Word: desertions
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...posed by buffel grass, an invasive species that was originally imported from Kenya to feed cattle. Adapted to being trampled by elephants and capable of spreading widely with little water, buffel grass has migrated west from the rangelands of Texas, bringing a new threat, fire. To conserve water, most desert species in the Southwest grow far apart, making it hard for fires to spread. Buffel grass grows easily in dry soil, forming a carpet of dry, flammable stalks that burns very hot after a lightning strike and can engulf cacti, yucca, ocotillo and the paloverde trees. "None of the native...
...most fundamental limitation to life in the desert is water, and no matter how sensitively houses are located aboveground, everyone is still drawing from the same precious supply of groundwater. In the long term, overuse of groundwater means slow death for desert plants, whose roots are unable to reach down far enough to sustain them. When plants die, animals run out of food and shelter--a process that is often noticed only after it's too late...
...idea of treating the desert gently, pioneered by forward-thinking planners like Huckelberry, is finally starting to catch on. "The conservation issue has just exploded," says Mike Chedester, education curator for the Living Desert University in Palm Desert, Calif. The program began only three years ago, and now he runs 124 courses a year on desert ecology and xericulture, or gardening with desert plants. "We have many students who come out to the desert, buy a home prelandscaped with lawns that need watering two or three times a day, and after a while they realize it doesn't make sense...
Carolyn Zeiger is doing her best to reduce the impact their home makes on the desert. "Given the rate the desert is being gobbled up by people like us, my feeling is we need to put some back," she says, standing on her porch and pointing to the plants in her yard. "I put in native plants only--ocotillo, Arizona rosewood, desert willow, prickly pear. I start them with a little water, but soon they will survive on their...
...desert stretches out in front of her, the ground turning pink in the sunlight and the distant mountains a dark shade of blue. The desert doesn't need much to survive--a little moisture, not too much disturbance, a little respect from humans. Then it too can survive...