4/3/2024 Group works to address climate change in the Inland Empire

Inland Southern California Climate Collaborative (ISC3), a regional collaboration serving San Bernardino, Riverside, and Imperial Counties, aims to support local environmental organizations and leaders.

3/2/2024 – A simple home garden can do wonders for butterflies that need our help

Last year, eastern monarchs were found in 2.2 hectares and this year they inhabited only 0.9 hectares. This report followed another on western monarchs in January that showed a slight decline in a population that still sits at only 5% of population numbers recorded in the 1980s. I found this disheartening even though I know it was a difficult weather year for the monarchs on the West Coast.

2/3/2024 Discovery of a hoary bat in Banning leads to understanding of its importance

In the spring 2023, I was preparing to go on a wildflower hike with Jack Easton, the Rivers & Lands Conservancy’s retired executive director, when our plans were disrupted. My neighbor marched across the street with something pinched between his fingers and thrust it at me. I took it without thinking. I found myself holding a hissing bat and left with curt instructions to fix it.

1/6/2024 The Benefits of Overwintering Habitat

During the cold months of winter, I love to start my morning with a hot cup of coffee and a long look at my yard, taking in the activity and features that are unique to the season. The cedar waxwings scurry around the branches of the toyon tree. The desert cottontails hop through the deerweed and feast on the weedy microgreens popping up after the rain. Even the fallen leaves have insects nesting underneath. Though small, my backyard is home to many.

12/2/23 Moreno Valley Teacher Connects Students with Nature

Kyle Gerhard, an 8th grade science teacher at Palm Middle School in Moreno Valley brings his passion for nature and hiking into his classroom with both curriculum and outdoor experiences. He starts his regular science course with a unit on human impacts on the environment and quickly immerses his students in hands-on experiences.

11/2/203 Groups join together to protect Inland Empire from fire danger

Fires were once a component of healthy ecosystems in California, burning low-growing underbrush and reducing competition for nutrients. Drought, pests and persistent heat have changed this, creating extraordinary wildfire seasons across many western states — including California. Eight of the 10 largest fires in California history have occurred since 2017.

10/4/23 Mural at Riverside’s Box Springs Mountain Reserve showcases nearby nature

Art inspired by nature has a long history of creating a connection to the land and its conservation in the United States. In the late 1800s, the work of Thomas Moran, an American painter and illustrator, was instrumental in the establishment of Yellowstone National Park.

Two volunteers and RLC staff member Amy Tims collect trash on the Santa Ana River Trail

9/2/2023 Volunteering in nature can fight loneliness, isolation

Creating and participating in volunteer opportunities addresses one of the greatest health challenges of our time. At Rivers & Lands Conservancy, we felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in ways we could not have imagined. So much of our work to beautify and restore our natural, wild and open spaces depends on volunteers. So many of the relationships we treasure are built on the land with our volunteer community. Yet, for the span of nearly two years, these efforts were halted until it was safe to get together again.

8/5/2023 Oaks are a keystone species in California, being near them is a good way to lose track of time

For me, an oak woodland is a place to lose track of time and to feel a deep sense of connection with systems and cycles much larger and much longer-lived than myself. Individual oak trees can live for hundreds of years. In the words of a local ecologist, they have 200 years to live, 200 years to die. An entire oak woodland and its inhabitants occupy their place on the landscape for thousands of years, generation after generation after generation.

RECENT NEWS

4/3/2024 Group works to address climate change in the Inland Empire

3/2/2024 – A simple home garden can do wonders for butterflies that need our help

2/3/2024 Discovery of a hoary bat in Banning leads to understanding of its importance

1/6/2024 The Benefits of Overwintering Habitat

12/2/23 Moreno Valley Teacher Connects Students with Nature

11/2/203 Groups join together to protect Inland Empire from fire danger

10/4/23 Mural at Riverside’s Box Springs Mountain Reserve showcases nearby nature

9/2/2023 Volunteering in nature can fight loneliness, isolation

8/5/2023 Oaks are a keystone species in California, being near them is a good way to lose track of time

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