Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Sonoran Institute

Some of us cannot bear the idea of traveling among the rocks, mosquitos and mountains, ruining the finish on our Christian Louboutins, hair mussed by random hot gusts, clothing soaked with eeeww –sweat. Unless it’s in Lulu Lemons.
Others of us cannot survive without the natural world nearby. Not out the window of a climate and sound controlled house or car, but out in it, feeling breezes, smelling scents, stumbling on rough spots, uplifted by summits and vistas.
I’m in between. I’ll wear Christian Laboutins anywhere. I cannot survive without open spaces. I love a drink from a rock-​born spring, I love a dip in a deep cool river. Forests and woods connect me to our Creator, a midnight gaze at the edge of our galaxy gets me higher than dope, drunker than Drambuie, and happier than a Hare Krishna.
The Sonoran Desert is an ecological treasure. Thousands of kinds of plants and animals once called it home. Where it nudges into the mountains or slides into the Mohave or deserts of Chihuahua, more diversity celebrates the gift of life. Rivers and streams are the blood, flowing through the rocks and heat, refreshing and cool. Pathways for millions of creatures.
Did you know Coati Mundis hunt nightly under the I-​10 bridge over the Salt River bed? Your overflowing sprinklers, auto washings and other floodway contributions make life for these bearish clowns.
Every time time a developer flips a buck to make us happy, every medical center or mall planted in barely-​disturbed desert, every new acre farmed to put baby spinach on our plates changes the world.
How those changes are made affects the world of unborn humans. Will they know a Verde River? Will they see a Rainbow Cactus in the wild? Will they scream at the sight of a four-​inch mesquite beetle or be irrationally terrified by a scorpion or snake?
The Sonoran Institute is trying to help forge better decisions. How can we have co-​existing natural and human worlds? How can our grandchildren make a good living in the future? How do we bring wind and solar energy into our environments? Where do we locate our transportation routes to do the most good and least harm?
It’s not easy. But it must be done. Our lives are better from the work accomplished so far. What’s next?