World Environment Day: Don't Desert Our Drylands

For World Environment Day 2006, the United Nations is focusing on deserts and desertification. Natural deserts are not arid wastelands: The United States' Southwest deserts account for nearly 10 percent of all plant species found in the country. However, 90 percent of all river habitats in the deserts of the Southwest have been wiped out by overgrazing, mining, sprawl and water developments, according to the Sierra Club. Whether you live in the Mojave or Minnesota, here are steps you can take to help preserve wildlife in our drylands.

What You Can Do

*If driving off-road, keep on officially marked paths. "Off-road vehicles can create trespass roads that harm fragile desert soil," says Sandy Bahr, conservation outreach director for the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter. Stay out of the desert washes, "the worst places to drive, [and] refrain from hiking down the middle of washes, as it can disturb wildlife," Bahr says.

*Donate to endangered desert species at www.sierraclub.org, 415-977-5500.

*Don't buy archaeological artifacts, rocks and sand, animals or wild plants, such as cacti, that come from the desert, except from Desert Botanical Gardens (www.dbg.org) or from Park Service educational units. Do buy artwork, seeds and foods from Native American merchants to support their communities and native species. Native Seeds/SEARCH helps preserve ancient, heirloom seed lines (www.nativeseeds.org).

For more on World Enviroment Day, please visit www.unep.org.