Chihuahuan Desert Views travel beyond imagination. Studies have shown that most people look at artwork in a museum for somewhere between 15-30 seconds. I invite you into my world. To wander. Visually explore every curve, texture, and color. Stare. Listen. Engage in the dialogue. And mostly, to surrender. Watercolors of sunrise reflect on the mountains …
Myths and Facts about Wild Horses and Burros
Article from: https://awionline.org/content/myths-and-facts-about-wild-horses-and-burros Myth: There are too many wild horses and burros on public lands and their numbers must be reduced. Fact: The opposite is true—there are too few wild horses and burros on our public lands, and unless their numbers grow, the survival of these special animals is in jeopardy. During the 1800’s, it is estimated …
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Desert Beauty: Living Rock Cactus
Look closely at her secrets. Buffers of creosote between thorny arms of mesquite and the spines of ocotillo. Plants intertwine but like an iceberg, there is much more beneath the surface. There is beauty here. In the fall, glimpses of fuscia mark my path. Gone as quickly as they appear. A flower appears from rock. …
Desert Treasure
Caballo Lake State Park, Caballo Mountains, New Mexico The land here in southern New Mexico is harsh and gentle at the same time. You see this most clearly if you follow the Rio Grande north from Texas. A ribbon of green snaking along the valley, flanked by desert mountains. Mountains which look soft from a …
The Return: Great news for the Bolson Tortoise
The Turner Endangered Species Fund with the help from partners including the El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens recently made conservation history by releasing captive-born Bolson Tortoises in the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands of New Mexico. Thirty years ago, I was very fortunate to join a team of scientists and National Park managers on a trip to …
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A Different Kind of Beauty
Terlingua, Texas Backroads. The Big Bend of Texas. Chihuahuan Desert. Standing tall in defiance through shades of red and black, rocks surround. Watching my every move. Silhouettes of Ocotillo stretch across the sky, thorns hidden in their softness. Riding Terlingua backroads, a yucca stands sentinel along the way. Wind dips down from the mesa and …
Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta UPDATE
Saturday at the Zoo,Sunday at the Park Every year the Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta celebrates the natural wonders of the mountainous desert in our big backyard while encouraging people to explore and discover parks and other protected areas. The seventeenth annual Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta is coming up and for the first time will be held as …
Biosphere Region and Reinhabitation
In the 1970s, a counterculture group called Planet Drum Foundation was formed in California to discuss ideas about people in connection to the planet. They pursued research and produced educative information on the relationships between human culture and the natural processes of the planetary biosphere. Today when confronting environmental crisis and conservation, we use terms …
Word for the Day: Sky Island
Sometimes I lock the gate. Sometimes I leave it locked. Protecting the space in which I see and hear myself most clearly. Validation coming only from within. My thoughts an island. Madera Canyon Overlook Not the only “island” in west Texas, however, there are others. Three others in fact: the Guadalupe, Chisos, and Davis Mountains. …
Footprints in the Sand: Horseback Riding White Sands National Park, New Mexico
Blinding white in all directions. Footprints erased by wind. Every route the same. Driving south from Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico the land greets us with open arms. Ranges and ranches go on for miles. I can breathe. I can see. The chaos of Alamogordo gives way to White Sands National Park, sitting pristine at …
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