by Rick LoBello
From the Rio Grande to the highest mountain peaks, the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition is the only organization anywhere focused on education and conservation of the entire Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion in the Southwest United States and northern Mexico.
We currently have board members in both countries and are working on increasing our education impact in a number of ways including helping to organize El Paso’s fourth Chihuahuan Desert Conference in November of 2026.
We are an all volunteer organization and are meeting monthly on Zoom and in person. Last week we organized a clean-up at the West Side Open Reserve with the help of the City Parks Department. There is so much more that we can do with the help of people here in El Paso and beyond.
If you have always wanted to get involved with an organization like ours, please let us know. We need volunteers to serve on our board and to help as volunteers in various ways including with flora and fauna education, membership recruitment, fundraising and more. For example, this month I am encouraging members to sign up to help with our new campaign to help establish the long proposed giant US Mexico protected area in the Big Bend of Texas and to help people learn more about desert plants and wildlife. Do you like to read about and share your knowledge with others on the desert? Helping CDEC with its educational goals is a great way to be involved.
Did you know this website can be translated into Spanish?
To help more people connect with CDEC and to learn more about our desert we have Google Translator. At the top of our home page and throughout our site when you see the US flag simply click it to the Spanish flag to have most of the site translated into Spanish. Be sure to share this feature with your contacts in Mexico.
