Palm Springs: Sustainable & Wild

Season 2

- DECEMBER -

Date: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2024
Time: 8AM, 9AM, 10AM, or 11AM (Selected Time by RSVP Only)
Cost: FREE
Address: Prescott Preserve, 1801 E Sunny Dunes Rd, Palm Springs, CA 92264
Parking: Available along Farrell Dr

RSVP required as we are going out in small groups of 12. Space is limited. Please contact David Paisley at DavidP@OswitLandTrust.org to reserve your space at 8AM, 9AM, 10AM, or 11AM.

Join us for a short 60-minute Prescott Preserve Loop hike with OLT staff. Learn more about Prescott Preserve and the organization’s vision for the property. This is a flat, easy stroll on the western side of the preserve between Farrell and Sunrise.

Date: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2024
Time: 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Cost: FREE
Address: Oswit Canyon Trailhead
GPS Coordinates: 33.778370, -116.545830
Parking: Available

More info and RSVP to David at DavidP@OswitLandTrust.org

Join OLT staff and volunteers for a community work day removing invasive fountain grass in Oswit Canyon. Many homeowners and businesses in the Coachella Valley have foundation grass in their landscaping, either intentionally or unintentionally, as windblown seeds root. However, once one plant matures, new fountain grass will slowly take over, choking out native plants that provide food for local wildlife. Your help removing it from Oswit Canyon is appreciated. Please note that this task does require some strenuous shoveling and walking on unsteady surfaces.

-JANUARY -

Join OLT Volunteer Kurt Kosek for bird watching walks at Prescott Preserve on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month.

Birders of all ages and experience levels welcome. Walks are under 1.5 miles on dirt trails. The group meets at the old golf cart crosswalk on Farrell, just north of Mesquite. Plenty of parking on Farrell.

Connect with other Prescott Preserve’s birdies via Prescott Preserve Facebook Group.

Space is limited, please RSVP to DavidP@OswitLandTrust.org

Desert Wildlife Center and Oswit Land Trust are partnering to bring Kian and Joel Schulman of Poison Free Malibu to Palm Springs to help and guide us in our quest to be a poison-free community. Kian and Joel have worked at the city, county, and state levels to promote effective regulations and legislation to restrict pesticides that endanger families, pets, and wildlife.

They will describe what these efforts have been in Malibu, the Santa Monica Mountains environs, Los Angeles County and for California legislation. Homeowner associations, school districts, and college campuses are fertile grounds for educational efforts, where poisons are removed, and in their place, the more effective and less expensive strategies of repel, exclude, and deter methods are deployed. Their talk will explain how pesticides, including herbicides and insecticides, disrupt vital ecosystem functions by degrading habitats, disturbing food webs, and killing soil organisms.

About Poison Free Malibu:

Poison Free Malibu is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to educate the citizenry, businesses, and government about the need to stop using dangerous poisons that are affecting wildlife, pets, and people. The situation is not well known or understood by the public. The key is education and ultimately new policies and regulations. Poison Free Malibu received the Volunteer of the Month Award from State Senator Fran Pavley, the Environmental Excellence Award from the city of Calabasas, the Dolphin Award from the Malibu Times, the Malibu Chamber of Commerce Women’s Leadership Safety Award, and the Kuredjian Citizenship Award from the city of Malibu.

Director Kian Schulman is a Registered Nurse with a Masters in Nursing Administration. Joel Schulman is a physicist in the aerospace industry. Kian and Joel began their activism in Malibu, with the city passing a Resolution opposing anticoagulant rodent poison use in July 2013. They subsequently have worked with 11 other southern California cities for similar Resolutions. The 2013 Malibu Resolution proclaimed Malibu’s commitment to not use anticoagulant rat poison on city property. This was expanded to include all pesticides and became official city policy in the form of the “Earth Friendly Management Policy” in June 2019. Kian and Joel helped Ojai pass a similar Policy in December of 2024.

Space is limited, please RSVP to DavidP@OswitLandTrust.org

Farmland is increasingly being threatened by residential and business development. The talk will focus on the importance of agricultural conservation and the role of farmland in Southern California, which provides more than two-thirds of winter produce for North America. Farmland also helps preserve local communities, economies, and jobs, strengthen food security, and enhance wildlife habitat and corridors. The talk will also focus on the role of agricultural conservation easements, which provide farm owners with a substantial financial incentive to maintain their land as agricultural.

Jeff Faxon is the Director of Oswit Land Trust’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Division. Jeff recently joined Oswit Land Trust after having spent 20 years working for technology companies and before that as an Air Force officer.

THANK YOU!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the inaugural season of Palm Springs: Sustainable & Wild. The program’s goal was to produce a series of lectures, events, guided hikes, films, and workshops to enhance our community’s understanding of our native environment.

Thank you to the City of Palm Springs for funding the season through their annual Event Sponsorship program.

We are happy to report that Oswit Land Trust produced 32 events between October and April, attended by 1,800 community members.

Special thanks to our partners:

Now we start planning for year two.

Look for new events and calendar updates to start in October 2024.

If you or your company has an interest in environmental education, please consider sponsoring the 2024/25 season. Contact David Paisley at DavidP@OswitLandTrust.org for more information.

Events

1800

Community members