organizing Manager Faith Ramon

Carissa S., an administrative engineer with expertise in communications and semiconductors

Cybersecurity/data scientist Rye Whalen, who has served in the U.S. Army

• 8:00pm - Closing reading by poet and agricultural worker Claire Hong

We hope to see you!

Desert Dispatch Media is a grassroots production group led by women, based in the desert region, and a project of the Desert Advocacy Media Network, a 501c3 nonprofit
organization.

Desert Dispatch Media is collaborating with artists, community members, and supporting organizations to document the rapid expansion of regional mining, militarization, data centers, surveillance and other harms for AI. by @sc_borderlands

43

0

3 days ago

Camp O:Shad — All Walls Will Fall

Camp O:Shad has ended, but what happened here will live far beyond the camp itself. Named for O:Shad, the jaguar who appeared in Arizona in 2023. O:Shad means “jaguar protector.” To the Tohono O’odham, jaguars are protectors of the people & the environment. For more than 75 DAYS, people on both sides of the Arizona–Mexico border stood together in a historic binational tree sit that halted border wall construction. We delayed construction, forced contractors and the government to spend enormous resources on security, equipment, and lost productivity, and brought international attention to what was happening on the border. For them, this is about money. For us, this is about life.

Camp O:Shad may be gone, but the blood, sweat, tears, courage, love, and resistance poured into the land have not gone to waste.

🌳 The first binational tree sit to halt border wall construction.
🌳 The Abuela Tree on the Mexican side still stands after relentless pressure and a land defender spending 20+ hours suspended in a harness without food or water after Border Patrol cut away her platform.
🌳 Pressure from land defenders helped secure a road to the cemetery.
🌳 Millions and millions of people witnessed what was happening at the border through social media advocacy.
🌳 Cuttings from the Grandmothers are growing in a nursery soon to be returned to the earth.
🌳 A powerful community and support network emerged, ready for whatever comes next.
🌳 Countless people experienced direct action for the first time, gaining skills and lessons through solidarity and community.

Although we didn’t achieve everything we fought for, history was made. Grandmother tree gave us so much and she lives within everyone who stood beneath her branches, defended her, and carried her story into the world. We will grow from her roots.

Thank you to everyone who showed up and fought for the Grandmothers. Thank you for fighting for life. Thank you for every drop of blood, sweat, and tears poured into this land. Camp O:Shad lives on in all of us ❤️

#noborderwall #noalmuro taken in Lochiel, Arizona by @sc_borderlands

915

30

5 days ago

On October 7, in Lochiel, Arizona, heavily armed Border Patrol agents fired tear gas and pepper balls at protesters trying to stop a double border wall from cutting through the San Rafael Valley.
Some had chained themselves to heavy machinery. Organizer Kate Scott, who witnessed one protester’s ordeal, said she called 911 for help and was told by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office to ask Border Patrol instead. Erick Meza, borderlands coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon chapter, has spent days at the site. “These are not regular Border Patrol agents,” he told us.
Meanwhile, Rally for the Valley, one of the protesters’ Instagram accounts, reports that five people were released today with no charges after being held incommunicado for 24 hours. Protesters have been at the site since July, and they remain there now.

Read the full story at the borderchronicle.com linked in bio🔗🦂

🎥Video: Sonoran Desert Press by @sc_borderlands

1k

0

11 days ago

---ACTION ALERT---
Join us and many other organziations and concern community members today at the press conference and rally at the @arizonapubliclands offices.

The Bureau of Land Management's mission is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

We need to let them know that this closures and restrictions will cause more dead of people, wildlife and unchecked destruction o our public lands.

See you at 1 pm!✊

#ReopenBLMlandnow by @sc_borderlands

13

0

11 days ago

Brave activists continue to defend the land, many have been violently arrested by armed @cbpgov agents, all this so contractors can take all trees down to open way for their secondary wall and fulfill their multimillion contract.

Please contact your representative and tell them to STOP this madness, it is not to late!! A person still sits on a grandmother on top of the border fence trying to protect it from its killing.

Reach out and get involved @rally.forthevalley @tierralibre_noborders

#noborderwall taken in Lochiel, Arizona by @sc_borderlands

138

9

12 days ago

ALL OUT:
Celebration of Life for Grandmother Tree

This Thursday TOMORROW, October 8th. 4pm
Lochiel, AZ - 31°19'59.3"N 110°37'12.0"W

Let your heavy heart lead you to action! All people of good conscience are called to come to Lochiel to stand with land defenders for a special ceremony.

With your physical presence, we will be able to create space to celebrate Grandmother's life, our commitment to resistance for the land, and eachother.

