TUCSON, Ariz.— Construction crews preparing to build new double border walls in southeastern Arizona detonated large explosions Wednesday on the edge of Coronado National Memorial, documented in video captured by the Center for Biological Diversity. The area on the slopes of the Huachuca Mountains is federally designated critical habitat for endangered jaguars and threatened Mexican spotted owls.

“This wall is being ripped through a living landscape that’s vital to endangered animals and plants. It’ll fracture jaguar migration routes, choke genetic diversity and wipe out the natural connections that have shaped the Sky Islands for millennia,” said Russ McSpadden, a Southwest conservation advocate at the Center who filmed the destruction. “In their effort to cage in the entire Southwest with massive walls, the Trump administration is setting the stage for long-term ecological collapse.”

The footage shows blasts and dust clouds drifting directly over critical habitat for the endangered beardless chinchweed plant, as crews cleared the hills for border wall construction and quarried rock to mix with concrete.

The new wall and quarrying work comes after the Trump administration waived dozens of environmental laws to accelerate construction and just a day after images were released showing a newly documented jaguar in southern Arizona, detected on remote cameras last month.

The blasting took place along the boundary of Coronado National Memorial, Coronado National Forest and the San Rafael Valley — one of the most important remaining wildlife corridors between the United States and Mexico for endangered animals like jaguars and ocelots.

High-resolution video, photos and map of blasting site are available here.