In the Mojave Desert Land Trust office hangs a letter from Sen. Dianne Feinstein. In it, she recalls driving down Route 66 in the 1960s thinking people took California’s desert areas for granted as it was littered with old cars and discarded mattresses. She looked past the trash and marveled at the flora and fauna.

A $3.19 million expansion of the Mojave Desert Seed Bank will help conservationists tackle the urgent need for native seed to conserve the unique biodiversity of California deserts.

Desert ecosystems cover around one quarter of the state and suffer from significant drought, severe weather and precipitous loss of habitat and wildlife. A California Wildlife Conservation Board grant will support the expansion of the Mojave Desert Seed Bank, which is managed by the accredited Mojave Desert Land Trust from its Joshua Tree headquarters.

The Mojave Desert Land Trust is encouraging community members to save the date for their seasonal native plant sale on Saturday, October 7th.

Landscaping with native plants improves our surrounding habitat while supporting native biodiversity. In addition to their beauty, native plants are well-adapted to our local climate and soil, making them a low-maintenance way to enrich your outdoor spaces.

The California Desert makes up about 28% of the state’s land area and contains about 38% of the native plant species within the state.

Researchers say wildfires and climate change can have an enormous impact on desert species. That’s why the Mojave Desert Land Trust has been busy collecting seeds from native desert species to bank them for restoration and research efforts in the future.

Flowers that haven't been seen in years bloomed across Southern California this spring after massive winter downpours, creating not only colorful landscapes but a boon for conservationists eager to gather desert seeds as an insurance policy against a hotter and drier future.

In the Mojave Desert, seeds from parish goldeneye and brittlebush are scooped up by staff and volunteers working to build out seed banks in the hope these can be used in restoration projects as climate change pressures desert landscapes. Already this summer, the York Fire burned across the Mojave National Preserve, charring thousands of acres in the fragile ecosystem including famed Joshua trees.

Firefighters aided by rain fought to contain a massive blaze that swept through the California desert into Nevada and are threatening the region's famous spiky Joshua trees.

The York Fire that erupted last Friday is California's largest wildfire this year. As of early Wednesday it had burned through more than 128 square miles (333 square kilometers) of land and was 30% contained, fire officials said.