Episodi

  • S5E34: Chihuahuan Desert 101 with Dr. Kevin Floyd

    S5E34: Chihuahuan Desert 101 with Dr. Kevin Floyd
    Oct 16 2026
    • we realized that our continent's easternmost desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, is not as well known in many ways as its sister deserts like the Mojave and Sonoran. And we had to do what we can to rectify that! So in this episode, Chris chats with Dr. Kevin Floyd, botanical curator of the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens at the University of Texas at El Paso, about what life is like in the Chihuahuan Desert. Kevin discusses:
    • Elevation, winter freezes, and summer monsoon rains.
    • Why no one really agrees on the precise boundaries of the Chihuahuan Desert
    • The small cacti, agaves, yuccas, that thrive in the desert’s grassland landscapes
    • Native bees, birds, bats, and the connections between plant diversity and animal life.
    • Bighorn sheep in the Franklin Mountains, road mortality, and the case for wildlife crossings.
    • How native landscaping and reduced pesticide use help support local food webs.

    Our first taste of a new batch of Fred Bell’s nature recordings features coyotes around Furnace Creek Campground in Death Valley National Park. And Chris reflects on storm damage, past and future. Check on your neighbors!

    Also! We've extended two deadlines. Our Fellowship for Desert Reporting is still accepting applications until October 31, and you can still be the first to submit an answer to our bird ID quiz from last week! Listen to the Fred Bell recording in S5E33; the first three emails received at chris@90milesfromneedles.com that correctly identify the birds in the audio by October 22 win a 90 Miles from Needles T-shirt.

    Links and Resources:

    Desert Diaries Podcast: https://www.ktep.org/podcast/desert-diaries

    Chihuahuan Desert Gardens at UTEP: https://www.utep.edu/centennial-museum/chihuahuan-desert-gardens/

    Kevin Floyd and Daniel Carey-Whalen staff profiles: https://www.utep.edu/centennial-museum/about/people.html

    Fellowship for Desert Reporting: https://thedamn.org/fellowship

    Support 90 Miles from Needles: https://www.90milesfromneedles.com/donate

    Become a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donate

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    44 min
  • S5E33: From Starfleet to the Sonoran Desert: Coping With a Burro Onslaught

    S5E33: From Starfleet to the Sonoran Desert: Coping With a Burro Onslaught
    Oct 8 2026
    Listeners in Joshua Tree and Moab may think their homes are overrun with jackasses, but this episode's guest has got them beat. We talk with Dr. Jennifer Anderson, whose diverse career has brought her to stewarding 300 acres of Sonoran Desert landscape in Mohave County, Arizona. But restoring her former 19th Century mine site has not proved as straightforward as Anderson had imagined. Western Arizona landscapes — and others throughout the deserts — are contending with a huge increase in the numbers of feral burros, introduced centuries ago but newly prospering at the expense of the desert. Anderson details the impact her unwanted guests have caused to her part of the desert, and the cascade of unpleasant effects that stem from the donkeys' presence as well as the inability of land management agencies to contend with the issue. Plus! Our first ever listener contest: correctly identify all the birds in Fred Bell's nature audio and message Chris, and you may win a 90 Miles from Needles T-shirt. The first three listeners who email Chris with a correct ID, a t-shirt size, and a mailing address will get some mail from us. Citation links and further reading AZGFD study — Associations between a feral equid and the Sonoran Desert ecosystem — Esther S. Rubin, Dave Conrad, Larisa E. Harding, and Brianna M. Russo; Wildlife Monographs 215, e1083, published June 26, 2024. Fieldwork in 2017–2019 compared areas with and without established burro herds near Lake Havasu and Lake Pleasant.Environmental Assessment — Big Sandy Alamo and Lake Havasu Wild Burro Gather and Population Control Plan — BLM Kingman Field Office, DOI-BLM-AZ-C010-2023-0025-EA. Official document index for the final revised EA, Finding of No Significant Impact, and Decision Record. Decision issued September 13, 2024. Expand Final Documents to access the assessment.BLM 2025 Three Rivers Complex gather and daily reports — Official record of the bait and water trapping operation and fertility control work.Alamo Herd Management Area — BLM geographic profile and appropriate management level.Big Sandy Herd Management Area — BLM geographic profile and appropriate management level.Havasu Herd Management Area — BLM geographic profile and appropriate management level.AZGFD explanation of the burro study — Accessible agency summary of the ecological concerns.National Academies review of equid fertility management — Methods and Effects of Fertility Management, in Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program A Way Forward (2013).Mountain lion predation study — Lundgren and colleagues (2022), A novel trophic cascade between cougars and feral donkeys shapes desert wetlands. Background relevant to the predator discussion.NPS saguaro biology and nurse trees — Background on young saguaros, nurse trees, growth, and roots.Federal wild horse and burro law — Official U.S. Code PDF covering private-land removal and criminal provisions, including 16 USC 1334 and 1338. Guest and episode links Sonoran Desert SanctuaryAnderson-Arroyo FoundationFellowship for Desert ReportingSupport 90 Miles from NeedlesThis episode's sponsor Copper Mountain CollegeContact ChrisBecome a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    45 min
  • S5E32: Hiding Big Projects in Small Pieces

