As in past years, California Institute of Environmental Design & Management (CIEDM) as a grassroots entity has engaged a project with several actions at local level to support and take part in the global celebrations of the International Mountain Day (IMD) 2025 on December 11. As part of CIEDM activities in citizen participation, this project is taken place during the period December 1-12 at the Arcadia Ecohome, located at the foothill of San Gabriel Mountains, in Los Angeles County, California. The project scope encompasses four key actions and is as following:
- We registered a local IMD 2025 event with UN FAO to demonstrate our community-based involvement to the global awareness campaign of IDM for sustainable mountain development.
- As an Official Skywarn Spotter registered with National Weather Service. I conducted a weeklong mountain skyline watch of the SG Mountains as part of our engagement with two SciStarter associated citizen science projects -- Mountain Rain or Snow and SKTWARN. Based at the Ecohome, the projects’ observation station with clearly visible views of the Mountains, we kicked off the watch on December 6, the Skywarn Recognition Day (SRD), scheduled at three times a day, and concluded on December 11. Our observational messages were submitted to the projects, and fortunately, no rainstorm, windstorm and firestorm were observed during the period at the SG Mountains.
- As a grassroots advocate we took on a social media campaign for raising public awareness of IMD and the needs for sustainable development of mountain ecosystems, especially those in arid ecoregions. The campaign is focused on online search of IMD relevant news & articles about IMD, Mountain Partnership, and their messages, reviewing and spreading them, and sharing our SME (subject matter expert) comments to the news with relevant hashtags. Examples include UN Water’s and UIAA postings on December 2 and 5, respectively.
- Being a member of UNCCD Communities of Practices, I specifically took actions on December 11 with four US-based non-profits for protecting the ecological, cultural & economic resources of desert mountains and high deserts in mountain ranges located in the arid Southwest region of the US. The actions are as follows:
- Chaco Canyon is a high desert in a mountainous region in New Mexico, situated on the Colorado Plateau and surrounded by ranges like the Chuska, San Juan, and San Pedro Mountains. It is one of the world’s most important living cultural landscapes with sacred sites that hold historical significance, featured as a National Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and an International Dark Sky Park. The Trump administration just wants to open the canyon up to dirty oil and gas drilling. I joined Natural Resources Defense Council in sending a message titled “Keep protections around Chaco Culture National Historical Park” to Interior Secretary Burgum for protecting the unique ecological and cultural landscapes of the high desert.
- San Gabriel Mountains located in Los Angeles, clearly visible from the Ecohome, is a desert mountain range just north of the City of Arcadia, a foothill community of the Mountains. I signed up the San Gabriel Mountains Forever’s petition of “Protecting San Gabriel Mountains” to my Congress members calling adequate funding and resources, instead of further budget cut, for proper and sustainable management of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Angeles National Forest in the Mountains in order to protect our watersheds, the rich biodiversity in our forest while providing a safe environment for everyone in this desert mountain.
- Mojave Desert features several mountain ranges such as the San Bernardino & San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California. I signed up the Mojave Desert Land Trust’s petition of “Hands off the Endangered Species Act” to the Trump Administration for safeguarding instead of weakening the Endangered Species Act so as to protect critical habitats, deliver helps to at-risk species, and mitigate climate impacts on the Desert.
- Chuckwalla National Monument, located in mountainous desert terrain of the Colorado Desert in Southern California, is formed to protect the natural beauty, historic significance and desert habitats of several mountain ranges and canyons within its boundaries, including the Chuckwalla Mountains, Mecca Hills, and Orocopia Mountains, known for their geological uniqueness, from development. I signed up the Protect Chuckwalla National Monument’s petition of “I stand with Chuckwalla National Monument” to the US Department of Interior for protecting, instead of stripping protections, the Monument from proposed changes.