Meet our Guests: Debbie Van Dooremolen

Debbie Van Dooremolen

Environmental Biologist, Las Vegas Wash Coordination Committee

Henderson, NV

November 19th, 2025

Our group is sitting on a dirt path overlooking the Las Vegas Wash and talking to Debbie Van Dooremolen, a Senior Biologist at the Las Vegas Wash Coordination Committee (LVWCC) and Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). While simultaneously pointing out the many birds calling the wash home, Debbie talks to us about the work the LVWCC (a committee represented by many federal, state, and local agencies) has done in order to protect the river’s human and non-human interests. Before the city existed, the Las Vegas Wash was dry for the majority of the year, however, as Las Vegas grew and started using the dry channel for floodwaters and treated wastewater, the river grew into a permanent stream delivering over 200 million gallons a day into nearby Lake Mead. Las Vegas even struck a deal with the Bureau of Reclamation, the controllers of Lake Mead and by extension the city’s water supply—for every gallon returned to the lake via the Las Vegas Wash, the city could apportion an extra gallon from that lake.

The main problem facing the wash at the turn of the century was erosion as perennial flows initiated channel incision. Debbie described how the large flows would heavily erode the sides and base of the channel, affecting critical floodplain habitat, damaging city infrastructure, and negatively impacting water quality in Lake Mead. As a result, LVWCC began building and maintaining sediment-trapping weirs to aid the river’s water quality and supported the creation of valuable habitat along the river’s bank. Debbie emphasizes that the goal of this habitat creation is not restoration per se, rather she talked about the need to “deal with the conditions that we have now, improve them where we can, so we can get in as much habitat as we can.” Debbie and LVWCC have seen some significant successes, massively reducing sedimentation in the river and restoring habitat for countless animals, including three endangered birds.

by Everett Calhoun

Meet our Guests: Dylan Mohamed and Ross Wilson

View fullsize

View fullsize

Dylan Mohamed and Ross Wilson

Water Conservation Analysts, Water Department, Imperial Irrigation District

Imperial, California

November 14th, 2025

A few westies gather in front of the glass window in excitement, waiting patiently for something to happen in the control room. Numbers, graphs, and more fill the computer screens as questions bubble up in our minds. We are viewing the control room at the operating headquarters of the Imperial Irrigation District (IID). The IID provides water to farmers and towns in the Imperial Valley, California. The Imperial Valley is where much of the leafy greens that we eat in the winter are grown, but they also grow much of the alfalfa that is used for the cattle industry. In the room right next door, we had the pleasure of meeting with water conservation analysts Dylan Mohamed and Ross Wilson from the IID.

Both Ross and Dylan grew up in the valley. Ross was especially acquainted with farming, as his family farm grows many crops, including alfalfa and carrots. Ross and Dylan are both Water Conservation Analysts for the IID's Water Department, although their paths to the IID and their respective jobs are quite different.

Dylan went to California Polytechnic State University and studied Agricultural Business. He has now worked for the IID for 9 years. He has worked in various positions over the years for the IID. He began as an employee in the field, checking canal pumps for the seepage recovery program. For the past 5 years, he has been working as a Water Conservation Analyst for the Water Department. Specifically, he has taken the lead in the Deficit Irrigation Program.

Ross attended Carthage College in Wisconsin, studying Geographic Information Systems before spending a few years working for an environmental consulting firm. He then began working for IID as an Environmental Specialist in their Environmental Management Unit. He worked in the Environmental Management Unit for three years. He helped oversee projects such as the Managed Marsh Project, which is aiming to create native wetland habitat. A few months back, he transferred to the Water Department, where he is a Water Conservation Analyst learning from Dylan. Additionally, Ross still helps manage his family’s farm.

