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- Welcome to Season 4!
Welcome to Season 4!
Chuckwalla National Monument, 600 miles of protected land, and the LA fires.
In the first episode of our Season Four, 90 Miles from Needles covers a result of a century of conservation efforts in the American deserts. The Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor, a 600-mile-long swath of contiguous protected lands in the American Southwest, is the largest network of ecological preserve in the lower 48. But first, we spend a few minutes discussing the wildfires in Los Angeles, and how desert protection and wildfire mitigation can work hand in hand.
Key Takeaways
Wildfires and Power Infrastructure: Increasing wildfire risks signal the need for decentralized power systems, shifting away from transmission line dependencies aggravated by climate change.
Chuckwalla National Monument: Its designation represents a crucial step in safeguarding ecosystems from climate change impacts.
Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor: This protected network underscores efforts in unifying conservation across the Southwest.
Combating Wildfires: The Role of Transmission Lines and Climate Change
Wildfires in California pose growing challenges, with power infrastructure in the spotlight. Climate change raises the risk, but the main immediate causes of fires are, in descending order, lightning, human activity, and faulty transmission lines. Southern California Edison's business model, favoring remote generation and transmission over rooftop installations, raises concerns. Decentralized, sustainable energy practices would slash the risk of wildfires while protecting habitat and giving individual property owners a greater stake in climate mitigation.
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Chuckwalla National Monument: A New Era of Conservation
The Chuckwalla National Monument, covering 624,000 acres south of Joshua Tree National Park, marks a robust commitment to desert conservation by the outgoing Biden administration. The new monument preserves ecological and cultural landscapes, essential for native biodiversity and indigenous tribes.
The Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor: Stitching the Southwest’s Resilient Ecosystems
Covering nearly 18 million acres across 600 miles of desert lands, the Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor links ecosystems from the newly established Chuckwalla National Monument to Utah's Canyonlands National Park. This corridor is a result of desert protection work from 1908 to the present day, emphasizing habitat continuity, ecological connectivity, and cultural preservation.