    S5E32: Hiding Big Projects in Small Pieces
    Oct 2 2026

    As promised a few episodes back, Chris explores a sneaky trick developers sometimes try to use to evade legally required environmental analysis of their projects. Segmentation, the term of art for dividing a large project into smaller pieces to obscure the environmental impacts of the whole project, is likely to become more frequent as the Trump administration keeps hacking away at environmental protection laws.

    Chris provides a handful of illuminating examples:

    • Cadiz gets the Interior Department to assess the company’s Northern Pipeline separately from the pumping it would enable, prompting new desert protection lawsuits.
    • A non-desert example: 14 years ago, frontline community groups successfully challenged an upgrading of Chevron Oil’s refinery on Richmond, California. Though their allegations of segmentation (called “piecemealing” in California state law) didn’t sway a judge, the case illustrates how reasonable people can disagree on what constitutes segmentation.
    • As the Federal approach to NEPA changes, Chris briefly examines what the erosion of CEQ regulations means for protecting the public and the environment from improperly segmented project proposals.
    • An Imperial County victory: the court overturned a data center’s lot merger approval and required environmental review of the entire development.
    • Fred Bell shares the dawn chorus from Sabino Canyon in Tucson.
    • Apply for DAMN’s Fellowship for Desert Reporting, and support independent desert journalism through a donation to 90 Miles from Needles.

    Cadiz lawsuit by Tribal Nations, NALC and NPCA, July 28, 2026: identifies plaintiffs and explains their objections to separate pipeline review.

    Cadiz lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club, July 28, 2026: Earthjustice’s account of the parallel challenge.

    NPCA and NALC’s 2021 Northern Pipeline lawsuit: background on the earlier approval and litigation.

    Communities for a Better Environment v. City of Richmond, 2010 appellate opinion: the decision distinguishes the successful project-description and greenhouse-gas claims from the rejected piecemealing claim.

    Earthjustice on the Richmond refinery appeal: the community groups’ account of the outcome.

    City of Imperial data center information and court documents: includes the September 9, 2026 decision, tentative decision, petitions and project documents.

    KPBS coverage of the September 9 data center ruling: accessible explanation of the ruling.

    Department of Energy history of CEQ regulations: official timeline and links to the rescission rules.

    January 8, 2026 CEQ final rule: official Federal Register publication.

    Podcast and support links

    S5E1: Standing Up to Tech Giants: Desert Locals vs. California’s Largest Data Center

    Fellowship for Desert Reporting

    Support 90 Miles from Needles

    Copper Mountain College

    Become a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donate

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    32 min
  • S5E31: Desert Dispatch, Data Centers, and the People Pushing Back

    S5E31: Desert Dispatch, Data Centers, and the People Pushing Back
    Sep 25 2026

    Desert Dispatch Media is bringing together artists and communities to document how the AI buildout is affecting desert lands and the people who live there. Chris talks with organizer Melinda Matson Spina, filmmaker Jodi Darby, and musician Sage Bond about their planned community-led documentary, a short film for public assemblies, and the stories they hope to gather across the Southwest.

