Podcasts about mojave desert land trust

Forty years ago, stifled by life in a small Michigan town, Jacqueline Guevara's vibrant, fun-loving mother loaded her 1972 Cadillac Coupe de Ville and hit the road with her teen-aged daughter for a new start in Palm Springs. Driving into this desert oasis was Jacque's first experience with desert.   In this episode, Jacque describes working in the Palm Springs hospitality industry in the 1980's and the life skills she acquired in those jobs. A change in ownership lead to a subsequent lay-off from her job at the Palm Springs Country Club leaving Jacque jobless for the summer. With her sons out of town visiting their dad, Jacque wasn't sure what to do with the time on her hands when a friend teaching ceramics at Desert Arc invited Jacque to come and volunteer. Jacque was immediately hooked with the idea of helping people and suddenly found herself in a career in social work and, eventually, non-profit management.   Some of those positions required Jacque to travel frequently between Los Angeles and her home in the Morongo Basin - her description of  the feeling of 'the day coming off you' as she climbed those grades will be relatable to those familiar with the route.   Jacque describes herself as a new and 'accidental conservationist' in her work with Mojave Desert Land Trust and eventually in  her current role with the Joshua Tree National Park Association, where Jacque leads teams carrying out a number of initiatives from staffing the park's visitor centers to providing adult education opportunities through The Desert Institute. Jacque also gives us some insight into the the Association's role at the National Park, specifically where they take their cues and direction from and the part that plays in park operations, particularly shut-downs of the park.  

  Imagine driving into the desert, a place of wide open spaces where you can see for miles, and not being able to breathe. This was Mary Sojourner's first experience with desert, somewhere between Parker, AZ and 29 Palms.   Mary had moved west in 1985 from Rochester NY ‘to write and fight for the earth'. It was Edward Abbey’s ‘Monkey Wrench Gang’, which spoke to  her loud and clear.   In 2007 Mary felt Flagstaff changing – gentrification as we know it today was happening. Mary was living in a small cabin with a wood stove, no running water, sharing a shower house and outhouse with other cabin dwellers. The landlord cashed in and rents were to be raised significantly.   At the same time, a chance encounter with a representative of Mojave Desert Land Trust brought Mary to Joshua Tree to conduct a writing workshop and do a joint reading with previous podcast guest, Susan Lang.  Mary's accommodations turned out to be a small cabin, on Yucca Mesa and the experience of the Mojave desert while staying there found Mary leaving Arizona three weeks later to live in the Morongo Basin.   Mary stayed in the Mojave for about a year, finding magic on walks through washes and the trash blowing over from the local landfill, eventually taking her leave due to her body's unwillingness to manage the summer heat.   Mary has written three novels, 'Sisters of the Dream', '29' and 'Going Through Ghosts' and 35 years of her life has been fighting to stop uranium mines near the Grand Canyon, getting a pumice mine off the sacred San Francisco peaks, stopping developers from putting a gated golf-course community around wetlands in Arizona, and the ongoing struggle to get a local ski resort to stop making snow on the sacred mountains with reclaimed water. Her activism stems completely from the deep connection she feels with the earth.   We talk about the idea of ‘owning a piece of the earth’ and where this drive ‘to have’ in our current day and age has come from, why it seems more prevalent than ever and how it’s affecting our relationship with each other, the earth and it's resources.   Find all of Mary's books available here Learn about Mary's writing workshops and coaching  

An American citizen, Jessica Dacey was born in Canada. Her family left the U.S. when she was nine years old, living in South Africa for a few years before heading to England. After finishing her schooling, Jessica got the travel bug which lead her to Mongolia where, on the last day of her visit, she saw and applied for a job as Editor of the local newspaper. Jessica got the job, moving and living there for a year.   On a month long van trip traveling through the southwest with her husband, Jessica landed in Joshua Tree, one of the last and longest stops of their trip. There was an attraction to the space, the quiet and the beauty.  They returned to Switzerland and two years later Jessica found herself applying for and landing a job at Mojave Desert Land Trust (MDLT) in Joshua Tree. Jessica recalls making the decision to leave Switzerland one of the most difficult of her life, as she had become accustomed to an organized and progressive way of life in Switzerland, though she admits, "the comfort became a little bit stifling after awhile" and she felt the need for some new challenges.   The non-profit MDLT has been in existence for 12 years and, to date, has protected over 80,000 acres of the Mojave desert.  As MDLT's Director of Communications, Jessica finds herself helping people understand the importance of the desert, changing their minds from thinking of it as a wasteland. With that in mind, in this episode we also talk about why the construction of a proposed new development, on the south edge of Joshua Tree National Park is detrimental to the area.    Jessica intimates that while the chocolate and cheese in Switzerland are pushed to the forefront, the balance of their culinary history relies mostly on a heavy German food influence. Looking to eat lighter fare, while on a visit home to Bath, England, Jessica took a two-week class at Demuths Cookery School to learn vegan recipes and techniques. Returning to Switzerland with these skills, opportunities arose allowing Jessica to make food for musicians playing at a well-known music venue in Switerzland as well as at a refugee center.   A 'global citizen', Jessica says she was surprised at the transformative effect the desert has had on her. Her travels have taught her we all share a common humanity and she encourages people to travel and experience other cultures when they have the opportunity.     Learn more about Mojave Desert Land Trust here: https://www.mdlt.org/