These photographs provide images of the most significant areas of the California-Baja California border region: the Tijuana River Watershed and the Imperial Valley
The Tijuana River Watershed is some 1,750 square miles in extent, with one-third in San Diego County and two-thirds in Baja California. The watershed has great diversity of ecosystems, flora, and fauna due to rugged topography (from sea level to more than 6,000 feet in elevation) and varied precipitation. The salt marsh at the mouth of the Tijuana River, the coastal sage scrub, chaparral, riparian forests, oak woodlands, and pine forests are all important vegetation complexes that contain many threatened and endangered species. Home to about 1.4 million people, the watershed's population is growing rapidly and is projected to double in about 15 years. The border fence separates two different human systems--the developed world of San Diego and the developing world of Baja California--that have different cultures, languages, and legal and political systems. The Tijuana River Watershed is a complex and dynamic mix of human and natural systems.
The Imperial Valley is one of the world's most productive agricultural areas. It is characterized by intensive irrigated crops of fresh vegetables for the U.S. market. The Imperial Valley is part of a natural system that includes the Mexicali Valley and the Colorado Delta to the south and the Salton Sea to the north. The region includes the Baja California capital of Mexicali with 800,000 residents and some 200,000 people in small communities and cities of the Imperial Valley. The advanced agricultural systems depend upon the flow of workers across the border from Mexico. Some enter the Imperial Valley with visas and some trek across the desert in search of work in El Norte.