    Sage describes composing with sounds and materials from the land, while Jodi explains how footage contributed by community members can shape the larger film. Chris also surveys actions communities and tribal governments are taking in response to proposed data centers.

    Links and further reading

    • Desert Dispatch Media

    • Listen to Sage Bond on YouTube

    • The Border Chronicle and its fifth-anniversary celebration

    • Virginia’s Data Center Accountability Framework

    • Gallup: Americans Oppose AI Data Centers in Their Area — In a March 2026 national survey, 71% of U.S. adults opposed construction of an AI data center in their local area.

    • Support 90 Miles from Needles

    • Episode image is from a satirical website dated 2013

    Become a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donate

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    43 min
  • S5E30: Why Deserts Need Defending

    S5E30: Why Deserts Need Defending
    Sep 17 2026

    For our 150th episode, we return to a foundational question: why does the desert need people speaking up for it?

    Chris offers four answers. Deserts are widely misunderstood as empty or expendable. They remain surprisingly understudied, even when familiar species such as Joshua trees are concerned. Desert protection cannot be separated from Indigenous sovereignty, migration, heat inequality, contaminated water, and the lives of working people. And beneath the science, policy, and activism lies a simpler reason: we love these places.

    Listeners Kimberly, Nancy, and Diane share their own reasons for caring about deserts. Fred Bell supplies the nighttime voices of Woodhouse’s and Amargosa toads at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

    After the closing credits, Chris looks back at the geographical and topical reach of the podcast’s first 150 episodes—and identifies some of the places still missing from the archive.

    In this episode:

    • Why calling deserts “empty” makes them easier to sacrifice
    • Creosote rings, desert fire and ecological time
    • How invasive grasses have transformed wildfire in the Mojave
    • Why conspicuous desert species can remain surprisingly understudied
    • Environmental justice, border communities and urban heat
    • What love contributes to conservation
    • Where 150 episodes have taken us—and where the podcast needs to go next

    Resources and related listening:

    • The National Park Service explains how invasive plants can create a cycle of increasingly frequent and extensive Mojave fires: Fire in the Mojave Desert.
    • NPS reports that the 2020 Dome Fire burned 43,273 acres, killed as many as 1.3 million Joshua trees and exposed the forest to a potential invasive-grass fire cycle: Dome Fire.
    • Related episode: S4E31: Five Years On—Cima Dome After the Flames.
    • Related episode: Joshua Trees and Family Trees.
    • The Joshua Tree Genome Project and affiliated researchers are using mapping, crowdsourced observations and machine learning to study Joshua tree populations: The Yoder Lab at CSU Northridge.
    • NOAA’s current assessment of the strengthening 2026–27 El Niño: ENSO Diagnostic Discussion.
    • Related episode: S5E28: Four Things You Need to Know About Desert Flooding.
    • Support the podcast at 90milesfromneedles.com/donate.
    • Learn about the Fellowship for Desert Reporting at thedamn.org/fellowship.

    • Not sure where to start with 150 episodes? Visit our Start Here page for a selection of episodes that offer a good introduction to 90 Miles from Needles.

    Become a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donate

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    45 min
  • S5E29: Why Was the North Kaibab Trail Still Open?

    S5E29: Why Was the North Kaibab Trail Still Open?
    Sep 11 2026

    Journalist Joe Dana of 12 News in Phoenix joins Chris Clarke to discuss questions raised by the August 29 flash flood in Grand Canyon National Park—and what happened inside the National Park Service before the disaster.

    After the 2025 Dragon Bravo Fire, Grand Canyon Trails Supervisor Adam Gibson warned publicly that the upper North Kaibab Trail had become a substantially more hazardous environment. In a March appearance on The Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Show, Gibson described debris flows, hydrophobic soils and risks likely to persist for years.