During our time with Ross and Dylan, we learned about the water distribution in the valley and their more recent conservation programs. The IID has been providing water to farmers in the valley for over 100 years, even before the Colorado River Compact was signed. One of the conservation programs that the IID has been working on is the Deficit Irrigation Program, which pays voluntary farmers to hold off on watering their alfalfa for a portion of the summer. The goal of this program was to conserve water for Lake Mead. Ultimately, it raised Lake Mead by roughly 1.5ft. Other projects include recovering canal seepage and reusing it; ultimately saving large amounts of water in the valley. Meeting with Ross and Dylan expanded our knowledge of the lower Colorado River basin and how many people rely on the water and crops it sustains. We thank them both dearly for their time and wealth of knowledge.

by Ashley Hagen

Meet our Guests: David Lo

David Lo

Doctor and Professor of Biomedical Studies at UCR

Palm Desert, California

November 13th, 2025

After smelling the salt and feeling the dust from the Salton Sea from our campsite, we finally got to learn what we were breathing in from Dr. David Lo, a professor of biomedical studies at the University of California, Riverside. Westies met with him at UCR’s Palm Desert Campus to learn about the Salton Sea’s history and his present exploration of its impact on public health in the neighboring communities of the Salton Sea.

In 1905, the dry Salton Trough was flooded with Colorado River water when faulty engineering of an irrigation canal during a flood diverted the entire river into the dry, closed valley. It took two years to return the Colorado to its original channel, and as a result became a freshwater oasis in the Southern California desert. This new lake brought in vacationers, development, and economic growth. It also served as a dump for agricultural runoff as that industry grew as well, with the creation of vast irrigation abilities through the American and Coachella canals. In the 1970s, however, destructive storms occurred, causing damage to much of the real estate around the lake, and the sea and beachfront towns have only declined since. Now, the water's salt concentration is twice that of the ocean’s and is filled with elements such as selenium, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and arsenic, toxic to breathe and swim in.

Over half a million people live near the Salton Sea and are exposed to the air every day. The high rates of asthma and other health issues, however, were never connected to the constant exposure. David and his team noticed this issue and began collecting dust and sea-spray samples, along with anecdotal data, to see if there was a relationship. Through this research, he found LPS, a molecule in the cell wall of bacteria that live in the Sea, induces immediate lung inflammation, tricking the body into thinking it is constantly under attack. As more of the Salton Sea floor becomes exposed, more dust and LPS cause human harm. David is hopeful, approaching this human and environmental health issue to find ways to adapt while creating long-term solutions; a powerful mindset as we all navigate the ongoing climate crisis.

by Rio Burk

Meet Our Guests: Hoori Ajami

Hoori Ajami

Professor of Groundwater Hydrology at the UCR

Palm Desert, California

November 13th, 2025

Sitting in a half circle of tables arranged in a U-shape, we met with Professor Hoori Ajami in a classroom on the Palm Desert campus of the University of California Riverside. As a professor in the Environmental Sciences department, her research primarily centers around catchment hydrology and spatial analyses. Considering that about half of the goods produced globally are produced through irrigated agriculture, Professor Ajami is particularly interested in agroecosystems, like the Imperial Valley and Coachella Valley surrounding the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea exists because of human action and, due to its nature as a closed basin, is gradually becoming saltier every year, especially as flows into the lake are decreasing. Most recently, Ajami’s research has been dedicated to determining why the Salton Sea has declined by almost 30% in area in only the past 30 years. With 90% of the input to the sea coming from agricultural runoff and only 10% from precipitation and groundwater, their initial theory of climate change being a driving factor turned out to be less important than they thought. After extensive research, assessment, and hydrologic modeling, they determined the declining lake level is primarily due to a drop in surface level inflows.

Farming in the Imperial Valley requires a ton of water from the Colorado River. Overall, as farmers have increased their agricultural efficiency, flows from the valley to the Salton Sea have gone down and the sea has shrunk. In terms of agricultural runoff, farmers have become more efficient with their water usage meaning there is less water being overapplied to fields, resulting in less evapotranspiration, and less draining to the agricultural sump that is the Salton Sea. In a lot of ways, the Salton Sea and Imperial valley are a mess, but Professor Ajami tells us she is still optimistic for the future. The challenge of trying to solve and learn from these problems is what keeps her hopeful, and while there still may be no clear solution, we can at least try to manage the symptoms of the world we do have and work together to mitigate these massive issues.

