90 Miles from Needles: the Desert Protection Podcast
Episodes
S3E4: Nevada Supreme Court Upholds Water Protections for Desert Wildlife
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, host Chris Clarke speaks with Patrick Donnelly of the Center for Biological Diversity about a significant victory in the Nevada Supre...
S3E3: The Fight Against Flamingo 640; How a Community Stood Up to Big Development
29 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, host Chris Clarke discusses the successful fight against a proposed glamping project called Flamingo 640 in the California desert. Cl...
S3E2: Biden's Plan to Turn the Desert into a Solar Energy Complex
23 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Utility-Scale Solar energy development is shaping the future of solar in the western United ...
S3E1: Four Books That Will Change How You See The Desert
15 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of "90 Miles from Needles: The Desert Protection Podcast," host Chris Clarke introduces four books that will challenge preconceptions ...
S2E16: Protecting Desert Bighorn Sheep from Habitat Loss and Disease
25 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
About The Guest(s): Dr. Christina Aiello is a bighorn sheep biologist and research associate with Oregon State University. She has dedicated her caree...
S2E15: On Giving Tuesday, Make a Difference for the Desert
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Summary: Chris discusses the challenges that the deserts will face in 2024, including increased utility scale development of renewable energy, the thr...
S2E14: Obi Kaufmann and The Deserts of California
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
About The Guest(s): Obi Kaufmann is an artist, author, and naturalist known for his California Field Atlas series. His latest book, "The Deserts of Ca...
S2E13: Dealing With Loss
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's been a minute since we published an episode, in part because Chris and Alicia have had complicated lives. Here's how we contend with bad news ins...
S2E12: The Majestic Saguaro, Part 1
26 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We delve into the world of the saguaro cactus, exploring its cultural significance, scientific studies, and more. We talk to journalist Henry Brean of...
S2E11: Globemallow Binding the Desert's Wounds
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chris and Alicia discuss the recent victory in delaying exploration for lithium near Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. They also announce the form...
S2E10 Save Ash Meadows!
11 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mason Voehl from the Amargosa Conservancy joins hosts Chris Clarke and Alicia Pike to discuss the threat posed by a Canadian mining company's plans to...
S2E9: What We Got Wrong About the Desert
13 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We spend a lot of time correcting misapprehensions about the desert. But don't get the impression we think we're flawless! We've made our share of mis...
S2E8: Native Activism in the Desert (Part 1)
29 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chris and Alicia talk to Elizabeth Paige of Native American Land Conservancy and Save Our Springs. Podcast episode photo by John Fowler.Become a des...
S2E7: Superb Loom
22 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are flowers to be seen in the desert, if you know where to look. Chris and Alicia de-stress while enjoying the best of the desert, and discuss h...
S2E6: Border Chronicle: Biden Still Building Trump's Border Wall"
09 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We here at 90 Miles from Needles are big fans of The Border Chronicle podcast and email newsletter, and in this episode, we're republishing an episode...
S2E5: The Problems with Desert Solar
19 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US Interior Department is rethinking the ways it has managed big corporate solar on public lands, and we have opinions. Chris pontificates based o...
S2E4: Protecting Wonder Valley
18 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Alicia talks to a well-organized group of desert denizens who are working together to stop an inappropriate development from destroying their way of l...
S2E3: Governor Ducey's Border Wall Comes Down
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In late 2022, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey ordered the illegal construction of sections of ineffective but ecologically disastrous border wall made out...
S2E2: Remembering Phil Pister
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Edwin P. (Phil) Pister, who died January 17, was a fisheries biologist long employed by the California Department of Fish and Game (now Fish and Wildl...
S2E1: Larrea tridentata a.k.a. the Humble Creosote
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to Season 2! Chris and Alicia spend time communing with an 11,700-year-old creosote in the Mojave Desert, and discuss the species' importance ...
S1E22: Season Finale! Ironwoods: the Sonoran Desert's Tree of Life. Plus thank you
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The desert ironwood, Olneya tesota, is the basis of an entire ecosystem in the Sonoran desert. And this ecosystem includes people. Alicia and Chris hi...
S1E21: The Desert Tortoise Still Has a Chance
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The largest reptile in the Mojave faces threats ranging from predation to illegal collection to loss of habitat. But the desert tortoise has defenders...
S1E20: California still doesn't know what to do about the western Joshua tree
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On October 12, the California Fish and Game Commission postponed a decision yet again on whether to grant the western Joshua tree protection under the...
