Protected Lands Episodes

Why do deserts need protection? For the 150th episode of 90 Miles from Needles, Chris Clarke returns to the reasons this work matters: deserts remain widely misunderstood, receive less scientific attention than they deserve, and cannot be protected without confronting questions of justice. Listeners Kimberly, Nancy, and Diane share what the desert means to them, while Chris considers wildfire, Joshua tree science, environmental inequality, the border wall, urban heat, and the love that ultimately lies behind conservation. An after-credits report examines where the podcast has traveled during its first 150 episodes—and where its coverage still needs to go.

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.

Writer Morgan Sjogren describes the emotional and ecological stakes of renewed attacks on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante, connecting monument boundaries to rivers, cultural landscapes, resource extraction and everyday life in southern Utah.

Laiken Jordahl describes the unusually broad Big Bend coalition opposing border-wall construction, where ranchers, conservationists and local officials are defending wildlife, the recovering Rio Grande and cross-border community life.

Dr. Jackie Grant explains how a Congressional Review Act attack on Grand Staircase–Escalante’s management plan could destabilize public-land planning nationwide, despite extensive local participation and the monument’s ecological and economic importance.

Timbisha Shoshone leaders commemorate the Homeland Act’s 25th anniversary in Death Valley, recounting displacement, return and the continuing struggle for honest representation, cultural survival and respectful federal partnership.

Rick LoBello describes a lifelong effort to connect protected lands on both sides of the Rio Grande, using wildlife recovery, community relationships and environmental education to revive the vision of an international Big Bend park.

Chris explores desert quiet as an ecological soundscape rather than emptiness, showing how noise pollution masks wildlife, displaces animals and makes ecological loss harder for people to recognize.

Conservation biologist Nick Graver explains how climate change, invasive grasses and human-caused fire undermine Joshua tree recruitment—and why shutdowns and federal cuts obstruct the long-term research and coordination recovery requires.

During the 2025 federal shutdown, Chris urges visitors to avoid understaffed national parks because reduced protection increases risks to landscapes and people, while suggesting nearby public lands and local businesses as alternatives.

On the Dome Fire's fifth anniversary, Chris returns to Cima Dome to confront the loss of its vast Joshua tree forest, the spread of invasive grasses, uncertain restoration and his own enduring solastalgia.

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.