    Dana's reporting goes further. Sources told him that Gibson had recommended keeping the North Kaibab Trail closed for the 2026 season, and that park leadership initially appeared receptive to that recommendation before the entire trail reopened May 15. NPS had previously described its reopening strategy as adaptive, promising to “open what we can, where we can, when we can,” while balancing visitor safety, resource protection and operational readiness.

    Chris and Joe talk about the pressures on park managers to restore public access, the risks faced by trail crews and visitors in a recently burned landscape, and the larger question built into National Park Service management: how do you provide public enjoyment of extraordinary places while ensuring that those places remain unimpaired for future generations? NPS policy says conservation ultimately takes precedence when those purposes genuinely conflict.

    The August 29 flood killed two hikers, left a third missing, prompted roughly 80 rescues, and devastated infrastructure along Bright Angel Creek. As of September 8, the North Kaibab Trail, Phantom Ranch, Bright Angel Campground and several other inner-canyon areas remain closed, with no estimated reopening date.

    Links and background

    Joe Dana and 12 News

    Grand Canyon Hiker Dude: Adam Gibson's March 4 interview

    NPS: North Rim reopening announcement, March 25

    NPS: Current North Rim and North Kaibab Trail status

    National Park Service Management Policies: conservation and public enjoyment

    Chris will also be taking 90 Miles from Needles to El Paso for the Fourth Chihuahuan Desert Conference, November 4–6, 2026, at the El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens.

    Chihuahuan Desert Conference information

    Become a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donate

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    34 min
  • S5E28: 4 Things You Need to Know about Desert Flooding

    S5E28: 4 Things You Need to Know about Desert Flooding
    Sep 4 2026

    Episode thumbnail photo by Bo Insogna.

    The deadly August 29 flood in Grand Canyon National Park received national attention, but it was not an isolated event. Flooding struck communities, parks and backcountry destinations across Utah, Arizona and New Mexico throughout the summer.

    Chris Clarke presents four things we should understand about desert flash floods: they are regional rather than isolated disasters; they are fundamental forces that build desert landscapes; blaming victims can undermine safety; and better preparation, warnings, closures and land-use decisions can reduce the danger. The episode also explains why violent monsoon floods do little to relieve the Colorado River drought.

    Key takeaways

    • The Grand Canyon flood was part of a much wider period of destructive Southwest monsoon flooding.
    • Flash floods are not aberrations in deserts. They carve canyons, move boulders, reroute washes and build alluvial fans.
    • Experience and preparation reduce risk, but they cannot eliminate it.
    • Blaming victims encourages people to treat safety warnings as advice intended for someone less competent.
    • Closures, permits, upstream monitoring, better flood maps and responsible land-use decisions can save lives.
    • Intense local flooding does not necessarily produce enough water to replenish major reservoirs or end a regional drought.

    Notable quote
    “The sustained river incision and the geological uplift are the canvas. The flash floods are the brushstrokes.”

    • Griffiths, Peter G., Robert H. Webb, and Theodore S. Melis. 2004. “Frequency and Initiation of Debris Flows in Grand Canyon, Arizona.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 109(F4).
      DOI: 10.1029/2003JF000077
    • Melis, Theodore S., Robert H. Webb, Peter G. Griffiths, and T.J. Wise. 1994. Magnitude and Frequency Data for Historic Debris Flows in Grand Canyon National Park and Vicinity, Arizona. USGS Water-Resources Investigations Report 94-4214.
      DOI: 10.3133/wri944214
    • Cannon, Susan H., et al. 2008. “Storm Rainfall Conditions for Floods and Debris Flows from Recently Burned Areas in Southwestern Colorado and Southern California.” Geomorphology 96(3–4): 250–269.
      DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2007.03.019
    • Goodrich, David C., et al. 2018. “Southwestern Intermittent and Ephemeral Stream Connectivity.” Journal of the American Water Resources Association 54(2): 400–422.
      DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12636
    • Swain, Daniel L., et al. 2020. “Increased Flood Exposure Due to Climate Change and Population Growth in the United States.” Earth’s Future 8.
      DOI: 10.1029/2020EF001778

