Cuatro Ciénegas  Listen to this episode:  Cuatro Ciénegas  Marfa
Public Radio  Broadcast on October 9, 2008  By Cynthia
McAllister  Texas west of the Pecos is considered part of the
Chihuahuan Desert Eco-region. But the Chihuahuan Desert extends
far beyond West Texas, and includes wetlands in Mexico that are
home to over 150 species of animals and plants that are found
nowhere else on Earth. What are the boundaries of the Chihuahuan
Desert? Where does the water that forms the Mexican wetlands
come from, and what are the threats to this unique aquatic eco-
system?  The Chihuahuan Desert, largest of North America’s four
deserts, spreads from western Texas across southern New Mexico
to the southeastern tip of Arizona. But the majority of the
desert’s nearly 200,000 square miles are in Mexico, where it
extends south almost to Mexico City and lies between the two
“great mother” mountain ranges: Sierra Madre Occidental on the
west, and Sierra Madre Oriental on the east.  Near the eastern
edge of the Desert, in the M