Painting by Carl S. Buell
The Hidden Desert
The California desert doesn't give up its secrets readily. To get to know the place, you've got to spend time here: watching, waiting, learning. It's hard to do that from behind the safety glass of a vehicle speeding along the Interstate. But if you leave your car, tighten your shoelaces, walk until you find an interesting spot, and sit there for a while, you just might start to see something good. Natural history writer Chris Clarke has been doing just that for more than two decades, and in The Hidden Desert he shares some of what he's found.
The Hidden Desert:
I saw it crossing the trail ahead: a low black dot with an air of confidence. It made no attempt to hurry for cover as I approached. It was the placid self-assuredness of an animal that knew it could make life miserable for anything that bothered it.
The Hidden Desert:
"Mother of God, what for the sake of all that's holy is that?"
The Hidden Desert:
You take a step backward and feel a sharp pain in your calf. You turn: a plant with swollen stems and sharp spines has invaded your personal space, puncturing your skin. You suppress a curse, opting for something milder. "Stupid cactus!" But is it a cactus?
The Hidden Desert:
We live in an age when the very existence of a tree, or a tortoise, or a mere untrammeled piece of space is often seen as an affront to progress or economic growth. To hold that a piece of land is better filled with Joshua trees than with pavement is to take a stand against a way of life that many people hold dear.
The Hidden Desert:
Observers of nature are supposed to be dispassionate, to try to refrain from getting attached to individual animals. We all eat, and die, and are eaten in turn, and that's how life is supposed to work. No sense taking sides.
That's not what happened this morning.
The Hidden Desert:
Giant Sequoias and coast redwoods are among the many trees put on a group's endangered list, but the story of whitebark pine should not be overlooked.
The Hidden Desert:
Things have been getting worse for the Townsend's big-eared bat in recent decades, but now the state of California may finally be about to give the species a little extra protection.
The Hidden Desert:
A wildlife biologist grad student at Duke University wants to remedy our lack of knowledge about desert kit foxes, and she's using some remarkably new technology to do so -- both in the field and on the Internet.
The Hidden Desert:
When the sun shines in my eyes, sunset's an hour off, and it's time to walk out into the desert.
The Hidden Desert:
The common story of how the Joshua tree got its name is pretty, and very widespread. But is it true?
The Hidden Desert:
From the Joshua trees and saguaros to the raggedy chollas, there are a lot of odd-looking plants in the desert. You'll have to get out of your car and look around to really get to know one of the oddest.
The Hidden Desert:
It's one of my favorite plants in Southern California, but I'm never sure what to call it in polite company.
The Hidden Desert:
Chris Clarke on neighborhood wildlife in Joshua Tree and scientists' attachment to the animals they study.
The Hidden Desert:
Though condors are threatened by many factors, the greatest long-term threat would seem to be a lack of large dead mammals for the scavenging birds to eat safely. I have a way we might fix that.
The Hidden Desert:
The khaki West Mojave bore a color I hadn't seen there before: a bright sparse orange scattered across the desert, almost as if someone had planted a few hundred thousand California poppies out among the paper bag bush and creosote.
The Hidden Desert:
I've warned of the danger of human-created climate change since the early 1970s, so you might expect me to be completely on board with this analysis. I'm not.
The Hidden Desert:
Heading downhill yesterday toward "downtown" Joshua Tree I saw it. It was the developing stalk of a flower, growing out of one of my neighbors' Agaves.
The Hidden Desert:
A memoir from September 2007 of butterflies, and night skies, and coming to terms with loss in the Mojave desert.
The Hidden Desert:
If FWS really wanted to get "aggressive" in enforcing the provisions of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act that protect eagles, it would send a message not by way of a press release, but by way of the local U.S. Attorney.
The Hidden Desert:
I left New York at 22 and hitchhiked west. I awoke one morning in northern Nevada. The emptiness of the desert landscape completely unnerved me. The landscape seemed unadorned and ugly, and yet I could not tear my eyes off the far hills.
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The story of the Owens Valley Water War is usually told in the past tense, but it still unfolds today, a century later. And a forthcoming video series intends to bring us all up to speed.
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