Description
Discover the beautiful and critical desert oasis habitat at Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve, owned and managed by the Center for Natural Lands Managment. CNLM will lead a special tour featuring the restoration and management practices on the preserve, to be followed by an afternoon appreciating the unique flora along extensive trails. Learn about the management of refugia for the critically endangered desert pupfish, find inspiration in the preserve’s story of collaboration with local tribes and wildlife agencies, and explore the rich ecology of this striking ecosystem.
This full day field trip will introduce participants to the unique vegetation and ecological communities of the California Fan Palm (Washingtonia filifera) oases, tucked along the San Andreas fault in the Colorado Sonoran Desert of Riverside County in Southern California. Join CNLM staff for a special introduction to the current restoration and management practices on the preserve, including refugia restoration and habitat for the critically endangered desert pupfish (Cyprinodon macularius), co-management with wildlife agencies and collaborations with local tribes, including recent repatriation and renaming success stories. Following this unique tour and discussion, participants will explore the trails and distinctive desert riparian flora protected within the larger California Fan Palm Oasis in an afternoon of botanizing with UC Riverside Center for Conservation Biology’s local vegetation ecologists Lynn Sweet and Melanie Davis, as well as UCR Emeritus Ecologist and local expert Cameron Barrows.
The Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve protects 880 acres of unique desert habitat including freshwater wetlands, dunes, palm woodland oases, desert wash, desert scrub, and desert riparian areas. The preserve, established in 1986, is part of the wider Coachella Valey Preserve System, a contiguous conservation area designed to protect and manage the habitats of endemic species to the Coachella Valley, including the federally threatened Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard (Uma inorata) and the federally endangered Coachella Valley milk-vetch (Astragalus lentiginosus var. coachellae). CNLM managed the Preserve for many years under contract with The Nature Conservancy and became the owner in 2013.
Facilities and Physical Requirements
There is a bathroom at the main preserve parking lot. Participants should be prepared to walk 2-3 miles at a leisurely pace on uneven ground.
👥 Trip Leaders
Kim Klementowski (Center for Natural Lands Management)
Kim Klementowski is the Regional Preserve Manager for Riverside County. Her responsibilities include preparing long-term and annual management plans, conducting day-to-day management of the preserves, monitoring sensitive plant and animal populations, providing weed control, and conducting native habitat enhancement. She has a Masters in Geography from California State University, Chico.
Lucas Haralson (Center for Natural Lands Management)
Lucas Haralson is responsible for managing CNLM’s portfolio of preserves in the Coachella Valley including the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve. His background includes a decade of biological monitoring across a variety of taxa. Lucas earned his Bachelor's Degree from Colby College, and Master’s Degree from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Dr. Lynn Sweet (UC Riverside)
Dr. Lynn Sweet is a Research Ecologist at the University of California, Riverside’s (UCR) Center for Conservation Biology. She has a B.S. in Biology from Dickinson College and a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from UCR. Her post-doctoral research was on tree seedling establishment in central California, and her projects focus on plant ecology, as applied to conservation in desert communities in southern California. Specifically, her research focuses on the distribution of desert vegetation as well as long-term changes in communities of plants due to drought and climate change, including monitoring and research within the Coachella Valley and Joshua Tree National Park.
Within UC Riverside's Center for Conservation Biology department, the Sweet lab is based in Palm Desert, CA. The lab is dedicated to the conservation and restoration of ecosystems, focused largely on the diverse desert ecosystems of the Coachella Valley. Across the department and affiliate faculty and staff, they are ecologists, biologists, social scientists, and biogeographers working to solve earth's most pressing challenges where biodiversity is at risk.
Melanie Davis (UC Riverside)
Melanie Davis is a lead field botanist at UC Riverside's Center for Conservation Biology in Dr. Sweet's lab in Palm Desert. She has been working in the California deserts since 2017; her field research brings her to remote corners of the Colorado, Mojave, and Sonoran deserts to study the effects of climate change and human disturbance on desert ecosystems, as well as the distribution of rare native plants.
Dr. Cameron Barrows (UC Riverside)
Working for The Nature Conservancy, Dr. Cameron Barrows managed the Thousand Palms Preserve from its inception in 1985 through 2005, forging partnerships with surrounding State and Federal landowners to create the Preserve as it exists today. Management has included controlling invasive species, developing monitoring programs that both identified threats and measured our success at sustaining the special native plants and animals that found their homes within the Preserve, and fostering public access to those areas that could sustain thousands of visitors annually.
