The Chihuahuan Desert
“What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate in the remote.”- Edward Abbey
Magazines are becoming more like tee-vee. You have to dig and pan a long time to find a jewel in the piles of rubbish, but every once in a while you do. The February 2007 edition of National Geographic is worth a gander thanks to an article about the highly diverse Chihuahuan Desert titled “Desolate Majesty.”
It briefly reminded me of Ed’s Time Life picture book, Cactus Country and inspired me to go back and read “Disorder and Early Sorrow,” his account of an ill fated 1952 trip to Big Bend National Park. Ed and his fiancee survived, but her Ford convertible and the engagement were DOA.
For those not familiar with the Chihuahuan desert, it’s the largest desert area in North America, nestled on and around the borders of Texas, southeastern Arizona and Mexico. The fact that it transcends these borders tells us that it is in fact a bioregion whose boundaries are determined by biological and geophysical characteristics, not by silly man-made lines on a map.
The Lakota believed that U.S. government boundaries made no sense, since no man can see the dotted lines while on the land. I agree.
The article suggests the area is benefiting from a strange alliance of public and private interests, a “success story” that shows how positive results can be achieved when humans decide to use their brains. One of the private interests was a cement company that donated several hundred thousand acres for preservation.
Reading about the cement mixers with a conscience reminded me of a conversation I had years ago. I was installing a computer network at a large asphalt company whose owner was a major Republican contributor (big surprise there). The woman in charge of the project informed me in a protective, I know you’re one of us tones that “Those environmentalists are against us, you know. They don’t want any development. They want socialism.”
Don’t forget environmentalists all want forced sterilization and to force everyone to live in wickiups. All are communists and deadbeats on drugs.
The Chihuahuan desert, like so much of the North American continent, was logged, ranched and mined to excess. But there are now signs that Big horn sheep and black bear are recovering, thanks to Mexican ranchers that shifted from kill to protect mode. Folks are even going so far as to mention the reintroduction of grizz, Mexican gray wolf and bison, all native to the bioregion.
The article suggests the biggest factor in these recent, documented successes is an unwritten but effective policy of benign neglect. The National Park Service should take note and stop building all these goddamn visitor centers and roads and spending tax dollars marketing the parks. As Abbey said, we’re loving our parks to death.
The Chihuahuan still suffers at the hands of cactus poachers and reptile thieves, and as is normally the case when too many humans live in and around desert areas, there are water issues. The diversion of river water to urban areas and aquifer mining are serious threats to native fish, snail and other invertebrate populations.
But at least we can say the Chihuahuan desert has a chance. Despite the best effort of humans to make it truly desolate, it will not succumb. It lives on, inviting us, even showing us how, to make peace with it. It’s an arrid, mysterious, living, breathing, majestic canvas of color that refuses to buckle under the constant pressure of human encroachment and abuse.
I gotta say for as much as I’ve read about the Southwest I’ve never been there. Then again, I’m only 21, I’m sure I’ll have time. I’ve seen Colorado, Wyoming and such, but that’s as close as I’ve come. Someday I’ll make the big trip out there, that is of course if there’s anything left to see. I heard the subdivisions are beautiful this time of year…
Thanks for stopping by, earthwalker.
You should definitely make the trip and don’t wait too long! As you said, better go while there’s something left to see.