Saguaro Land is a series from The Show looking at the Sonoran Desert — the lushest, hottest desert in the world that happens to be our home.
Within the Sonoran Desert sits what are called the Madrean Sky Islands.
There are 55 different sky islands in this region, to be exact — stretching from southern Arizona down to Sonora south of the border and even into parts of southwestern New Mexico. From desert floor to mountain tops, they can reach more than 10,000 feet in elevation.
The Madrean Sky Islands region is incredibly environmentally unique. Traveling from the arid desert floor to the mountain peaks is equivalent in top to bottom distance as traveling from the Mexican border to the Canadian border — a distance moving from desert to grasslands to pine forests.
They are some of the most biodiverse and environmentally unique regions in the world and a haven for scientists studying the ways plants and animals evolve to their surroundings. Emily Burns is the program director for the Sky Island Alliance. She joined The Show to talk about why they are a place to be protected.
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The Show's Amy Silverman reflects on the Saguaro Land series, and the plight of the iconic Sonoran Desert cactus that is its namesake. -
The Show is exploring the desert season by season in the series Saguaro Land — through music, art, literature, food, drink, flora and fauna — and now through design. -
Journalist Caroline Tracey has watched as Instagram and other platforms have turned a spotlight on the desert in ways she finds both refreshing — and troubling. She spoke to The Show more about the trend and what it means. -
In The Show's newest installment of Saguaro Land, we learned about using the desert to make music from Kyle Bert, who has been turning agave stalk into didgeridoos for 25 years. -
Tempe artist Safwat Saleem used baking as a metaphor for describing how he and his young daughter are learning to thrive in the Sonoran Desert.
