A Conversation with Mirna Manteca on Cross-Border Conservation

Mirna Manteca, our Northwest Mexico Program Co-Director, grew up in the borderlands of the U.S. and Mexico. She brings a personal perspective to her work, seeing across political borders to a connected bi-national community of people and wildlife.  

In her role as a program director, Mirna has led our team toward significant progress in restoring habitat connectivity across cultural and physical barriers in the borderlands, including highways, railroads, cities, and the border wall. In the process, she has helped to protect a variety of species, including jaguars, black bears, ocelots, American badgers, rattlesnakes, lowland leopard frogs, and gila monsters. 

Mirna shared with us her personal perspective on cross-border work based on her experience reuniting the borderlands. 

Why are you passionate about restoring, reconnecting and rewilding North America?   

I’ve always been deeply in love with my home. As a kid, I would spend my summers at my grandparents’ ranch in Arizpe, Sonora. I ran after swallowtail butterflies, caught rainbow-colored grasshoppers with my tiny hands, and explored the narrow canyons in search of a good-sized tinaja to take a dip or look for toads.  

Those early experiences shaped me as a person – my dreams, my goals, and my professional path. There’s nothing quite like finding black bear tracks in the field and knowing your work will benefit that individual.  

What types of viewpoints and perspectives do you bring to your work at Wildlands Network?   

I strongly believe that to make a difference, we need to approach a conservation threat from all fronts, sometimes at the same time. The science informs the policy work ensures sustainability at the top levels, and community involvement ensures sustainability at the bottom levels. Collaboration across disciplines is essential.  

How have these perspectives informed your work on Highway 2 and Highway 14?   

These highways cut across my home. I’ve traveled these highways and seen the roadkill my whole life. I never thought I’d be able to do something about it, so now, with my work at Wildlands Network, I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of the effort to reconnect these landscapes.  

With these highways, we’ve worked tirelessly gathering roadkill and culvert usage data and meeting with local- and national-level transportation officials to explore ways to install mitigation structures in key places. We’re also starting to explore the community aspect of road ecology by working with landowners adjacent to the highway. It’s important to realize that change won’t come from our work alone. It’s in the hands of many decision-makers and depends on many processes out of our direct control.  

Why is working across the U.S.-Mexico border so important to restoring North America?  

It’s been said a million times, but it’s worth repeating. Nature knows no borders. Wildlife’s natural cycles, movement, and needs are not tied to human borders and jurisdictions. If we want to restore North America, we need to hold hands across borders and cultures to protect our collective resources, biodiversity, and natural processes. We have to be connected and aligned, not divided, to make a positive impact.  

How has your personal and professional experience in the borderlands helped you work across cultures?  

My first words were in Spanish, but I actually learned to read and write in English. So, I’ve always said that English is my second first language. I’ve been coming and going across the border my whole life for different reasons. I’ve studied, worked, and lived on both sides of the border and always felt at home on either side.  

I think being someone who has a foot in both countries and feels comfortable in both cultures has helped me see the bigger cross-border conservation picture. The conservation goals and challenges are mostly the same in Mexico and the U.S., but the approach and needs are different on each side. For example, to reconnect habitat across the border wall, we may work closely with state agencies in the U.S. and private landowners and community representatives in Mexico.  

However, these differences don’t necessarily divide – they complement each other when we work together. The contrasting knowledge and expertise make the borderlands an enriching place to work in. 

What challenges have you faced in the process?  

The biggest challenge I’ve faced working in the borderlands, besides Border Patrol harassment, is not being able to share my travels and work with my partner. We’ve been unsuccessful in getting a visa for him to travel to the US for years. It’s always been a crude reminder that although nature knows no borders, humans do.  

How do you envision Wildlands Network’s role in helping shape conservation work in the borderlands in the future?  

In my short but meaningful professional career, I’ve come to learn that, at the end of the day, organizations are a reflection of the people they’re composed of. From leadership all the way to interns, I’m in constant admiration of my colleagues.  

Additionally, Wildlands Network strategically positions us in key places where we can leverage our collective skills and knowledge to make a positive impact. For example, our Northwest Mexico team works across research and strategic partnerships with our US-based Borderlands Program Coordinator, Myles Traphagen, which has been vital in advancing advocacy against the border wall. I see our role in the borderlands as one to foster the realization that the borderlands are not two halves, but a connected whole fluid landscape that goes beyond human ideas of property and politics.