A Final Vote for Paradise Valley on Nov. 5
On November 5, let’s pack the Riverside County Board of Supervisors’ chambers and ask them to vote NO on Paradise Valley. Let this be a celebration of desert habitats and good decisions.
California Desert Conservation
More than meets the eye
California’s deserts are home to the iconic Joshua tree, jaw-dropping superblooms, and important habitat like microphyll woodlands. Yet a handful of commercial interests want to position the desert as a barren wasteland, one we can afford to sacrifice to private industry.
Today, a number of factors threaten California’s desert lands, including:
- the Trump administration’s attack on public lands,
- utility scale solar and wind projects,
- climate change,
- illegal off-highway vehicle recreation,
- mining,
- and ongoing attempts to drain precious groundwater and divert it to Los Angeles.
A desert plan now under attack
Since 2016, the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) has been a success story in collaborative regional planning, an example of what can be accomplished when conservationists, scientists, government, and industry work together. Now, the Trump administration has asked the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reopen the plan, jeopardizing 6 million acres of vital conservation lands.
CNPS played an active role in the development of the DRECP and now has joined a coalition of organizations working to protect hard-won conservation gains established in the plan. And while we’re at it, we’re working to secure additional protections for microphyll woodlands and other important areas of concern. Explore our desert content below to learn more.
Support Our Work!
Help defend California’s fragile desert ecosystems with a gift to CNPS today.
California’s Microphyll Woodlands
Microphyll woodlands are an important focus of CNPS desert conservation. Learn why in this one-minute video. Please share!
Joshua Trees in Transition
Climate change puts Joshua trees at risk.
DRECP 101
Here’s what you need to know about the groundbreaking desert plan and what you can do to help keep it in tact.
OHV reform
Damage from illegal off-highway vehicle use is outpacing California’s ability to regulate it and repair fragile ecosystems, but a new CNPS-supported bill is helping.
Saving the superbloom
Places like Antelope Valley are scenes of epic wildflower displays. See how the CNPS Important Plant Area Initiative is working to protect them.
Latest news and stories
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Fighting to Keep Paradise Valley Unpaved
Just as we take a breather from the recent Centennial development decision, another leapfrog mega-development is threatening precious Southern California habitat – this time at the southern border of Joshua Tree National Park. -
Joshua Trees in Transition
Climate change is happening in real time in the Mojave, where occurrences of the iconic Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) are growing smaller and changing.
