In pursuit of its mission, MDLT runs a number of programs and activities aimed at maintaining and restoring property within the Mojave Desert in collaboration with other conservation organizations, local governments, and a network of individual volunteers. As a result of these efforts, MDLT has secured tens of thousands of acres of land and successfully removed more than 50 tons of debris from the Mojave Desert landscape.
A major component of MDLT’s work is the Land Stewardship Program, which organizes groups of volunteers into effective land stewards who monitor and restore land purchased by MDLT. Program volunteers hold monthly events, during which they take part in a variety of activities, including building water bars, applying mulch to promote re-vegetation, defining hiking trails, and discouraging illicit road use.
Volunteers also receive training in land monitoring skills so that they are better able to locate properties using GPS and topographical maps, document threats to the land, such as off-road vehicles and unlawful dumping, and monitor wildlife for habitat modeling. Since the program’s founding, volunteers have guarded more than 12,000 acres of land and have successfully restored more than 4,300 of those acres.