S1E19: Shannon Salter Fights to Save the Desert
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Solar in the built environment could meet America's need for electrical power. But still the desert is in the crosshairs. Public lands with intact hab...
S1E18 Chris is Stressed Out + Some Good News
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We're not going to be able to save the desert if we self-immolate. Alicia reads Chris the riot act about taking time to enjoy the desert without being...
S1E17: Mylar Balloons: threat or menace? plus Joshua Tree NP AMA
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alicia takes on one of her personal bugbears: the endless supply of mylar balloons landing in the desert, choking wildlife and starting fires, just be...
S1E16 Flood and Drought; Death Valley and the Great Salt Lake
21 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts contend with record rainfalls, climate change and urban development are drying up the Great Salt Lake. We talk to Da...
S1E15 What Keeps You Going plus Bristlecone Pines
07 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With bad news all around, how do we keep up our strength and resolve to protect the places that matter? Chris and Alicia start an ongoing conversation...
S1E14 The Bean Trees! But first, please help us
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There's good news: the desert offers sweet sustenance that can be had for a little bit of work. And we mean actual food, not that metaphorical well be...
S1E13: Don't Die Today: Heat in the Desert
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chris enjoys the desert at its hottest. Alicia, on the other hand, is closer to sanity. Both of them treat desert heat with respect. We talk about how...
S1E12: What's Happening to the Monsoon?
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Climate change has been happening in the desert for some time now. While consensus isn't complete, most experts agree that more warming will make the ...
S1E11: Deconstructing Ed Abbey
07 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The writer Edward Abbey is revered by many desert activists, and roundly criticized by others, all based on the provocative and occasionally offensive...
S1E10: Remembering Phil Klasky and Ward Valley
21 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the mid-1980s until the first months of the 21st Century, a coalition of desert tribes and non-Native activists worked to keep the state of Calif...
S1E9: Saving the Western Joshua tree
08 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Joshua trees, the iconic species of the Mojave Desert, are in serious danger of becoming extinct across most of their range... and yet the state of Ca...
S1E8: The IPCC Lets the Deserts Down
22 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Plus, why rock stacking is a bad habit, and how you can keep the state of California from stripping protections from the western Joshua tree. Listen t...
S1E7: This Desert Fish was Declared Extinct. Now It Thrives.
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Considered extinct by the late 1950s, the Shoshone pupfish was rediscovered 36 years ago by a woman who changed her entire town to preserve the specie...
S1E6: Co(yot)existence — how to live with coyotes
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
They're more complicated than the howling silhouette on your bespoke candle holder from Santa Fe, and more interesting. Chris and Alicia discuss livin...
S1E5: Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
02 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Spring is coming, and that means that hundreds of thousands of people start thinking about visiting the desert to see the "superbloom." But even...
S1E4: The End of the Cadillac Desert: Megadrought in the Southwest
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As we publish, scientists are announcing that the last dozen years are the driest in more than a millennium. With the desert's cities ever more depend...
S1E3: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of Cima Dome
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cima Dome was supposed to be a place where Joshua trees were most likely to survive climate change. A climate-accentuated wildfire hit there anyway. I...
Saving the Dixie Valley Toad
17 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Discovered only in 2017, the Dixie Valley toad is found only in one 400-acre hot spring wetland in remote Nevada. Guess where a giant geothermal corpo...
Welcome to 90 Miles from Needles! Our inaugural episode
01 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this first episode, Chris and Alicia head out to Sand Draw, a beautiful and vibrant bit of desert dry wash woodland in the Mojave Desert that almos...
Season 0 Episode 4: About Chris Clarke
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Alicia points out that despite Chris's delusions of popularity, there are people who don't know who he is. Hilarity ensues. Transcrip...
Season 0 episode 3: Joshua Trees are Trees
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Hello friends! Transcript of this episode is at 90milesfromneedles.com In this Season Zero short episode, Chris and Alicia discuss the commonly shared...
Trailer 2, Season 0: Introducing Alicia Pike
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On a visit to Bonanza Spring, threatened by the Cadiz corporation's plan to mine desert groundwater for profit, Alicia Pike talks about what she ...
Season 0 Episode 1: Trailer for 90 Miles from Needles
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A brief description of what we'll be doing with the podcast, partly to answer questions and partly to get practice with our equipment. All flaws ...