Photo courtesy of Petey Mesquitey Local radio celebrity Petey Mesquitey extols his naturalist viewpoints to the Range Management Club this week.

Anyone who has ever happened to tune in to KXCI (91.3 FM) on Saturdays at noon or Tuesday mornings at 10 has probably heard Petey Mesquitey, Tucson's most enthusiastic desert lover.

Every week on the community radio station, the beloved personality extols the joys of countless aspects of Sonoran desert ecology, entertaining listeners with eccentric songs and tidbits of information on our local flora and fauna.

Invited by the Range Management Club, Mesquitey will speak at the University of Arizona tomorrow evening about plants, rangelands, his desert home near the Chiricahuas, and whatever else comes to mind. The free lecture and slide show will start at 5:15 in the Biological Sciences East building, Room 225.

Aaryn Olsson, a member of the Range Management Club and co-organizer of the event, said the Range Management Club and the Nature Club had both been thinking of bringing Mesquitey to UA.

"We wanted to invite a really energetic and fun speaker," Olsson, a non-degree-seeking graduate student, said. "He's a hoot. He's pretty wild, real stream-of-thought. He's got a lot of threads going on at the same time, and he just weaves things out of the environment."

After nearly a decade's worth of weekly three-to-five-minute shows, Mesquitey has become an institution among local nature lovers and KXCI listeners.

"In May, I'll have been on the air 10 years, and for many years, I didn't even know if anyone heard me," Mesquitey said. "It became something that I loved doing - I just said, 'Well, here's a chance for me to do something I really feel good about. Who knows who hears it, but oh well.'"

Mesquitey approached his radio job by doing what comes naturally to him - freestyle professing.

"I said, 'Well, I'll just tell stories.' It's like a letter to a friend, to let them know what you did, what you saw," he said. "Since I didn't know if anyone was listening, I just pretended that they cared!"

Chuckling, Mesquitey mused as to how the recipients of this so-called "letter" might respond.

"'Oh, we're really glad to get that,' and they're, you know, twirling their finger by their forehead."

Mesquitey's unique blend of humor, wonder and carefree enthusiasm is contagious to his listeners, and many students look forward to seeing this delighted desert denizen.

"I'm stoked," Mike Iorio, president of the Wildlife Club and a renewable natural resources senior, said. "I'm excited to actually meet him."

Mesquitey said he enjoys spending time with students and is happy to be coming to UA.

"It'll be silly, guaranteed silly. People say, 'What's your message?' I go, 'I don't know. Just sharing.'"