DESERT SPEAKS XVI, THE


1601 Saving Australia’s Wild West
When the Australian Wildlife Conservancy bought over 800,000 acres of a former cattle ranch for biodiversity conservation it created an ecological jewel that now attracts scientists from all over the world. The Desert Speaks heads down under to investigate the area that hopes to prove that aggressive management based on nature can restore the land. Host David Yetman hops on a plane to navigate his way into the former ranch known as Mornington Station. During this trip, Yetman ventures close to prime bird watching sites that are home to some extraordinary and endangered granivorous birds, searches the landscape for wallaroos and examines the Spinifex grass plains that provide shelter, protection and food for many creatures. Also in this episode is a helicopter excursion that offers a bird’s eye view of the land that features wallabies, kangaroos, wild horses and other local wildlife.

1602 Outpost of the Outback
Located near the center of the continent, Alice Springs, Australia, is around 1,000 miles from the closest city and has a population of 28,000 people. This city may be small, but it is home to Alice Springs Desert Park, a one of kind conservation site and tourist mecca that contains both the distinct flavor of Central Australia and the local desert habitats all in one easy to explore area. Host David Yetman surveys the park’s Desert Rivers, Sand Country and Woodlands habitats, which are home to kangaroos, wallabies and bilbies as well as a large variety of rodents, birds and reptiles. Yetman attends the park’s Nature Theatre where visitors can witness birds of prey demonstrate their natural behaviors. Also featured in this episode is a parade in Alice Springs and a look at some aboriginal cultural history.

1603 Mending Australia’s Ancient Forest
Near Albany, in Southwestern Australia, Australians are trying to piece together the remains of fractured habitats that were destroyed beginning right after World War II. From the woodlands of the drier interior to the tall wet forests in the far south-west corner, host David Yetman gets a first hand look at this ambitious project called Gondwana Link. The evolutionary process moves quickly in this environment, and new hybrids and species are discovered almost every week. Here, ecological restoration works hand-in-hand with the cultural restoration of the original owners of the land. Yetman also meets some of the native peoples who work to counteract the displacement of their ancestors by passing on knowledge of their culture to their descendents.

1604 On the Trail of a Living Fossil
In an effort to discover more about the desert tortoise, host David Yetman treks from the dry deserts of Utah to the tropics of Northwestern Mexico in search of these special animals. The trail begins outside of St. George Utah, which has more tortoises there per square kilometer than anywhere else in the United States. In the Mojave Desert, Yetman observes how tortoises are marked and then tracked using telemetry. The goal of this study is not only to monitor the desert tortoises’ path, but also to study their behaviors and the effects of changing land use. The task is not as easy as it may sound, because these creatures are actually capable of moving 25 miles in one season. The Desert Speaks also visits some of the happy homes in the Sonoran Desert that have benefited from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s Desert Tortoise adoption program. Finally Yetman tracks down some fellow-trackers in search of the southernmost tortoises, near Alamos, Sonora.

1605 Kickin’ West on Route 66
Join host David Yetman and his travel companion, ecologist Yar Petryszyn, as they travel along the historic Route 66 through some of the finest deserts in the United States. Beginning near the border of Texas and New Mexico, they cruise by convertible along the road that allowed thousands of Americans to make the journey to California. The Desert Speaks also takes the time to stop at some of the memorable locales along the way. They tour a museum that houses some of the restored cars that made the momentous track cross country, take note of some petroglyphs in Albuquerque, gaze at the neon lights that line the historic road and stop in the “Painted” Desert for a picturesque sunset.

1606 Cruising on the “Mother Road”
Clad in appropriate leather gear and helmets, host David Yetman and ecologist Yar Petryszyn cruise through the second half of the deserts along Route 66, this time on Harley Davidson motorcycles. This phase of the journey begins in the Petrified Forest near the border of Arizona and New Mexico and traces the “mother road” through the pines of Flagstaff to the Joshua trees of the Mojave Desert. The travelers stop in Winslow, Arizona at the La Posada Inn which has been open since the 1930s. Along the way, they experience the heavy winds (50-60 mph) at the Meteor Crater, visit the ghost town of Oatman, Arizona, catch a glimpse of the rare and elusive “shoe tree” and finish up in the San Bernardino Mountains of California.

1607 Desert Treasures
The desert can yield a bounty of treasures, but what does gold have in common with trees, fish and meteorites? To the right person, they all have a sentimental, if not monetary, value. Using the Tucson Gem and Mineral show as a launching pad for the quest, The Desert Speaks travels around the country’s deserts to find out where exactly these items come from and who values these unusual treasures. The search begins with a hunt for fish fossils in the Red Desert of Wyoming and then a visit to the Painted Desert with the Bach family. These happy hunters have made a hobby out of legally collecting petrified wood. Then take a trip to Tucson, Arizona to see meteorite collector Robert Haag, who is one of the largest sources for meteorites, bought, sold and traded, in the world. Finally, travel to the Superstition Mountains, the legendary home of the Lost Dutchman Mine.

