My Interaction With The Mojave Desert

As a child, I unraveled nature’s beauty and existence. Each new experience brought me feelings of excitement and joy, sparkling my imagination and igniting my curiosity. It all seemed so large back then. Oceans appeared endless as they reached towards the horizon. Treetops seemed to make friends with the puffy-looking clouds as they soared to the sky. Over the years however, as I have grown older and life has become more complex, I am beginning to think less and less about the natural world around me. I glimpse sunset stuck in rush-hour traffic trying to return school after debate practices and only listen to the pitter-patter of the rain when there’s a storm outside. Forests and oceans seemed less appealing as they became intertwined with the urban development. In a way, I was becoming more and more distanced from the so-called nature. So, with an overwhelming desire for adventure and to escape the masses, my family and I drove to Big Bend National Park in Southwest Texas last summer.

At Yosemite National Park I got a chance to truly experience the nature and wildlife around me. The Merced River ran through the valley, and I could hear the sound of the rushing water from far away. I could hear the whistle of the wind and the birds chirping from high up in the trees. The vivid colors of the flowers there were incredible. On top of Pride Rock, there was a splendid view of famous landmarks including the Half Dome. From OMG Point the view of the valley below was absolutely breathtaking. --Some plants and trees had a nice scent to them.-- The Jeffrey Pine tree had a pleasant aroma of vanilla. I also got a chance to smell the fresh scent of earth when rain was falling on the last but one day of the trip. --We got to taste the leaves

As reading this “journal” the topic that has come to my attention is how a lot of these “nature writers” are looking at nature either as a positive or negative experience. Most of these shorts journals are looking at nature for not only for what it is, but what it offers, for example in the short “The Marginal World written by Rachel Carson she portrays “"The Shore is an ancient world, for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water. Yet it is a world that keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and of the relentless drive for life. Each time that I enter it, I gain some new awareness of its beauty and its deeper meanings, sensing that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another, and each with its surroundings."(481). Based off this quote, we can see that a lot of these authors did not only see nature as something that could be touched, but rather seen as a spiritual entity.

In his book, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner’s main thesis is to show the inefficiency, greed, and inherent difficulty in the American West’s never-ending struggle to turn its unwelcoming desert into a lush garden. One of his main sub-points is that the West is not meant to support millions of people. It has a wide range of geographic challenges throughout the entire region. Its inconsistency and diversity is a primary cause of its water problems. For example, Reisner notes that the West consists of “plains so arid that they could barely support bunchgrass; deserts that were fiercely hot and fiercely cold; streams that flooded a few weeks each year and went dry the rest; forests with trees so large it might take days to bring one down; . . . hail followed by drought followed by hail;” (23).

The Desert Southwest is a very interesting place for non natives. It is a very hot place it can get up to 140 degrees which is normal for the deseret but an night it's a different story it can lower to about 30 degrees that is 2 degrees lower than freezing point. That is like a huge freezer and the sand can get cold under the about 4-5 inches it is also traditional to to speak their language apachean it was mostley spoken by the natives.

The first time I every experience the Wildcat Hills was during a difficult time in my life. My parents were going through a custody battle over my siblings and me. They were also both in the process of being remarried. So, when my step father brought us to the Wildcats to explore for the first time I realized how amazing our earth can be. Here in the county known for the Scotts Bluff National Monument, sits over 1,000 acres of land. It wasn’t just the sight at the top of the escarpment that took my breath away. It was the fact that whether you were at the bottom of the hills or the top, when the wind blew that’s all you can hear. It isn’t overwhelming, it is

The Mojave Desert a place of wildfires, non native plants, and native plants, a natural habitat for many living organisms, that feed and protect. The Mojave Desert is located in parts of California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Recurring wildfires are damaging the native plants which are then replaced with dangerous, non-native plant species that become uncontrolled. Air pollution and invasive species in the desert makes it hard for organisms found in the surrounding area to survive, with increasing numbers of wildfires and non native plants killing them.

