Ep. 275 - Saving Sonora: The Green Desert
In Defense of Plants Podcast
In Defense of Plants
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 July 2020
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The human population of the Sonoran Desert is growing quickly, developing the surrounding landscape at an alarming pace. At the same time, botanists are racing to understand the fate of this so called "green deserts flora." In this episode we learn what it takes to properly assess a regions flora for extinction risk and how that information is being used across borders to protect the botanical diversity that makes this landscape unique. Join me and ecologist/conservationist, Dr. Helen Rowe for a discussion about the mission of the IUCN SSC Sonoran Desert Plant Specialist Group and how numerous different data sources, from herbaria to citizen scientists, are helping this project to succeed. This podcast was produced in part by Judy, Steve, Kae, Carole, Mr. Keith Santner, Dana, Chloe, Aaron, Sara, Kenned, Vaibhav, Kendall, Christina, Brett, Jocelyn, Kathleen, Ethan, Kaylee, Runaway Goldfish, Ryan, Donica, Chris, Shamora, Alana, Laura, Alice, Sarah, Rachel, Joanna, Griff, Philip, Paul, Matthew, Clark, Bobby, Kate, Steven, Brittney, McMansion Hell, Joey, Catherine, Brandon, Hall, Vegreville Creek and Wetlands Fund, Kevin, Oliver, John, Johansson, Christina, Jared, Hannah, Katy Pye, Brandon, Gwen, Carly, Stephen, Botanical Tours, Moonwort Studios, Liba, Mohsin Kazmi Takes Pictures, doeg, Clifton, Stephanie, Benjamin, Eli, Rachael, Plant By Design, Philip, Brent, Ron, Tim, Homestead Brooklyn, Brodie, Kevin, Sophia, Mark, Rens, Bendix, Irene, Holly, Caitlin, Manuel, Jennifer, Sara, and Margie.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Would you like more In Defensive Plants each month? |
| 0:02.7 | Well, you're in luck. |
| 0:03.7 | Indefensive Plants is now offering bonus mini episodes over at our Patreon page. |
| 0:08.0 | To find out how you can gain access to this bonus botanical content, head on over to patreon.com |
| 0:13.1 | slash Indefensive Plants and consider becoming a patron. |
| 0:16.7 | And as always, thank you for your continued support of Indefensive Plants. |
| 0:20.3 | Together we are helping cure plant blindness around the world one episode at a time. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the In Defensive Plants Podcast, the official podcast of IndefensivePlants.com. What's up? This is your host, Matt. Welcome to the show. How's everyone doing this week? Today, we're tackling a topic I've been meeting to cover for quite some time. |
| 0:39.3 | We are of course talking about the biodiversity and conservation of the flora of the Sonoran Desert. |
| 0:45.3 | Joining us to talk about this is Dr. Helen Rowe. |
| 0:48.3 | She's the director of the Parsons Field Institute at the McDowell-Sonorence Conservancy, |
| 0:52.3 | and she's also an associate research professor at Northern Arizona University. |
| 0:57.0 | As you're going to hear, Dr. Rowe and her colleagues have recently taken up the IUCN's SSC-Sonoran Desert Plant Specialist Group to assess the extinction risk of all Sonoran Desert plant species. |
| 1:09.0 | No small task, might I add, but also to educate the public about |
| 1:12.0 | the Sonoran Desert species and the myriad factors that threaten their survival, as well as to |
| 1:16.7 | also implement conservation plans supported by these red listing groups. This work is in its infancy, |
| 1:22.4 | but as you can hear, Dr. Roe and her colleagues are crossing borders to do everything they can |
| 1:26.4 | to understand and protect Sonoran biodiversity. Now, you may notice we don't really talk about any of the fires in this podcast, and that's because this episode was recorded way before any of the fires like the bighorn fire had started. But do understand how much of an impact those fires are having in an ecosystem that really isn't adapted for fire. So I just want to put that in your mind. |
| 1:45.1 | You probably should go and look up what's going on with the fires to find out why they're |
| 1:48.1 | having such a big impact on this desert ecosystem. |
| 1:51.1 | All right, that's entirely enough out of me. |
| 1:53.1 | Let's head on over to my conversation with Dr. Helen Rowe. |
| 1:55.6 | I hope you enjoy. All right, Dr. Helen Rowe, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on. |
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