In collaboration with Friends of the Desert Mountains, our DCRI team led surveys for above-ground and below-ground carbon biomass estimates with students from Desert Mirage High School. Small groups of adults and youth took measurements of perennial shrubs mass and sampled the stems of each shrub. These data will contribute to a larger carbon study by the Sweet Lab. Riparian or desert dry washes are important for their biodiversity, role as wildlife habitat, and as carbon sinks. The students learned about the important roles these habitats for the areas biodiversity and climate mitigation.

Over the years, our team has been invited by COFEM and the Cactus to Cloud Institute to present for their cohorts of Nuestro Desierto, a California Naturalist program for young adults in the Eastern Coachella Valley. Yearly, Dr. Lynn Sweet gives a presentation on desert adaptations in native vegetation and CCB staff leads students through an interactive exercise as well as on field outings. Through this opportunity, participants in Nuestro Desierto engage with native plants and make connections between what they learned in the presentation while also sharing their personal & cultural associations to the local ecology. 

UCR Palm Desert's annual event, Wild Coachella Day, is an afternoon dedicated to highlighting the biodiversity of the Coachella Valley.

The DCRI team engaged visitors with questions on climate change through a map activity that highlighted concerns from the community. Attendants were asked to share some ways they thought the Coachella Valley is and might be affected by climate change. They could write or draw these on color-coded cards: light pink being “less concerned” to red being “most concerned.” They could then add these to a large-scale infrared map of the Coachella Valley in an area they associate their concern with.

We gathered a variety of responses about what people are concerned about, including wind, and wildflower displays, climate "doomism," health and the well-being of children. This allowed the DCRI team as well as other visitors to view and engage with one another’s thoughts and feelings about climate change impacts on the desert. We plan to incorporate this information into our research focus and dissemination of findings. 

In early April, the Desert Climate Resilience Intiative team collaborated with Friends of the Desert Mountains and the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition to provide Eastern Coachella Valley families with a bilingual outing that highlighted desert biodiversity. Our outing was gifted with a few stands of Mecca asters, ghost flowers, giant milkweed, and even a native root parasite known as Aphyllon cooperi. Families went home with art supplies, a native plant guide, and an abundance of new curiosities about their shared environment. 

Our DCRI team members were invited as co-facilitators to support an annual guided hike for Latinx families through partnerships with Friends of the Desert Mountains and the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition.  We have led youth and their caregivers on hikes through the Coachella Valley's beautiful natural landscapes, such as San Jacinto State Park, to enjoy cooler weather during the heat of the summer while also meeting the wildlife and vegetation found in our mountain communities. 

To celebrate Pride, our team partnered with Friends of the Desert Mountains & Desert Recreation District to lead a guided hike at the San Jacinto State Park for an intergenerational group of LGBTQ2S+ community members. The participants were offered two trails to ensure accessibility. At the end, the groups convened to share their experiences on the mountain.