This February 2014 photo taken for the BBC World Service shows a border wall along the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. (Photo by Nina Robinson, BBC World Service/Flickr)

Jesse Lasky, an assistant professor of biology, was recently quoted in The Washington Post about the impact building a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico could have on wildlife. Here’s an excerpt:

“At a time when the Trump administration has restricted communications from the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies, federal agencies may be reluctant to weigh in on any topic in a way that appears critical of the president’s ambitions.

Jesse Lasky

“But outside the government, scientists who’ve studied how 670 miles of walls and fences erected as part of the Secure Fence Act under former president George W. Bush in 2006 tell stories of animals stopping in their tracks, staring at barriers they couldn’t cross.

” ‘At the border wall, people have found large mammals confounded and not knowing what to do,’ said Jesse Lasky, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State University. Deer, mountain lions, jaguar and ocelots are among the animals whose daily movement was disrupted, he said.

“Trump’s proposed wall, estimated to cost between $15 billion and $25 billion, would cover parts of the border that the Bush project, which was essentially abandoned because of its cost in 2009, does not.”

Read the full article on WashingtonPost.com. Lasky was also quoted in similar articles on Fusion.net and LiveScience.com.