Let's restore the Colorado River Delta

For the last months, we received visits to the Miguel Aleman Restoration Site by the Benemérita Escuela Secundaria No. 29 Toribio Mora Adame; it is a secondary school located in Ejido Hermosillo in the Mexicali Valley. The main objective was to introduce the students to one of the restored sites on the Colorado River to connect with nature; they would learn about the native plants and wildlife of the region.

One of the groups took a tour of the nurseries and propagated native plants with Maribel V. and Olguita S., Pronatura Noroeste's nursery staff.

The students helped prepare the soil with peat moss and mineral perlite and mixed it with water for a moist consistency. Then, they filled nursery bags, sowed the seed in the prepared soil, and finally stored the production inside the nursery. In two weeks, with the care of our team, we will be able to see the germination of the flowers of the dew (Encelia farinosa), commonly known in Baja California as incense, is also known as the White branch in the south of Sonora. Encelia farinosa is a species that reaches a one-meter height, and very bright, aromatic yellow flowers characterize it.

Another group was finishing a second hotel for insects. The hotel is located in an area of the garden, integrating its interior wood trunks from the pruning of forest sanitation and sawdust; the students toured the nursery and the pollinator's garden. The students enjoyed these two practices to support the pollinators.

We made the walk to continue identifying the plants since it is currently the flowering season of the Desert verbena (Abronia villosa); this annual flower emerges after the winter rains and usually blooms from February to May. The students had the opportunity to walk among the poplars and willows and enjoy some free time to continue exploring the forest; we identified some birds, such as aura vultures, yellow-rumped warblers, and huilota pigeons. In the end, they had the opportunity to return to the nursery to adopt a native plant of the Sonoran Desert, especially the strawberry, a shrub that caused them great interest because of the red fruits after the pollination process.