1608 Peru’s Amazon Desert
Follow host David Yetman and his brother, geologist Dick Yetman, as they descend from 10,000 feet in the Andes Mountains into the heart of the Amazon Desert. Travel by 4x4 down a treacherous one way road through a cloud covered forest. This area hosts hillside agricultural civilizations that continue to harvest the land much as their ancestors have done for hundreds of years. As they continue to the bottom of a canyon deeper than the Grand Canyon, they cross one of the rivers that helps form the Amazon, the Río Marañon, noting the growing abundance of desert vegetation. Also in this episode, hydrology meets the desert as the brothers encounter entrepreneurial locals using a gushing spring at the base of the mountains to power woodworking machinery.

1609 Costal Civilizations of Ancient Peru
This episode surveys some of the enormous adobe pyramids that still tower over the vast Peruvian countryside. South American archaeological expert Axel Nielsen guides host David Yetman through the premier museum of South America, the Royal Tombs of Sipán, which house some of the richest gold artifacts in the world. From there, they trek to Huaca del Sol and Huaca del Luna, immense pyramids that emphasize the duality and symbolism of the pre-Incan societies. The last archeological stop is Chan Chan, an area known for its walls of design and decoration, which stretch as far as the eye can see. Finally, watch the local fisherman construct and then navigate their boats made out of totora reeds in the same manner as their pre-Ican ancestors. Observe how these “caballitos del mar” (sea horses) are used daily to harvest fish from the sea.

1610 The People of Peru’s Cloud Forest
Beginning in Cajamarca, host David Yetman, geologist Dick Yetman and South American archaeological expert Axel Nielsen head out into the colorful city streets in pursuit of authentic and very distinctive South American hats that are almost as tall as they are wide. This quest takes them past local merchant stalls and through Calle de Cuyes, or guinea pig alley, where locals can purchase skinned and fully dressed guinea pigs to eat. After purchasing some finely woven hats, the brothers head to a museum in Leimebamba that houses the ancestors of the Chachapoyas who were mummified and enclosed within wooden sarcophagi. Yetman and Nielsen inspect some the museum’s pottery, jewelry and a counting system created by the Incas based on knots. They are also allowed the amazing privilege of examining one of the mummies up close. The crew then treks to Kuélap to find the archeological ruins of the Chachapoyas. Kuélap, a place some believe that might one day rival Machu Pichu in its importance, displays a massive system of defensive walls strategically placed on a hilltop, an active archeological site with human remains, artifacts and areas that were once sacred to the people of Peru’s Cloud Forest.

1611 Medieval Drought in the Southwest
Between roughly 900 and 1260 AD there was a massive drought that severely impacted the plants, animals and people of the Southwest. Now referred to as the Medieval Drought, the best records of this phenomenon can be found within the trees that lived through this difficult time period. Host David Yetman hikes with Tom Swetnam from the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research through the White Mountains of California and Sequoia National Park to observe how scientists use tree rings to gather evidence of climate conditions from thousands of years ago. By taking a core sample from the bristle cone pines of the White Mountains, scientists learned of this Medieval Drought and roughly how long it lasted. Some of the dead and downed sequoias in Sequoia National Park corroborate this information with evidence of the drought in their tree rings. This episode also offers an examination of the ruins of some of the people most affected by the drought, the Anasazi Indians, at Bandelier National Monument, a trek through a “ghost forest” and a first-hand look at “yoda” trees.

1612 Of Drought and Fire
Within the last three decades there have been large wildfires consuming the forests in nearly all the mountain ranges above the desert southwest. Just below the ranges, the lack of rains combined with invasive species has caused additional wildfires that have devastated portions of the Sonoran Desert. The link between drought and fire has pre-historic roots and host David Yetman and Tom Swetnam from the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research travel through the desert to higher elevations that contain evidence of drought, fire, and civilization. There is evidence that droughts drove early civilizations out of their dwellings on the Colorado Plateau and forced them to move nearer to the Rio Grande River. Yetman also ventures through a dog-hair thicket that has become dangerous because of previous land management practices and the lack of regular fire to regulate its growth. Additionally featured in this episode is a hike through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to see how scientists study the adaptability of desert plants to long-term and short-term droughts.

1613 Giants on a Galapagos Island
This program visits one of the few inhabited islands in the Galapagos. Host David Yetman and ecologist Yar Petryszyn explore the people and culture of the island of Santa Cruz with a stroll through the market at Puerto Ayora. Then it’s off to visit the Darwin Research Station and its famous saddle back tortoises, which are being reintroduced to the area after being hunted close to extinction. One of these tortoises, Diego, is named after the San Diego Zoo, which is home to a tortoise-breeding program. Other highlights include a look at land iguanas, which also faced extinction from hunting, and the tree prickly pear that stands taller than a 2-story house. Finally, the crew jumps on a old bus and ventures up the mountain to find volcanic craters, Scalisia forests, wild Galapagos Tortoises and Darwin Finches– the birds that led to Darwin’s theory of evolution.