Outside Magazine: They Were Looking for Endangered Tortoises. They Found Human Bones Instead.
On the grounds of the Mojave Desert Land Trust, a nonprofit in Joshua Tree that acquires land to protect as habitat, I met executive director Kelly Herbinson, a woman in a duck canvas coat and leather boots, her sandy hair whipping in the wind. Herbinson had been chasing tortoises for over two decades. She told me about her first hitch as an idealistic biologist who thought the work would allow her to connect with nature, but instead found herself trudging along a gas pipeline near Barstow, the industrial hub of the Mojave. She was 24 and had never even seen a desert tortoise.