The central reality of climate change – that gases from the burning of fossil fuels are creating a “greenhouse effect,” warming the planet – has been known for decades. It's been 40 years since the first World Climate Conference. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was formed in 1988, the same year NASA scientist James Hansen told Congress “the greenhouse effect is already happening now.”

Though the world hasn't changed course – on the contrary, annual global CO2 emissions have nearly doubled since 1979 – the fact of climate change now seems to have penetrated public consciousness. It remains politically charged in the U.S., but major institutions – from the ... Hosted by for KRTS

Science confirms what visitors intuit: Big Bend National Park is a singular place. At 1,200 square miles, it's the largest protected Chihuahuan Desert landscape in the U.S. The diversity of desert life it contains is unparalleled. It's not only a place of recreation – the park exists to preserve ecosystems.

That work falls to the park service, and it's not always simple. “Exotic” or non-native species are among the the starkest of challenges.

In 2018, the park adopted new plans for addressing “exotics.” They include ambitious efforts to eradicate or reduce two non-native mammals – aoudad, or Barbary sheep, and feral hogs.

Watching a herd of aoudad stream effortlessly u... Hosted by for KRTS

Sweeping prairies, mountain meadows, river canyons – there are places in rural West Texas that feel timeless. And indeed, such places often retain much of their primordial character. Yet no place, however remote, is untouched by the environmental changes humans have wrought in the last century and a half.

One profound change has been the spread of non-native plants – which have displaced or disrupted native plant communities, and the wildlife that relies on them.

Protected lands aren't exempt. At Big Bend National Park, officials are charged with preserving native flora and fauna. In 2018, the park adopted a new plan for managing non-native or “exotic” plants.

In Big Bend,... Hosted by for KRTS

Limestone mesas dominate the foreground, the pale strata angling skyward above what, even by West Texas standards, is a rough dirt road. Above the mesas, higher still, is the Sierra Vieja, red mountains, molten in appearance, though the volcanic eruptions that laid them ended 30 million years ago.

Here, on the Pinto Canyon Ranch in Presidio County, researchers are traveling by all-terrain vehicle to Spirit Eye Cave. Collectors and looters dug the cave for a century. But what remains – in foodstuffs and fibers, in pot shards and tools – is broadening our understanding of Big Bend prehistory.

But cultural artifacts aren't the purpose of this outing. Archeologist Bryon Schroeder, of ... Hosted by for KRTS

For this episode, Nature Notes is teaming up with “West Texas Wonders” – a reporting series where listeners ask questions and Marfa Public Radio finds answers.

This question comes from Austin listener Heather Holland. Born in Houston, raised in Colorado, she was drawn to Big Bend for a Texas mountain experience, and she's become a frequent visitor.

Holland served in the military, in deserts overseas. But in Big Bend she met a creature she hadn't in those deserts.

“To just see this cute little bird running across the road was a delight,” Holland said. “I realized how much I didn't know about roadrunners – if they're migrating for diet, if they are only in the southern... Hosted by for KRTS

America's national parks have never been more popular. Parks visitation hit a record high – with 330 million recreational visits – in 2016, the year of the National Park Service centennial. And while Americans are notably dissatisfied with their federal government, three-quarters hold a favorable opinion of the park service, according to a recent survey. The Smokey Bear hat commands a certain esteem.

Yet the connections people make with parks can be fleeting, and the bonds between parks and the communities that surround them are often less than robust. The Community Volunteer Ambassador program was launched in 2015, as part of the centennial, with a mission to connect people and park... Hosted by for KRTS

Rock art is a powerful expression of the Native American past here. From Palo Duro Canyon to the Pecos River, the region's first peoples painted and carved countless images – vast murals, shapes aligned to celestial cycles, renderings of creatures – like bighorn sheep – that were central both to survival and ceremony.

Now, archeologists are studying another distinctive rock art phenomenon. In the Sierra Vieja breaks, north of the Chinati Mountains, they're cataloging scores of images pecked into small, volcanic boulders. These “boulder glyphs” are mysterious, but they evoke a pivotal period in Big Bend history – one defined by violence and conflict.

In its archeological ... Hosted by for KRTS

The high, arid land of Far West Texas is a demanding, if sublime, context for life. Yet throughout its extent, plants and animals, of a hardy beauty, have adapted to its demands, to survive, even flourish.

Adaptation is key for humans here as well. It's a lesson gardeners in our region learn – often the hard way. Applying techniques and traditions developed in wetter regions can end in frustration, or hopelessness. Yet by respecting local conditions, and particularly by embracing the rich native flora, gardeners can succeed, and nurture landscapes that resonate with surrounding ecosystems.

The Big Bend Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas has published the second edition of ... Hosted by for KRTS

It doesn't take an archeologist to recognize it was an important place for prehistoric peoples. In a limestone cliff near the Chinati Mountains, two openings give on to a hundred-foot-wide chamber. For thousands of years, people returned to this cave – to cook, to craft the implements of daily life, to bury their dead. Sheltered from the elements, Spirit Eye Cave preserved a remarkable record of those occupations.

Much of that record has been removed. For almost a century, the cave was targeted, or plundered, by artifact-hunters.

And yet, Spirit Eye still has powerful lessons to share. Some of its most evocative artifacts are among the most humble: corn cobs.

Bryon Schroeder is ... Hosted by for KRTS

From places as distant as present-day San Angelo and Albuquerque, the first Spanish expeditions encountered one particular Native tribe throughout the plains and deserts of West Texas and New Mexico – a people known as the Jumano. The Jumano traded widely. They farmed corn, beans and squash at La Junta, present-day Presidio-Ojinaga. They hunted bison on the Llano Estacado.

And, in the 1620s, they were at the center of a mysterious episode that continues to resonate today.

In those years, Sor María Jesús, a Spanish nun, is said to have been “transported by the aid of angels” from her Spanish convent to the Texas plains to evangelize the Jumano, on hundreds of occasions. The sto... Hosted by for KRTS