A hopeful vision for the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo

The idea of connecting protected lands across an international border might sound improbable right now — but that’s exactly what we dig into in the latest episode of 90 Miles from Needles: The Desert Protection Podcast.

Hi, friends! There’s a new episode of 90 Miles from Needles out, and this one felt especially good to make. I talked with Rick LoBello, longtime National Park Service staffer and now Education & Conservation Director at the El Paso Zoo, about an idea that’s been rattling around for decades: linking Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and protected lands in Mexico into a single, cooperative, cross-border conservation landscape along the Rio Grande / Rio Bravo. It’s not naïve, and it’s not abstract. It’s grounded in ecology, history, and real relationships across the borde. It's also a reminder that even when the news feels bleak, better futures are still imaginable.

Listen here (with show notes and links): 90milesfromneedles.com/s5e2

The places we’re talking about here are already extraordinary on their own: Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area on the Texas side of the river, wild and remote stretches of the Rio Grande itself, and a set of formally protected areas in northern Mexico: the Maderas del Carmen, Ocampo, and Cañon de Santa Elena reserves in Chihuahua and Coahuila, Mexico. Together, they form a huge, mostly intact Chihuahuan Desert landscape that just happens to be split by an international border: bigger than some counties, rich in wildlife movement, dark skies, and cultural history. Rick’s argument is simple and compelling: the land is already connected; our conservation policies just haven’t caught up yet.

This episode reveals the anatomy of grassroots advocacy: how ordinary people confront extraordinary power, how environmental justice becomes local action, and why the desert's silence is actually a chorus worth protecting.

More Essential Border Episodes

Give Us a Desert Without Borders Listen Now

Restoring Texas' Mexican Wolves Listen Now

Saving Lives on the US-Mexico Border Listen Now

Your Desert. Your Voice.

If our show has been useful, grounding, or just a good companion on a long drive, listener support is what keeps it going: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donate (or text NEEDLES to 53-555) Thanks for being here, and for caring about deserts, even when they ask a lot of us.

— Chris

90 Miles from Needles

The Desert Protection Podcast

Because the desert isn't empty.
It's full of life worth fighting for.

A project of the Desert Advocacy Media Network