Thomas Fleischner, director of the Natural History Institute, sums up why there is a need to change our mindset about arid landscapes:
“Far too often, deserts are described by alluding to what they aren’t, by a shortage of water, a modicum of rain, animals that are rarely seen… But a desert IS. It is a landscape of invitation and accessibility, a place where birds perch in the open, at heights humans can easily see. Naturalists flock here for good reasons: An opening of light. Expansiveness and possibility.”
