Inside the unbuilding of Trump's border wall

• Locals who know the rugged terrain, which includes Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Park, say illegal crossings aren't their problem.
• "I wish the president would be more informed as to what's going on," said Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez. "It's a place where, if you cross the border, you got to at least walk three or four days ... you don't just walk across the river and expect to get picked up."
• Since last October, there have been about 34,480 encounters at the southern border. Just 892 were in the Big Bend sector.

Zoom in: Most of the sector's mileage (minus the canyon sections) was slated for physical barrier construction in February.

• After community pushback, the sector's mileage of steel barriers has been reduced to roughly 175 miles, according to No Big Bend Wall, a new local coalition tracking the mapping.
• "They're responding to friction," David Keller, a Redford, Texas resident and archeologist, told Axios.
• The coalition's list of grievances with physical barriers includes degradation to vulnerable watersheds and archeological sites, disruption of animal migrations and the region's famous dark night skies, and hits to private property values.

The intrigue: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was assured by Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks that there wouldn't be physical wall in Big Bend National Park or Big Bend Ranch State Park, a source familiar with the talks told Axios.

• As of mid-February, just 35.9 miles of new border wall construction have been finished across the southern border.

Driving the news: Five border county sheriffs penned an open letter urging federal officials to consult them and consider changing course to a "technology-driven, and terrain-informed" solution.

• Local officials in Presidio and Brewster counties passed resolutions condemning any border wall construction and recently got meetings with the Big Bend Sector Chief Lloyd Easterling to voice their concerns.
• "Regionally, we're a united voice," Keller said. "Republican, Democrat, Libertarian: doesn't matter. We all don't want it."

The other side: "CBP continues to coordinate with the National Park Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and other federal and state agencies, throughout the planning of border barrier and technology deployments, in order to achieve Border Patrol's operational priorities," CBP spokesperson Hilton Beckham said in a statement.

• Beckham added that the "areas adjacent to the Big Bend National Park and State Park are still in the planning stages, while CBP focuses on other higher priority locations" with historically more crossings.

Between the lines: The community pushback is cordial in West Texas, an already tight-knit community with good relationships with local Border Patrol.

• "Basically, he was telling us that until there is dirt moving, we should still use our voices. He was very open to that," said Deirdre Hisler, a Presidio County commissioner who was at a recent meeting with Sector Chief Lloyd Easterling.
• After complaints at a meeting of local leaders in mid-March, Hisler was told that 5.6 more miles would be taken off the physical wall map.
• Shortly after the community meetings, Easterling retired. He could not be reached for comment.

Friction point: While some state and public parks have seen some relief from the physical wall plans, private land owners have already started receiving letters from the Army Corps of Engineers about leasing agreements for construction access.

• Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also signed waivers for the required environmental studies that would typically be done for a project in this area.
• Surveyors are expected to arrive in mid-April and ground will break in June.

The bottom line: The wins so far aren't enough for some Big Bend residents.

• "Best case scenarios is they just go away and they never come back," said Charlie Angell, who runs a river guide company and owns riverfront property that is slated to have a wall built 10 feet from his backdoor.
• Some wall plans Angell and his neighbors have received show the wall about a mile north of the river, stripping people of their riverfront property and potentially cutting off animals from their water source.
• "I can't believe we joined the Union after hearing all this sh*t," Angell said.