D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
February
2009
Richard Felger
Page: 2"It's an exciting time," says Felger of the present era, "a time when there are horrific changes, many of which we do not view as totally positive. But that's the modern world."
For this scientist, our problematic situation prompts consideration of indigenous arid-zone plants as candidates for development as future food sources. Funded research has taken Felger around the world, searching for desert denizens that might help feed the hungry in low-moisture, salt-heavy environments. Two plants in particular, he concludes, hold great promise.
"Mesquite," Felger predicts, "will become one of the great New World crops. Around the hot, arid regions of the Earth, where normal agriculture as we know it is not feasible, mesquite will become a major crop." He points out that generations of early Western Hemisphere inhabitants of arid lands depended on flour ground from the tree's dangling legume pods as a sweet, nutritious food. Whereas some land-based ethnic groups have never stopped using mesquite for nourishment, modern humans have largely ignored the plant except as a source of barbeque charcoal.
The less well-known food source on Felger's short list is nipa, a salt-tolerant grass that occurs in tidal wetlands of the Colorado River delta. Harvested for centuries by the area's Cocopah people, nipa has yet to enter wide cultivation, despite its favorable characteristics. Well-adapted to a desert climate, the nutrition-rich grass tolerates saltwater and freshwater equally well. "After traipsing around the deserts of the world" looking for native food plants, says Felger, "it is one of the winners."
Commercial development of mesquite and nipa has been slow, in part because it is difficult to secure the long-term, broad-based research support such projects demand. Widespread cultivation "will require multi-year teamwork," says Felger, a pragmatic optimist in the mold of the late author Ed Abbey, a friend and former neighbor, and Gary Paul Nabhan, an Arizona research colleague whom Felger has mentored and collaborated with.
"Look at the development of corn, wheat, rice, and potatoes," urges Felger, his right index finger stabbing the air for emphasis. "That took place over decades, even centuries." At present, he awaits word on a pending grant proposal that would advance the cause of nipa cultivation.
Meanwhile, this desert rat doesn't lack for diversions. The deck outside his living room is strewn with potted specimens of exotic-looking cacti and succulents that catch New Mexico's dawn-to-dusk sun on most days. "I enjoy," he says, padding around in socks, "being able to have my doors and windows open all summer and most of the winter." (Felger did not want pictures taken for this article of himself or his home.)
The relocation he and his partner, Silke Schneider, made from the outskirts of "overly Californicated" Tucson — where Felger still has an environmental research appointment with the University of Arizona — is agreeable. Silver City is close enough that Felger can make frequent necessary trips to Tucson as well as other work-related destinations, while Schneider pursues a deep interest in horses of the Spanish Colonial epoch. (She's written an authoritative book on the subject, Arizona's Spanish Barbs.)
"This is a much more livable climate for Silke's horses and for animals like us," says Felger, who occasionally teaches and lectures locally. "It's an area that seems to be infested with interesting people. . . and it's pretty close to a lot of places where I'm doing research. For example, I'm studying the trees of the whole Gila River drainage, which extends all the way to the Colorado River." (One member of the New Mexico Native Plant Society, when asked about Felger, dubbed him "a master at knowing the Latin name of almost every plant imaginable.")
On one recent Sunday morning, Felger and some friends set out to hike Hillsboro Peak, which juts to around 10,000 feet in the Black Range east of Silver City. In characteristic fashion, Felger leans forward and describes the "excitement" of traveling through oak savannas, pion-juniper woodlands, and ponderosa pine forests en route to the summit.
"You can observe so much change in a single day of walking," Felger enthuses. "I think of this every time I look on either side of the Continental Divide, seeing the varied species cascading down as the rivers flow either toward the Ro Grande or the Colorado. Anywhere along the Divide has to be a spiritual place. Maybe that is really what draws us here."
Southwest Storylines columnist Richard Mahler is the author of 11 books, including The Jaguar's Shadow: Searching for a Mythic Cat, to be published by Yale University Press later this year. His byline has appeared in publications including New Mexico Magazine, Santa Fean, Los Angeles Times and Arizona Highways, and on columns for the Albuquerque Journal and Crosswinds. He lives in Silver City.