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90 Miles from Needles: the Desert Protection Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Chris Clarke
Join Chris Clarke and a variety of guests as they explore the challenges and opportunities of the American Southwest's fragile ecosystems. Engaging interviews with experts, activists, and advocates on conservation, land management, and environmental justice. Science and sentiment, politics and philosophy, hiking and history, culture and creativity all go into defending the desert. Be forewarned: We are out to recruit you to the cause.
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- 6 days ago31 min
S5E32: Hiding Big Projects in Small Pieces
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 CollegeBecome a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- 1 weeks ago42 min
S5E31: Desert Dispatch, Data Centers, and the People Pushing Back
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/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- 3 weeks ago44 min
S5E30: Why Deserts Need Defending
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/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- 3 weeks ago34 min
S5E29: Why Was the North Kaibab Trail Still Open?
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 informationBecome a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Sep 4, 202631 min
S5E28: 4 Things You Need to Know about Desert Flooding
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/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Aug 28, 20261h 1m
S5E27: Sonoran Toads and the Dirty Business of Ego Death
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 website Kimon on Instagram Buy The Ego Trip through Bookshop.org Publisher’s page for The Ego Trip In this episode The remarkable monsoon-dependent life of the Sonoran Desert toad What 5-MeO-DMT is, and why “toad licking” is both inaccurate and dangerous How Octavio Rettig helped popularize toad-derived 5-MeO-DMT Claims that toad smoking is an ancient Comcáac/Seri tradition Psychedelic tourism, cultural appropriation and spiritual marketing The economic realities behind supposedly “responsibly sourced” toad secretions Toad collection, repeated “milking,” displacement and disease transmission Why synthetic 5-MeO-DMT removes the need to exploit wild toads Parallels between the toad trade and the international market for poached white sage <li data-section-id="1jm2qp1"
- Aug 14, 202634 min
S5E26: Maps, Vanished Lakes, and Two Desert Squirrels
We think of range maps as static representations of where plants and animals belong. It doesn't often occur to us that maps are just snapshots of a constantly changing world. In the Mojave Desert, two sister species of desert ground squirrel coexist nearly side by side. A field guide's range maps will tell you where those species live right now. But those maps also convey hints out of Deep Time, and those hints can explain not only why the squirrels live where they do, but also how the two species evolved in their own directions. Host Chris Clarke shares the story of those sister species: the Mohave and Round-tailed ground squirrels. One is doing well and is abundant. The other has been designated as a threatened species. Each of them is a library of history... if we know how to read them. Chris also announces the launch of our Fellowship for Desert Reporting: prospective Fellows can start by filling out the application form at https://thedamn.org/fellowship-application. Resources Mohave ground squirrels California Department of Fish and Wildlife: Mohave Ground SquirrelSpecies overview, conservation status, recordings and access to the state conservation strategy.CDFW Mohave Ground Squirrel Philip Leitner, “Current Status of the Mohave Ground Squirrel: An Update Covering the Period 2013–2020”Reviews the animal’s current distribution, apparent losses from portions of its historical range and continuing conservation concerns.Status update PDF Mohave Ground Squirrel Technical Advisory GroupCDFW’s archive of technical documents and meeting materials from researchers, agencies and other specialists.Technical Advisory Group Mohave Ground Squirrel Conservation Council: PublicationsA bibliography covering the species’ taxonomy, ecology, genetics, distribution and conservation.Publications list Separation, contact and hybridization Kayce C. Bell and Marjorie D. Matocq, “Regional Genetic Subdivision in the Mohave Ground Squirrel: Evidence of Historic Isolation and Ongoing Connectivity in a Mojave Desert Endemic”Animal Conservation 14 (2011): 371–381. Examines genetic structure and historical isolation within Mohave ground squirrel populations.Article and abstract Philip Leitner, Jennifer S. Rippert and Marjorie D. Matocq, “Genetic Structure Across a Contact Zone Between Xerospermophilus Ground Squirrels in Southern California”Western North American Naturalist 77 (2017): 152–161. Documents both species and genetically admixed animals near Hinkley. It also reports expansion across the former barrier of no more than approximately 30 kilometers—an average of no more than five meters per year.<a href="https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan/vol77/iss2/2/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" data-start
