Upcoming events.
Our Fall 2024 Native Plant Sale date is yet to be determined. Sign up to receive our newsletter and follow our social media channels to stay updated about upcoming events!
New volunteer orientation
Interested in volunteering? Sign up for a New Volunteer Orientation!
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 3 - August 30, 2024. Regular hours will resume the week of September 2.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 3 - August 30, 2024. Regular hours will resume the week of September 2.
FREE! Community field trip: Whitewater Preserve
Learn about the water, geology, and native plants and animals from MDLT and Preserve staff. This community activity is open to people of all ages. A bus will provide free transportation from Jacobs Park in Yucca Valley to Whitewater Preserve and back and lunch will be provided. Spanish translation will be available.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 3 - August 30, 2024. Regular hours will resume the week of September 2.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 3 - August 30, 2024. Regular hours will resume the week of September 2.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 3 - August 30, 2024. Regular hours will resume the week of September 2.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 3 - August 30, 2024. Regular hours will resume the week of September 2.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 3 - August 30, 2024. Regular hours will resume the week of September 2.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 3 - August 30, 2024. Regular hours will resume the week of September 2.
New Volunteer Orientation
Interested in volunteering? Sign up for a New Volunteer Orientation!
Holiday closure: Indigenous Peoples' Day
MDLT will be closed in observance of the holiday.
Let's get outside!
Join the Mojave Desert Land Trust for a fun-filled morning to learn about places you can visit locally and how to safely explore the desert environment. Find out how being outside can improve our health and discover how you can become a community scientist by sharing your nature observations.
Embodiment workshop with Conni McKenzie
In honor of Mental Health Month, Mojave Desert Land Trust is collaborating with Conni McKenzie, a holistic movement artist and dance practitioner, to offer our community a chance to reconnect with nature. Join us for an embodiment workshop designed to nourish your mind, body, and spirit, guiding you through practices that deepen your connection with nature and yourself. Hosted by MDLT, this workshop aims to foster community and enhance your understanding of your relationship with nature.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 3 - August 30, 2024. Regular hours will resume the week of September 2.
Four Wheel Campers x MDLT volunteer camp out at Palisades Ranch
For Earth Week 2024, Four Wheel Campers is excited to partner with the Mojave Desert Land Trust (MDLT), a 501c3 nonprofit that helps preserve and protect the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. We will be working with MDLT to host a free volunteer event at Palisades Ranch, which is notable for being one of the few locations along the Mojave River where water flows above ground year-round.
MBCA Desert-wise Landscape Tour
Morongo Basin Conservation Association’s in-person self-guided Desert-Wise Landscape Tour provides desert dwellers and visitors a day to enjoy the beauty and creativity of local desert gardens. Hosted by homeowners, the Tour demonstrates the beauty of native and drought-tolerant plants and low water use, often with unusual and artful sculpture or hardscape enhancements.
Eastern Coachella Valley sunset hike
Experience stunning views of the Mecca Hills as the sun sets over the desert landscape, discover the desert after dark as the night cools down, and see how the Mecca Hills and the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument will protect wildlife, honor culture, and increase access to nature in the Eastern Coachella Valley!
New volunteer orientation
Volunteer Coordinator Mackenzie Nelson is hosting two volunteer orientations - one online and one in-person - for new volunteers. Join us!
WISDOM: Making desert conservation more inclusive
Join a special mixer and conference celebrating diversity and the need for inclusion in the conservation sciences of the desert.
Leading conservationists and rising biologists will share the stage in this event at the UC Riverside Campus Alumni and Visitors Center Dining Room from 3-7pm. RSVPs are required.
Learn how the Mojave Desert Land Trust’s pioneering WISDOM internship is helping make desert science more inclusive and accessible. Discuss ways in which we can address inequalities in desert conservation field work. This event takes place on the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, in honor of the fifth anniversary of the WISDOM program. This event is open to the public, but spaces are limited. RSVP to reserve your spot. Light refreshments will be served.
Speakers:
Kelly Herbinson, Joint Executive Director, Mojave Desert Land Trust
Mary Cook-Rhyne, Education Programs Manager, Mojave Desert Land Trust
Miranda Buckley, PhD student, UC Riverside, and former WISDOM intern
Roseanna Colston, Biologist, and former WISDOM intern
Maricela Rosales, California Associate Program Director, Conservation Lands Foundation
Lehong Chow, Principal, Ironwood Consulting
About the speakers:
Maricela Rosales (pronoun: she, her, ella) is from Los Angeles, CA, dedicated to advocating for diversity in outdoor recreation, equity, and access to public lands, while changing the ethos of conservation as the CA Program Associate Director for Conservation Lands Foundation. Her goal is to move towards cultural and social relevance as a framework to empower, organize, and support partners, colleagues, and the community. A graduate of the University of California, Riverside with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology/Law and Society. She has served as a Youth Climbing Coach for Touchstone Climbing and the Community Advocacy Program Coordinator for the Disability Rights Legal Center. Was previously the Los Angeles Regional, Brands Partnership, and Advocacy Coordinator for Latino Outdoors.
Miranda Buckley is a PhD student at UC Riverside, in the Santiago Lab, where she studies the evolution and ecology of holoparasitic plants in the deserts of California. Miranda was a WISDOM intern with MDLT in 2020, when she helped collect and analyze ecological data in Afton Canyon, within the Mojave Trails National Monument. This experience empowered her to pursue research in academia after she completed her B.S. in Plant Science at Cal Poly Pomona in 2021. Having lived in the Mojave her entire life, watching it change before her eyes, Miranda wanted to do her part to help conserve and restore our precious desert, and foster a feeling of connection to the desert landscape within her local community. She is proud to be a transfer student from Victor Valley College and hopes to use the skills she is learning in graduate school to research vulnerable desert ecosystems in Southern California, communicate the importance of conservation to my community, and bridge the gap to careers in STEM for the next generation of scientists.
