U.S.-Canada commission falls behind Lack of funds leaves border in bad shape

PORTLAND – A tiny agency responsible for marking and maintaining the expansive border between the United States and Canada has fallen so far behind that it may never catch up without more money and resources.

The International Boundary Commission warns that border markers are deteriorating and parts of the border are becoming overgrown by trees and brush to the point that the border’s location could be lost in some areas.

The five-year plan for turning things around involves something the Canadian and U.S. governments have failed to provide: more money.

The agency, which is funded this year with $1.23 million from the U.S. government and a similar figure from the Canadians, will likely ask for its budget to be doubled, said Michael O’Sullivan, Canada’s IBC commissioner.

“For a number of years we have formally recognized that we’re losing the battle,” O’Sullivan said from his office in Ottawa.

The agency, consisting of two commissioners, six field engineers and a small support staff, is responsible for surveying and maintaining more than 8,000 monuments and reference points on the 5,525-mile border.

Its workers also are responsible for slashing a 20-foot-wide path through woods. With no fence, the boundary has the appearance of a utility easement with markers dotting the ground down the middle.

Created by treaty in 1925, the agency toiled in relative obscurity compared with the larger International Boundary and Water Commission, which is responsible for maintenance, flood control and other issues on the southern border. The IBWC’s budget is more than $30 million annually.

Then came the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that brought fresh attention to the northern border and underscored the importance of having a well-defined boundary for federal and state law enforcement officials.

An overgrown border reduces the effectiveness of infrared detection, observation scopes, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and aircraft used for monitoring, said Marvin Foust, assistant chief patrol agent for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Spokane, Wash.

“There are some areas where the brush is getting thick,” Foust said. “It’s more difficult to detect [border] intrusions if it grows too much.”

Many U.S. residents are familiar with crossings in places such as Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., and Blaine, Wash. But much of the border away from those busy crossings consists of vast stretches of rugged wilderness that includes woodlands, mountains and prairie.

Maine’s 611 miles consist mostly of forests. New Hampshire has 58 miles of border, and Vermont has 90 miles.

The commission completed a report this month that lays out what’s necessary to get the border back into shape.

A copy provided to The Associated Press chronicles a backlog of work that suggests both governments have fallen short of their treaty obligations of maintaining an “effective” boundary.

In addition, the agency contends the original 80-year-old maps created by the agency are in need of being updated.

“Each year that passes, we dig the hole a little deeper. It’s not like getting up to snuff would take that much money,” U.S. Commissioner Dennis L. Schornack said from Washington, D.C.

In the past, the six teams were working on a 15-year cycle for clearing brush and trees and restoring markers.

The goal, outlined in the report, is to clear the border and to complete all of the work within five years.

The additional money, if it is allocated at all, would go toward hiring contract crews and replacing some of the outdated bulldozers and other equipment, much of it army surplus from the 1960s and 1970s.

Schornack said the agency is roughly $1 million shy of what’s need for a “reasonable budget.”

“Sooner or later, we need to put some real money to work,” said Schornack, who also serves as commissioner of the International Joint Commission, which handles water issues on the northern border.

Any relief is at least a year away. The agency’s U.S. budget will be reduced to $1.15 million in the next fiscal year, so any hopes for additional funding will have to wait for fiscal 2006, Schornack said.