by Allee Garver

Meet our Guests: Justin Garewal

Justin Garewal

Alfalfa Farmer/Custom Harvester

Imperial, CA

November 12th, 2025

 Alfalfa, and those who farm it have been a relatively consistent topic over the course of the Westies’ travels due to its large consumption of water, but as of November 12th, we had not yet had the opportunity to interact with anybody in the business (the business of growing alfalfa of course). That was until we met with Justin Garwon. Justin co runs a "custom harvesting” operation with his brother, focusing on harvesting around six thousand acres of alfalfa fields for different customers. In addition to custom harvesting, Justin works his own thousand acres of alfalfa. Justin tells us that the business has been in his family for generations, since his great grandfather acquired the farm. He explains how a unique situation led to his great grandfather (an Indian immigrant) coming into the business despite the discriminatory laws that made it illegal for Asian people to own land at all. Specifically, the California Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibited Asian immigrants from owning agricultural land. This history of resistance in the world of agriculture is something that Justin takes pride in to this day. This land has been how Justin’s family has made a living in the central valley for generations, something that is only possible due to the abundance of cheap irrigated water from the Colorado river (via the Imperial Irrigation District. As climate change and drought have dwindled supplies of Colorado River Water, fingers are often pointed at alfalfa due the water intensive practices needed to grow the crop. Additionally, much of the alfalfa is destined to feed the cattle of America (a large emitter of the greenhouse gas methane). Our meeting with Justin brought to light many of the reasons alfalfa is farmed on a large scale as well as some of the motivations of individual farmers like Justin. He’s not in it for the love of alfalfa, but simply trying to grow what people will buy.

by Noah Pody

Meet our Guests: Jack Vessey

Jack Vessey

Family Farmer

Vessey Farm, Holtville, CA

November 12th, 2025

Wearing a black polo and khakis, Jack Vessey excitedly talks to us about farming in the Imperial Valley. With his son, Blaze, and the farm’s food manager, Cory, beside him, Jack explains the process of getting the millions of cabbages we see in front of us to market. We are standing on an access road between an Imperial Irrigation District water canal and a part of his 8000-acre farm which produces a variety of leafy green vegetables, and behind us we can see workers cutting and throwing cabbage onto a machine to be packed and shipped in Yuma, AZ. During harvesting season, these workers will help send 75-100 trucks a day of leafy green vegetables from the farm to regional distributors, and ultimately to tables across the nation. Many of these workers are Mexican nationals with temporary visas allowing them to work on his farm, and about 50% of them commute from Mexico everyday.

In the leafy green agriculture industry, the distributor has a far greater influence on supply as opposed to the farmer. As Jack explained, “we have a contract with [a distributor] that says, ‘each week I need X amount of pounds of cabbage delivered to our processing plant… and when you call them and say, sorry, we’re out this week, it doesn’t go over real well.” This system can at times cause large parts of Jack’s crop to be left out in the field to rot, as he has fulfilled his contracts and cannot find anyone else to sell it to. Distributors will also reject his crop if it has certain defects, such as splitting or discoloration, even if it is still totally edible. Because of this distributor-controlled market and the razor-thin margins of the leafy green industry, Jack emphasizes the importance of taking risks and trying new strategies, saying, “if we always did the same thing, we'd be broke by now.” We are very grateful to Jack, Blaze, and Cory for giving us the opportunity to visit Vessey Farms, especially during the rather hectic harvesting season, and for giving us a couple of cabbages which were incorporated into many of the week's meals.

by Everett Calhoun

Meet our Guests: Kate Tirion

Kate Tirion

Co-Founder of Borderlands Restoration Network

Patagonia, AZ

November 8, 2025

In Patagonia, Arizona, we sat in a tiered stone amphitheater at the center of the Borderlands Restoration Network’s Earth Care Center to meet with Kate Tirion, one of the non-profit’s co-founders. Over the course of the morning, Kate graciously shared about her life and permaculture work, and she even gave us a tour of her beautiful, handcrafted home. Originally from Wales, Kate grew up on a small farm which instilled in her the importance of regionalized food systems. Additionally, she credits reading the book “Diet for a New America” while struggling with an illness in her 30s as her lightbulb moment for her passion for regenerative agriculture. She went to the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) to study Ecological Horticulture at the Center for AgroEcology & Sustainable Food Systems. After completing the apprenticeship, she continued working on UCSC’s farm and eventually became an instructor to new students.  After leaving California, Kate ended up in Patagonia, where she has worked with more than 4,000 young people in developing the Earth Care Center. The projects there follow the concept that everything is connected, and use regenerative systems, such as with a composting toilet and water catchment system. In fact, the amphitheater we were sitting in was infrastructure to capture water in itself. Here, Kate imparted on us one of the many nuggets of wisdom that we learned from her over the course of the day, saying that “waste is a resource” and there is “no such thing as ‘away’”, when talking about discarding trash and things deemed as unusable. In addition to these projects, Kate first spent 7 months walking the property to observe the soil, the sun’s arc across the land, and water drainage patterns to decide where to put the road, following her principle of “long, thoughtful observation in lieu of mindless labor”. Kate was an incredibly inspiring speaker for us and we’re grateful that our very own Lucy Brown could make the connection that allowed us to meet with her. One of her many lessons that lingered with our group was about diversifying our microbiomes: “less processed food, more french kissing”.

