Celebrate Earth Day with an engaging look at one of the Coachella Valley’s most overlooked natural treasures: its ancient sand dunes. Formed over thousands of years by wind and rivers carrying sand from distant mountains, these shifting landscapes support remarkably adapted plants and animals. From sand‑swimming reptiles to dune‑anchoring plants, whose survival depends on this fragile habitat.

Join Cameron Barrows, PhD, Emeritus, Conservation Ecologist at UC Riverside, will guide us through the history, formation, and remarkable wildlife of our remaining dune ecosystems, and share what is being done to preserve these last living remnants of sand in the Coachella Valley.

Also hear from Mikah Curtis, RVT, Director of the new Desert Wildlife Center in Indio, who will share real-life wildlife rescue and rehabilitation stories. Learn what to do if you encounter an injured animal and discover simple ways to coexist with and protect the desert wildlife that surrounds us.

This informative and inspiring program offers a deeper connection to our desert environment and the communities—human and animal—that depend on it.