Desert Intro

The desert is green.



It seems strange to me that I even have to explain this to anyone who has never been to Southern Arizona. But it always comes up.

I went to great detail to explain to the woman in Indianapolis that we don't have rolling sand dunes and head-scarved men riding camels.

Ok, she was an extreme case.

But the intern and her parents from Missouri are a better example of what everyone sees on their first visit to the Sonoran Desert. Where they expect to see brown, they see green - from the leaves on our Palo Verde and Mesquite trees, to the desert bushes that dot the landscape.

People are not only amazed to discover that our desert rivers are dry for most of the year, but that we even have rivers at all. These rivers do run freely - it just doesn't happen very often.

The desert has learned a little something we humans are still struggling with: how to make sacrifices to live a rich life. They've figured out a way to not only live, but flourish, on what they have until the next rains come.