by Liza Lebo

Meet our Guests: Mike Wilson

Mike Wilson

Writer and Activist

Tucson, AZ

November 8th, 2025

Sitting on a colorful assortment of chairs in the Quincie Douglas Library in South Tucson, the Westies met with Michael “Mike” Wilson, a human rights activist, member of and former lay paster for the Tohono O’odham Nation, former US Special Forces, and coauthor of What Side Are You On? Mike began by discussing the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993, which intentionally destroyed the domestic market for Mexican farmers by introducing U.S. government-subsidized corn and other crops to Mexico. The collapse of the agricultural community in Central America led many people to immigrate to the United States in search of work. In anticipation, the US government funneled migrants into the desert of Southern Arizona, including lands of the Tohono O’odham Nation, who were never consulted. While crossing, many thousands of migrants have died of dehydration. Feeling a moral responsibility to address this issue, Mike began working with Humane Borders, a nonpartisan human rights organization, to provide lifesaving water to migrants and to protect the human right to safe drinking water. The numbers of migrant deaths are startlingly represented by the Humane Borders’ Migrant Death Mapping project, an image Mike shared with us during our time with him. While Mike no longer works in water provision, he is committed to fighting against the abuses of US immigration policies. Through agricultural imperialism, migrant and native communities have been subjugated by the US Government. Mike tells us, “The police state can only exist when the population lives in fear of the Government.” As militarization of the US-Mexico border increases and immigrants’ livelihoods are threatened, becoming engaged in our communities and resisting fear as a means of control is crucial. It is also important to recognize that many communities, appropriately, live in a perpetual state of fear due to the violence perpetuated by our government. Mike’s perspective gave the Westies insight into the history and policies of the US-Mexico border as we travel through the American Southwest.

by Maea Fleming

Meet our Guests: Francesca Claverie

Francesca Claverie

Native Plant Program Director, Borderlands Restoration Network

Patagonia, Arizona

November 7th, 2025

         Throughout our exploration of the arid West, the term “native plant” had continued to weave its way through conversations surrounding desert ecology, landscape restoration, and cultural preservation. The phrase presented itself in such abundance that it was almost beginning to lose its meaning– something deep, nuanced, and immensely important to our understanding of the ecosystems of western North America, which was perhaps being stripped of its complexity and consideration to a kind of subconscious, unfounded familiarity. Whereas before, we might have thought of native plants simply as vegetation which grows naturally in a certain landscape, Francesca reveals how they are, in fact, the foundations of their very ecosystems– specifically adapted to the conditions and thus providing critical services and habitat for other plants and wildlife. This falsified comprehension gradually revealed itself through our time spent with Francesca Claverie, the Native Plant Program Director for Borderlands Restoration Network. Francesca grew up in Calexico, California on an alfalfa farm, venturing to the University of California Davis to study International Agricultural Development and Native American Studies. She spent most of her days in the Arboretum, familiarizing herself with the intricacies native plants. Francesca was welcomed back to UC Davis shortly thereafter as manager of the Arboretum, before moving to Patagonia in 2013 where she began the Borderlands Nursery and Seed project.The BRN is dedicated to both people and place. Striving to reconnect borderlands communities with the land throughout southern Arizona and northern Sonora via watershed and habitat restoration, the nonprofit is slowly reinstituting a sense of place within a hugely biodiverse and culturally rich landscape of the Sky Islands Region.

