We hope you had fun and enjoyed the 2021 Coachella Valley Wildflower Festival. Though this year’s event and activities were “virtual”, we are so grateful for the Community support that made it all feel real.
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It’s Women’s History Month AND International Women’s Day! We’re celebrating four women we admire every day, who work to protect public lands in the California Desert.
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Friends welcomes three new board members, each adding unique and valuable experience as we continue our work, connecting people to the land.
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Stay safe, and help others in our community stay safe with you, by recreating responsibly. Follow these seven steps:
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We started the month of September off on a fantastic positive note! I am proud to formally announce that Friends of the Desert Mountains has acquired the Rancho Royale property off Highway 62 in the City of Desert Hot Springs. This property will no longer be the future location of a master-planned community of up to 1,998 dwelling units (previously approved for 2,200 units per proposed tentative map). This beautiful desert gateway to Sand to Snow National Monument will forever be protected!
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Bald eagles are a success story of the federal Endangered Species Act. They were listed as endangered when the Act was originally passed in 1973, having suffered staggering population declines despite some previous legal protections. In southern California, breeding populations of bald eagles had been completely wiped out by the late 1950’s. Through protection under the law and other measures, including banning a harmful pesticide DDT in 1972, as well as captive breeding and reintroduction programs, populations recovered and the bald eagle was removed from the federal endangered species list in 2007. There are currently over 10,000 pairs breeding in all 49 of the continental United States.
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This week we’re shining a spotlight on some of the partners Friends works with to protect the wildlife, scenic views, and hiking trails of the Coachella Valley. We interviewed Kathleen Brundige with the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission, and Diana Rosas with the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, to learn about their work, how they got to be where they are, and find out some of their favorite parts of the Coachella Valley. Join us in thanking them for their hard work and dedication!
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Today is #GivingTuesdayNow, an opportunity for us to come together as a community and show gratitude for essential things that we too often take for granted. Now more than ever, our connection to the land is essential for our well-being, and I am so grateful to be a Friend, helping to nurture that connection. While sheltering in place, we are still hard at work acquiring land, building new trails, and developing virtual educational resources for all ages.
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The more I learn about the Coachella Valley, the more I love and appreciate how our diverse landscapes and rich pockets of unique species are interconnected. A great place to explore these connections is on the Kim Nicol trail near Desert Hot Springs. One of the desert's newest trails, is named in honor of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Regional Manager who dedicated her life to the conservation and preservation of the Coachella Valley desert habitat. The Kim Nicol trail offers fantastic 360 degree views of the valley, awesome rocks (geology!), and is the only place in the world where you can go on an unsupervised hike and see the endangered Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, Uma inornata, and see the sand that ties them all together.
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Back at the beginning of the Wild Coachella Challenge, we talked about the value of recording a single wild thing in the Coachella Valley during the month of March. In the end, 285 of you did just just that (and more!), making a deeper connection with nature and contributing to our understanding of the unique biodiversity of the desert. And, although it wasn't something I planned for at the start, I hope the Challenge gave you an escape from the events that have transformed our community over the past several weeks.
Read MoreThe early numbers are in for the The Wild Coachella Challenge: together, you made more than 8,000 observations of plants, animals, and fungi in the Coachella Valley! Even more impressive: you observed 838 different species, actually an increase from 2019 (813 species), one of the best years for wildflowers in living memory. Amazing!
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The smell of the desert after it rains is one of my most favorite smells in nature. Breathing in a deep breath always makes me feel like I’m really taking in actual fresh air. This beautiful smell comes from the bountiful Larrea tridentata, more commonly known as creosote bush.
Read MoreWe've entered the final week of the challenge, and there's a tight race for the top spot on the observations chart, with iNat users @rbelshee and @eogren with near 600 observations each. The competition part of the challenge is still wide open, though - there's still plenty of time to make observations, and remember that while you have to make the observation during the month of March, you'll have until Monday, April 6th to add them to iNat.
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Our vision to share and protect the natural gifts that surround us in the Coachella Valley is about saving unique landscapes and amazing plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth, but it’s also about the health of our community. We recognize not only the intrinsic value of the desert, but the physical, mental, and emotional benefits for ourselves and our friends and families when we are truly connected to the land.
Read MoreWhat a week it's been in the desert (for better or worse…)! The number of species observed in the Wild Coachella Challenge project has more than doubled to well over 500, and the total number of observations has soared to more than 3,500! Here are a couple of highlights:
Read MoreThank you for taking the Wild Coachella Challenge! It's been less than a week, and it's so exciting to see the amazing diversity of wildlife people are finding in the wilds of the Coachella Valley. We are already creeping up on 1,000 observations and have more than 250 species observed on the challenge iNaturalist project!
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I was looking for a great family challenge for my children (four, eight, and nine years old), and we decided on the Cove to Lake Trail in La Quinta. Right from the start of the trail, the mottled pattern of the rocks on the sides of the mountains caught our eyes. These are the dark colorings of deep time, known as “desert varnish”.
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The incredible wildflower season here in the desert continues to surprise us. The cool weather is prolonging the life of a lot of annual blooms, and rain and snow continue to fall in the Coachella Valley and surrounding mountains. How long will the wildflowers last? Will the Valentine's Day deluge produce another round of blooms late in the season? It's too soon to tell, but in the meantime many of our usual wildflower hotspots - Indian Canyons, Whitewater Preserve, Box Canyon Road - are inaccessible due to flooded roads.
Fortunately, our desert is home to a variety of landscapes and diversity of life (including wildflowers!) that are both varied and unique - many species living here in the Coachella Valley are found nowhere else on Earth. Some of these unique blooms are open right now - here's where to find them:
Part of the joy of watching desert wildflowers is seeing them develop over time, from tiny green seedlings to vibrant bouquets of purple, yellow, white, and red. Every day, new flowers are blooming at hotspots across the Coachella Valley, but there is also a special satisfaction in returning the same trail or patch and discovering new varieties of shapes and colors day after day.
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It's looking like another Superbloom in the desert, as dry desert soils transform into carpets of sunflowers, poppies, and primrose. We're tracking when and where the blooms are best throughout the season, and we'll be bringing you updates on the flowers - starting today!
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