    Become a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donate

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    31 min
  • S5E27: Sonoran Toads and the Dirty Business of Ego Death

    S5E27: Sonoran Toads and the Dirty Business of Ego Death
    Aug 28 2026
    Journalist Kimon de Greef joins Chris Clarke to discuss his new book, The Ego Trip: Psychedelic Toads, a Trail of Deaths, and the Guru Who Peddled Transcendence. The Sonoran Desert toad (Incilius alvarius) spends most of the year underground, emerging to breed during summer rainstorms. It is also the only animal known to produce 5-MeO-DMT, an extraordinarily powerful psychedelic compound, in its defensive secretions. That biological curiosity has made the toad the center of a global psychedelic industry. Chris and Kimon discuss how Sonoran toad secretions changed from a little-known psychedelic tool into an international spiritual commodity; how outsiders profit from romanticized ideas about Indigenous tradition; and what the resulting trade means for the toads, the people hired to collect them, and communities living amid poverty and cartel violence. They also examine parallels with the commercial appropriation and poaching of white sage, and consider an uncomfortable contradiction: people seeking healing, transcendence and communion with nature may be supporting a supply chain built on wildlife exploitation, misinformation and harm. Content Note This episode contains discussion of drug use, addiction, death, animal mistreatment and abusive psychedelic practices. It is not intended as medical advice or encouragement to use 5-MeO-DMT or any other controlled substance. About Kimon de Greef Kimon de Greef is a South African journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, Guernica and other publications. He has a master’s degree in conservation biology from the University of Cape Town and a master’s degree in journalism from New York University. Much of his reporting concerns wildlife trafficking, illicit economies and the complicated relationships between human desire and the natural world. Kimon de Greef’s websiteKimon on InstagramBuy The Ego Trip through Bookshop.orgPublisher’s page for The Ego Trip In this episode The remarkable monsoon-dependent life of the Sonoran Desert toadWhat 5-MeO-DMT is, and why “toad licking” is both inaccurate and dangerousHow Octavio Rettig helped popularize toad-derived 5-MeO-DMTClaims that toad smoking is an ancient Comcáac/Seri traditionPsychedelic tourism, cultural appropriation and spiritual marketingThe economic realities behind supposedly “responsibly sourced” toad secretionsToad collection, repeated “milking,” displacement and disease transmissionWhy synthetic 5-MeO-DMT removes the need to exploit wild toadsParallels between the toad trade and the international market for poached white sageWhat scientists know and don't know about the toad’s population statusThe difficulty of conducting conservation research in cartel-controlled areasWhy a potentially profound experience can still leave a trail of real-world harm Selected timestamps 00:02:07 — How Kimon found the story00:03:52 — Sonoran Desert toad natural history00:06:20 — 5-MeO-DMT and the toad’s defensive secretions00:08:47 — Octavio Rettig and the rise of “toad medicine”00:11:34 — The Comcáac community and claims of recovered tradition00:14:50 — Is there evidence of ancestral toad use?00:20:15 — Psychedelic tourism and its consequences00:22:30 — Seri ironwood carving and the creation of “tradition”00:30:10 — The parallel with white sage00:34:59 — Toad-derived versus synthetic 5-MeO-DMT00:38:44 — Inside the toad-secretion supply chain00:44:35 — What is happening to wild toad populations?00:50:27 — Psychedelic experience, reporting and ethical distance Further reading and resources Kimon de Greef’s original New Yorker investigation, “The Pied Piper of Psychedelic Toads”De Greef on the collection trade, “The Psychedelic Toad Milkers”High Country News, “A Hallucinogenic Toad in Peril”Sonoran Desert Toad Fund, supporting research and conservation throughout the species’ rangeTucson Herpetological Society, whose president Robert Villa has worked extensively on the toad’s conservationSonoran Desert toad species account from AmphibiaWebU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Sonoran Desert toad species profilePLOS One, “Diet and Chemical Defenses of the Sonoran Desert Toad”California Native Plant Society, White Sage ProtectionBecome a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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