- Aug 7, 202637 min
S5E25: The Vaquita Can Still Recover
The vaquita is the world’s smallest and most endangered cetacean, but the handful still living in Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California may be more resilient than recent headlines suggest. In 2025, researchers concluded that there was a 67 percent probability that seven to ten distinct vaquitas had been observed in the study area. That was a count of animals seen, not an estimate of the species’ total remaining population. Researchers also found evidence that vaquitas are continuing to reproduce. Dr. Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, one of the world’s leading vaquita experts and chair of the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita, joins Chris Clarke to explain why the species is not necessarily doomed by its small population. Surviving vaquitas appear healthy, continue to produce calves, and retain the genetic capacity to recover—if people stop killing them in gillnets. The vaquita is also a desert porpoise. Its only habitat lies in a marine ecosystem made exceptionally productive by its desert setting. Evaporation, concentrated saltwater, tides, wind, and upwelling continually move nutrients through the Upper Gulf. Although the loss of Colorado River flow has profoundly changed the delta and harmed some species, Rojas-Bracho says there is no evidence that food scarcity or habitat degradation is driving the vaquita’s decline. The principal threat is bycatch in gillnets used for shrimp, fish, sharks, and especially totoaba. Totoaba swim bladders command extraordinary prices in an illegal international market, bringing organized crime into a conservation problem already complicated by government resistance and the legitimate needs of fishing communities. Saving the vaquita requires eliminating gillnet deaths while developing fishing gear and markets that allow Upper Gulf communities to make a living without driving another species to extinction. About the Guest Dr. Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho has studied the vaquita for decades and helped establish the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita, known as CIRVA, which he has chaired since its creation. His research has addressed vaquita abundance, bycatch, genetics, habitat, fisheries policy, and the species’ prospects for recovery. He is affiliated with the National Marine Mammal Foundation and has worked extensively with Mexican and international scientists, conservation organizations, fishing communities, and government agencies. Quotable Moments “Vaquitas are strong animals. If you stop killing them, they will recover. It’s amazing how resilient they are.” “I would be satisfied if I see the population trend being positive, or at least not declining. I can die peacefully if I see that.” “We cannot be stupidly optimistic, but we are optimistic because the data shows that we can be optimistic.” “I don’t want Mexico to be the country that loses the vaquita.” “Don’t give up. That’s the worst thing.” In This Episode Why seven to ten vaquitas observed does not mean only seven to ten exist How the vaquita became adapted to natural rarity Why genetic evidence shows that inbreeding does not necessarily doom the species How a desert evaporation basin creates an exceptionally productive marine ecosystem What ending Colorado River flow has—and has not—done to vaquita habitat How fisheries authorities used habitat degradation to deflect attention from bycatch Why totoaba gillnets are particularly deadly How the illegal swim-bladder trade brought organized crime into the Upper Gulf Why protecting vaquitas cannot mean abandoning fishing communities The need for effective vaquita-safe fishing gear and better markets for safely caught seafood What listeners can do to help Resources Viva Vaquita — Background on the species, its habitat, the totoaba trade, conservation work, and current developments. Act Now for the Vaquita — Suggested actions include writing Mexican officials, supporting conservation work, making sustainable seafood choices, and avoiding shrimp and fish caught with gillnets. 2025 Vaquita Research Campaign report — The complete acoustic and visual survey report, including the seven-to-ten observation range, its stati
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About 90 Miles from Needles: the Desert Protection Podcast
Join Chris Clarke and a variety of guests as they explore the challenges and opportunities of the American Southwest's fragile ecosystems. Engaging interviews with experts, activists, and advocates on conservation, land management, and environmental justice. Science and sentiment, politics and philosophy, hiking and history, culture and creativity all go into defending the desert. Be forewarned: We are out to recruit you to the cause.
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