Mary Cook-Rhyne is the Education Programs Manager at the Mojave Desert Land Trust and is the project manager for the WISDOM program. She is passionate about desert conservation and making it accessible to all. She supports women in STEM especially those traditionally left out of the sciences. Her goal is to make the WISDOM program a meaningful internship and provide women with the opportunities to make a real impact in desert lands management. Mary holds a B.A. in Anthropology with a focus on archaeology from CSU, Chico, and an M.Ed. in Elementary Education with a focus on multicultural education from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Lehong Chow began working as a field biologist for Ironwood Consulting in 2008, one year after a two-year Peace Corps commitment in Togo. Today, she is a Principal of the company. In the years between, she consulted for environmental firms large and small, working with multiple special status species. She has a good understanding of field needs because it was an important part of her professional experience and uses that experience to identify potential problems before they occur. Lehong leads a focused and committed staff dedicated to striking the right balance between client needs, regulator expectations, and protecting natural resources. Communication is as important to her as finding creative solutions that will meet those criteria. During her downtime, she enjoys sampling and attempting to cook world cuisines.
Roseanna Colston is a former WISDOM Intern and Alumni of UC Riverside. During her time at UC Riverside, Roseanna developed a deep interest in soil science while taking classes in Environmental Science and became later became a founding member of the Soil Science Club. After completing her bachelors program, she went on to volunteer at the Mojave Desert Land Trust and eventually become an intern for WISDOM program. She then was offered the opportunity to work on the Amargosa River Vole Survey with UC Davis. Roseanna currently works as Registered Environmental Health Specialist in San Diego County and hopes to return to the field of conservation and land management.
New volunteer orientation
Volunteer Coordinator Mackenzie Nelson is hosting two volunteer orientations - one online and one in-person - for new volunteers. Join us!
Holiday closure: Martin Luther King Day
MDLT will be closed in observance of the holiday.
SOLD OUT: Gear up & Camp out weekend
Looking for an adventurous way to help conserve the desert? Then come pitch your tent with the MDLT Monitoring Volunteer team! This November 17-19, MDLT will be hosting a training weekend in the Mission Creek Preserve.
Healing Gardens
In honor of Veterans Day, we invite veterans, active duty members, their families, and the general community to join us for this free guided walk around MDLT’s Mojave Desert Discovery Garden. We wish to support the community in the holistic healing power of gardening, native plants, and nature.
Palm Springs Pride Parade
Show your pride and walk as an ally! MDLT will be walking alongside other conservation organizations in the Palm Springs Pride parade to celebrate our love and support for those in our community who are LGBTQ+.
Obi Kaufmann presents The Deserts of California
Author-adventurer Obi Kaufmann debuts a new field atlas plunging readers into California's vibrant deserts—join us in-person or online!
Revving responsibly: Protecting tortoises while off-roading
What is the intersection between off-highway vehicle recreation and desert conservation? Join us for an educational night to learn more about enjoying responsible OHV use and how you can help protect habitat for the threatened desert tortoise. We will hear from Randy Banis, President of Friends of Jawbone, and Yanina Aldao Galvan, MDLT Lands Project Coordinator, about designated OHV routes in the California desert and how to connect with the outdoors while also supporting the desert ecosystem.
New volunteer orientation
Volunteer Coordinator Mackenzie Nelson is hosting two volunteer orientations - one online and one in-person - for new volunteers. Join us!
Holiday closure: Indigenous Peoples’ Day
MDLT will be closed in observance of the holiday.
2023 Fall Native Plant Sale
Save the date! MDLT’s 2023 Fall Native Plant Sale will be on Saturday, October 7. More details to come. Sign up for our newsletter or follow us on social media to receive updates.
Queer Ecology hike with Jason Journeyman
Join Jason Journeyman Wise and MDLT Outreach Coordinator Ella DeMaria on an easy trail walk through a beautiful desert landscape owned and cared for by the Mojave Desert Land Trust. It will be a chance to discuss the differing roles of males and females in the animal kingdom, plant reproduction, the transitioning of animals, insects, and plants from one sex to another, and even why we gender anything at all.
Joshua Tree visitation forum
Join us for an in-person event at the Mojave Desert Land Trust (MDLT) headquarters located in Joshua Tree, CA, USA. At this forum, we will discuss Joshua Tree National Park visitation and the impact it has on the park, local natural resources, community life, and other issues. This will be just the first of what we hope will be a series of community discussions helping the Morongo Basin chart a path forward as visitation remakes our communities. RSVP is required. Register here.
For more information, email: cclarke@npca.org
This forum is sponsored by:
Understanding the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act
Learn about this important new legislation, what it means for the recovery of the species, and how it impacts the public.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 5 - August 25, 2023. Regular hours will resume the week of September 1.
MDLT Retreat Week
From August 14 - August 18 MDLT headquarters will be closed to the public for staff training and appreciation. Normal hours will resume August 21.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 5 - August 25, 2023. Regular hours will resume the week of September 1.
Summer Friday - MDLT office closed
MDLT’s office will be closed every other Friday from May 5 - August 25, 2023. Regular hours will resume the week of September 1.