Observe, learn, and help

(Note: Please think of the links below as a bystander’s rough map of online information and how to get there. Opinions expressed on this website are my own and may at times be at direct odds with opinions expressed on some of the websites below. Contents may have settled or inflated during shipping.)

Learn to identify plants, animals, biological soil crusts, and other organisms

• + For help identifying and learning about organisms of whatever flavor, see iNaturalist (a citizen science site for beginning to extremely advanced naturalists and biologists the world over).
• + See, listen to, and learn about Earth’s avians at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
• + Learn about reptiles and amphibians from the Amphibian Foundation.
• + Learn about insects and other arthropods of the United States and Canada and/or post your own photos for help with identification at BugGuide.
• + Search for photos and information about plants and/or plant families native to California at Calflora.
• + Learn about and identify reptiles and amphibians of California and beyond at California herps.
• + Learn about lichens, mosses, and other organisms that comprise the skin of western drylands at Citizens of the Crust and Field Guide to Biological Soil Crusts of Western U.S. Drylands (US Geological Survey website; click on PDF icon to download the guide).
• + Learn about plants native to Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, or Wyoming. (Note: Start here if you’re looking for ways to improve your neighborhood beginning with your own home. Native plants improve air and water quality by, among other things, storing carbon, reducing erosion, holding down soil, and shading stream banks. They not only provide essential habitat for bees and other pollinators (see: the food you eat), they also provide food for larger animals. They use less water, are better adapted to local conditions, and engender less air pollution and mowing (read: none) than a lawn. And they make the difference between a landscape made of moondust versus a decent place to live.)
• + Investigate master naturalist programs in Arizona, California, Colorado (Fort Collins), Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico (Northern New Mexico), Oregon, Utah, or Washington (Bellevue).

Learn about local issues

One of the simplest ways to learn about what’s going on in your own neighborhood is to lend your neighbors a little attention. One way to do this is to go outside and look, listen, and/or sniff. Another vital way to attend is to find out what your local and regional tribal, government, and non-profit agencies and groups care about most. Visit their websites. Find out what issues they work on. More than likely, you’ll learn about something that deeply affects you and your neighbors.

Visit the websites of local agencies and tribal environmental offices

• + Owens Valley Indian Water Commission
• + Big Pine Paiute Tribe Environmental Department
• + Fort Independence Indian Reservation
• + Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Environmental Department
• + Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District
• + California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Inland Deserts Region
• + Inyo County Water Department
• + California Department of Water Resources
• + Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Visit the websites of local, regional, and other non-profit environmental organizations

• + Desert Fishes Council
• + Mono Lake Committee
• + Owens Valley Committee
• + Bristlecone Chapter of the California Native Plant Society
• + Eastern Sierra Audubon Society
• + Amargosa Conservancy
• + Wildcare Eastern Sierra
• + Friends of the Amargosa Basin
• + Eastern Sierra Institute for Collaborative Education
• + Friends of the Inyo
• + Eastern Sierra Land Trust
• + Inyo350
• + Basin and Range Watch
• + Great Basin Water Network
• + Mojave Desert Land Trust
• + Transition Habitat Conservancy

Investigate other opportunities to learn about or volunteer on behalf of denizens of desert and alpine neighborhoods

• + Read about efforts to restore the Amargosa vole.
• + See rattlesnakes share parental care.
• + Observe the daily lives of rattlesnake families.
• + Watch kangaroo rats foil desert sidewinders.
• + Read about the Grinnell resurvey project.
• + Browse archived field notes at the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
• + Sign up for a workshop with the Jepson Herbarium.
• + Browse photos of your favorite California life forms at CalPhotos.
• + Learn how to keep a nature journal from John Muir Laws.
• + Contribute your observations to Project Budburst.
• + Volunteer for a citizen science project at Zooniverse or Citizen Science.gov.