Arizona Episodes

Burros are magnificent animals. What happens when unmanaged herds overwhelm the desert habitat around them? Dr. Jen Anderson joins Chris Clarke to describe her efforts to restore the Sonoran Desert Sanctuary near Alamo Lake in western Arizona. She recounts damage to palo verde trees, disappearing wildlife, and years of seeking help from the Bureau of Land Management. The conversation brings together desert conservation, federal wild burro management, animal welfare, and hands-on restoration—and includes a detour onto the bridge of Star Trek: Enterprise.

After the Dragon Bravo Fire, Grand Canyon trail staff warned that the North Kaibab Trail faced years of heightened danger from debris flows, flash floods and rockfall. Yet the entire trail reopened in May 2026. Journalist Joe Dana of Phoenix's 12 News joins 90 Miles from Needles to discuss his reporting on internal National Park Service recommendations, pressure to restore public access, and the decisions made before the deadly August 29 Grand Canyon flood.

Journalist Kimon de Greef follows the dirty business behind psychedelic “toad medicine”: wildlife exploitation, manufactured Indigenous tradition and a global market selling ego death as transcendence.

Kate Scott reports from a tree sit in Lochiel, where activists occupied the last of four landmark cottonwoods after contractors destroyed the others for double-wall construction through the San Rafael Valley.

Russ McSpadden documents plans for a second wall through Organ Pipe and Cabeza Prieta, including damage to sacred geoglyphs, groundwater and wildlife habitat made possible by sweeping REAL ID Act waivers.

John Dougherty of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas explains how Hudbay’s Copper World proposal would expand open-pit mining, deplete groundwater, damage cultural and wildlife resources and exploit the 1872 Mining Law.

Andrea Hoerr explains why 27 miles of border wall through the San Rafael Valley would fragment a major wildlife corridor, damage waterways and threaten exceptional grassland biodiversity—and how residents are organizing resistance.

Mandy Culbertson explains how state wildlife agencies and commissions govern most American wildlife, why special interests often outrank biodiversity and how public participation can make wildlife policy more democratic.

A 1,600-mile journey from the Mojave through Tucson to El Paso reveals shared threats, passionate local defenders and the possibility of a cross-desert movement built through relationships and regular communication.

Journalist David Morales explains how Tucson residents stopped Project Blue, a proposed Amazon data center whose enormous water and electricity demands exposed Arizona's tax incentives and longer history of extraction.

Writer Morgan Sjogren reads from Path of Light, tracing the beauty of Glen Canyon alongside the lasting damage uranium mining has inflicted on Indigenous communities, wildlife, water and public lands.

Prompted by the loss of the Grand Canyon Lodge, Chris shares nine desert destinations he hopes to experience—from Kofa and El Pinacate to the Ruby Mountains and the Wave—and reflects on visiting while we can.