Environment featured

It comes in a box with a picture of a fire extinguisher on the front. Below it the words: Guaranteed to stop wildfires. But when you open it up there’s a chainsaw inside. Tucked beside it is a piece a piece of paper saying “Now without citizen overview!”

The Sonoran Desert is no stranger to heat, but as climate change makes heatwaves more frequent, intense, and long-lasting, the resilience of this desert’s most beloved plant is being tested.

The work of restoration will continue, as the Tongva return native species to the land while reviving ceremonial and cultural practices. In the midst of ash and loss, a human relationship to land and water over 2,500 years old is resuming. It may be the LA basin’s most hopeful acre.

As Earth grows warmer, its ground is becoming drier and saltier, with profound consequences for the planet’s 8 billion inhabitants — nearly a third of whom already live in places where water is increasingly scarce and the ability to raise crops and livestock is increasingly difficult.

In the intricate tapestry of backyard ecosystems, an often underestimated yet crucial factor is water retention. From arid deserts to lush rainforests, understanding and enhancing water retention can profoundly influence ecosystem restoration efforts, and it need not be complex.

To lay a hedge, you cut each tree or shrub part way through its stem, then bend it over and lay it down horizontally to make a barrier from which strong new growth extends upwards. But of course it’s not as simple as that. Hedge-laying is hard, time-consuming, skilled work.