The usage of land in the Mojave Desert is negatively affecting the desert as a whole. “Some key species are indicators of the overall ecological health of the region … most of these species continue to decline.” was stated by the mojave defenders. Certain animals such as the Mojave ground squirrel represent the health of our environment, and certain groups are inefficiently using the land of the Mojave Desert. Ultimately, this is leading to a decline in these populations.

The cultural group that I am researching is the Yaqui (Sonoran Desert, U.S. and Mexico). The topic I have chosen to research is the different rituals the Yaqui perform. The reason I chose to research the Yaqui is because they’re indigenous to the same region as I am. The Yaqui, “people of Sonora [Mexico] settled along the Yaqui river… many Yaqui emigrated to Arizona to escape subjugation” (“Yaqui.” Columbia 2016). Growing up I never realized how much history took place in Southern Arizona, so it’s interesting to be able to learn about the people who made Arizona the state it is today. It’s very important for me to learn about the Yaqui, since the Pascua Yaqui tribe is based right here in Tucson, Arizona. Knowing the history of your state, country, culture, etc. is important so that you understand the present times and how the future could be formed. As for choosing to research the rituals of the Yaqui, I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn about the different rituals that take place in their everyday lives and how these ceremonies differ from events that take place in my own life.

A region is an area that has common features. Las Vegas is in the State of Nevada and the North America continent. Nevada can be divided into 4 land regions: the Columbia Plateau, the Sierra Nevada, The Mojave desert, and the Basin and Range region. It is situated in a mountainous region that has massive semiarid grasslands and alkali deserts. It is in the Western, Mountain West, and Southwestern districts of the U.S. The large cities located in the basins are Reno and Carson. However, Elko, Elko, Fallon, and some other cities are located there. The Mojave Desert’s region includes Vegas, Henderson, and Boulder City. Its region type is a state.

Over the course of the past century, much has changed in America. From the rise of factory production bringing people out of the countryside and into the cities, to two World Wars that continued the massive factory production that funded and armed the war effort, to the rise of suburbia and the massive developments that often destroyed or forever altered vast tracks of land where they would sit. In Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, he addresses the politics of water and environmentalism in the West. “Thanks to irrigation, thanks to the Bureau [of Reclamation]... states such as California, Arizona, and Idaho became populous and wealthy; millions settled in regions where nature, left alone, would have

The Greys have been creating problems for your government ever since their first downed craft was discovered in the New Mexico desert in 1947. The creatures you found (for that is what you considered them) both horrified and mystified you. The authorities were immediately notified and the few civilians present were ordered to be silent. The Air Force whisked away the remains of the fallen craft and its inhabitants, one of which was still alive. A special task force was organized to examine the findings and give recommendations. The one surviving extraterrestrial was taken to a laboratory and kept under strict supervision day and night, where after some years it succumbed to an unknown illness. This was your first encounter with the Greys.

The first time I saw you, your smile mesmerized me and your laugh practically incapacitate my organism. Your mysterious eyes so profound that no conceivable mean to decipher the schema that your emotion unveil. The thought of you laughing right now can moisten the Mojave Desert; the echo of your voice is a manifestation equivalent to billions of neurotransmitters flushing into my hypothalamus at the speed of light. It enrages all the serotonin within my anatomy that I didn't know has existed. Now you know. And with silence, you have stolen my heart and every endogenous elements in my body. The thought of you has organically saturate the dopamine which will soon speed to my nuclei--everlastingly in my raphe core. The thought of you like testosterone

The term desert is strongly connected to the image of an extremely harsh environment void of any life. The sand dunes at the Gulf of California would fit this description of a desert biome, but for large parts the Sonoran Desert has a stunning array of different organisms.

I grew up in Northern California, and from birth was surrounded by lush greenery and gorgeous landscapes. My dad was athletic and my mom appreciated God’s beauty in everything and everyone she saw. This led to my undying affection for all the secrets of Earth’s natural beauty. Whether it