Letters From the Desert

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Spirit Mountain/Avi Kwa Ame from Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness It happens every time I’m here. I will be walking along, minding my own business, los…

Mar 24

For those who don’t read all the way through: I’m raising money for the Mojave Desert Land Trust this month. I’m hiking at least 50 miles by March 31 a…

Mar 7

Feb 10

Gigantic ironwood tree, Palen-McCoy Wilderness Listen: the coyotes are singing again. It’s a regular thing around here. I head out after dark, finding …

Jan 25

Ironwood tree in Riverside County As near as I can figure, the most effective way of inoculating the soil in which you plan to grow ironwood trees is t…

Dec 20, 2020

Among all this — among the coup panic and the mounting losses to the virus and the wildfires obliterating places I love most and the denial from surpri…

Nov 21, 2020

I’ll admit it: the Dome Fire knocked me for a loop. I have spent the last two months expecting a meltdown, expecting that without warning I would sudde…

Oct 19, 2020

I’ve been busy with a number of things, including the responses of a couple organizations and my own self to the Dome Fire last month. But I didn’t wan…

Sep 5, 2020

Just video this time.

Aug 23, 2020

Fifteen years and eighteen days ago, on July 30 2005, my friend Matthew and I stood on a recently burned hillside in Mojave National Preserve inspectin…

Aug 17, 2020

Each day is an endless haze of heat beguiling and dangerous. It soaks through my clothing, my skin, my bones. Joints loosen. Heat this strong and persi…

Jul 26, 2020

Local politicians love Joshua trees except when the trees might get slightly in the way of making money.

Jul 13, 2020

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