If you have been waiting to come to Lochiel, THIS IS THE TIME! All people of faith, conviction, passion, and defiance-- you are needed! If you have been unsure whether you can be useful, understand we have been praying for your presence with us. The more there are of us, the safer we will be! COME. BRING FRIENDS, RELATIVES, and NEIGHBORS. by @sc_borderlands

624

5

12 days ago

We are devastated to confirm that the last remaining cottonwood tree in Lochiel, Arizona that was known as "The Grandmother" has been cut down by fisher sand and gravel contractors, there are 2 more south of the fence and one has been occupied by an activist creating a new tree sit!!!

And without wasting any time and with an amount of resources that we never seen before in the border, they started their second wall.

The entire place has become an industrial zone, guarded by Border Patrol.

This use to be the most peaceful town in the entire AZ border until they decided that trees are just in the way for their multimillion dollar contracts.

All four of the grandmother cottonwoods are now gone but not the fight against the destruction of the borderlands.

These trees were almost 200 years old, how many years you think this walls will last?

#noborderwall taken in Lochiel, Arizona by @sc_borderlands

428

36

12 days ago

*DAY OF ACTION IN LOCHIEL, AZ*

JOIN THE FIGHT TO STOP BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION!

Sunday, October 4th - ALL DAY

Music! Meals!

Plant Walk 8AM
Parade 10:30AM
Data Center Panel 2 PM
Presentation 4:30PM
Sunset Ceremony 6PM

Bring costumes, banners, your car, your bike, your friend’s, water!

#noborderwall #noalmuro #arizona #ralleyforthevalley taken in Lochiel, Arizona by @sc_borderlands

961

12

16 days ago

DAY OF ACTION this Sunday, October 4th, to stand in Solidarity across the Nation against ICE, against the Border Walls, against colonial and imperial oppression, and against the destruction of families, ecosystems, and our public lands!!!

A more in depth description from land defenders:

"Join us in Lochiel, AZ for a day of action against the border and in solidarity with the brave people of Vermont resisting ICE infrastructure.

Activites will start early, so come the night before if you can and camp! The parade will leave Grandmother Tree at 10:30AM. Bring costumes, banners, instruments, bikes, cars, and friends! After the parade there will be a panel discussion on data centers (2PM), followed by a Tierra Libre presentation (4:30PM). Our day will end with Sunset Ceremony (6PM) and will dance with a Torah under the sukkah!

We will gather at the Grandmother Tree

ALL WALLS WILL FALL!"

TODOS LOS MUROS SE CAEN

DM for more info!!!

#noborders by @sc_borderlands

568

22

17 days ago

@arizonapubliclands just closed a large section of public lands without notice or consultation and apparently since September 16th in the San Rafael Valley state area. (SIgns went up today October 1st)

Individuals and organizations that access this once very peaceful and beautiful valley will now be fined and put into jail for their "safety"

Now contractors can freely destroy our public lands without accountability, and wildlife will never have a chance to cross in those areas again once they finish.🐅

All this comes in respond of the exposing of contractors careless destruction of public lands.

The community is tired and outraged of primary and now secondary wall projects in the San Rafael Valley that caused the destruction of ancient cottonwood trees and now community members fight to protect the last standing one.🌳

This is a clear attempt to silence community and organizations that work to protect our public lands.

We hope that @arizonapubliclands changes their position and start working hard to put sanctions on contractors that are ignoring all the existing laws.

Thanks @repgrijalva for speaking out against the forest service closures.

#Protectpubliclands
#Revitalizenotmilitarize taken in San Rafael Valley by @sc_borderlands

261

23

18 days ago

A midweek episode featuring a conversation about Camp O:Shad and borderland defense in Lochiel ( AZ ) in run-up to Oct 4th Day of Action, plus Jackson Kusiak of HRC in Philly speaks about Uprising Prisoner Khalif Miller

https://thefinalstrawradio.mayfirst.info/2026/10/01/healing-the-borders-scar-updates-on-khalif-miller/ TFSR 10-1-26 | Healing the Borders Open Scar + Updates on Khalif MIller" featuring a photo of Khalif smiling at the camera wiht a tshirt from the cartoon Rugrats imposed on a larger backround pic showing the back of a person in a jagaur costume alongside a half-built portion of the border doublewall in Lochiel showing worker vehicles and a muddy road in the background by @sc_borderlands

81

1

18 days ago

Access to border roads in the Coronado National Forest has been closed until January 20, 2029.

Closing access to these areas is not to protect the health and safety of the public like the Forest Service claims. It is a way to stop documentation of reckless construction activity and avoid accountability by contractors.

Outright suppression of freedom of movement and free speech on public lands.

Also preventing life saving help from humanitarian aid in the borderlands.

See full press release in link in bio.

If you have a comment of question please call:

Contact Name: Coronado National Forest Supervisor's Office

Contact Number: 520-388-8300

Contact Email: mailroom_r3_coronado@usda.gov

#Revitalizenotmilitarize
#protectwildlifemigration
#notasacrifizezone taken in Coronado National Forest by @sc_borderlands

185

7

20 days ago