At the nursery, we sit in a greenhouse, nestled between tables which brim with plant pots, while Francesca is teaching us about the native plants in the region. Today, we are surrounded by the foliage of 168 species on site, and nearby over 500 species are cataloged in the nursery’s seed bank. With each word, Francesca demystifies the meaning of “native plant,” emphasizing that every variety is critically important to its natural ecosystem, whether or not humans can fully grasp the depth of their function. She paints this picture largely through the narrative of the agave and the Mexican Long-Nosed bat– an intimate relationship between long-living, blue-green, sedentary and serrated succulents and the nocturnal, nectar-loving little pollinators who are fueled by agave blooms along their migration routes. In detailing the relationships between native plants and their natural ecosystems, such as this, Francesca dismantles the naivety and limitation of an anthropogenic lens in understanding the term “native plant.”

by Marina Roberts

Meet our Guests: Borderlands Restoration Network Watershed Restoration Team

Borderlands Restoration Network Watershed Restoration Team

Patagonia, AZ

November 6th, 2025

A day in the sun, on our hands and knees, carefully crafting beautiful and sturdy rock walls with the Borderlands Restoration Network’s awesome Watershed Restoration Team, was a memorable experience for us Westies. The BRN is a nonprofit in Patagonia, Arizona focused on rebuilding healthy ecosystems, restoring habitat and wildlife, and reconnecting communities on the U.S.-Mexican border to the land. The watershed restoration team was composed of crew lead Zach Farley, with watershed technicians Jade Snowhook, Trevor Lauber, Murphy Hazletine, and Dalton Trantham. They welcomed us into the field with snake gators, gloves, and hammers, allowing us to accompany them on a day in the life of their work.

The Watershed Restoration Team’s goal as a branch of the BRN is to help prevent erosion in the valley, by slowing down and allowing for water to be retained on the landscape. This work is done through the creation of retention dams, made from entirely natural materials found along the channels and surrounding hills. We explored some of their beautiful and successful previous works and helped to create new structures. With the gathering of rocks, sticks, dirt, and even some scattered bones, we pieced together the dams, helping reinforce the BRN’s mission of non-destructive human management, and the importance of locally sourced materials.

Thank you to the Watershed Management crew for an educational and inspirational field workday, and for welcoming us onto your team!

by Rose Peterson

Meet our Guests: Joni Stellar

Joni Stellar

Board Chair, Patagonia Area Resource Alliance

Patagonia, AZ

November 4th, 2025

Twenty-one Westies shuffle into the Patagonia Community United Methodist Church on a sunny Wednesday morning. Sunlight pours in through windows high on the wall to illuminate the tables adorned with colorful tablecloths we gather around. A large posterboard stands in front of us.Its title: “WE REFUSE TO BE A SACRIFICE ZONE!” Next to the posterboard is Joni Stellar with a cool, confident smile stretching across her face. Joni has a degree in Environmental Studies and a long history in environmental activism, including running the High Country Citizen’s Alliance in Crested Butte, Colorado and acting as the executive director of the Gunnison Ranch Land Conservation Legacy, among other roles.

Today, Joni is a Board Chair for the Patagonia Area Resource Alliance (PARA), an organization dedicated to protecting Patagonia’s complex and diverse ecosystems. These include an ancient watershed and a menagerie of endangered species all found within the Sky Islands, a unique eco-region characterized by isolated mountain ranges surrounded by vast deserts, allowing for a wide range of flora and fauna to exist. A reemerging threat to the biodiversity found here is copper mining in the Patagonia mountains. South32’s Hermosa Project is a new mine that will threaten the ecosystem. The copper industry has become increasingly profitable in recent years, and the Hermosa Project aims to capitalize on that.

Joni explains that mining activities will have devastating effects on the local ecological scene. The Hermosa Project’s continuous and widely unregulated pumping of groundwater in the Patagonia Mountains is rapidly draining the slow-recharging aquifer and has the potential to dry up natural springs that wildlife depend upon. She goes on to detail several other qualities of the Hermosa Project that impede the natural systems of the Patagonia region, such as the fact that the mine’s floodlights are allowed to be on 24/7 which can distract crucial nocturnal pollinators and disorient birds. This is especially important considering Patagonia is part of a critical migratory bird corridor.

For 14 years, PARA has advocated for these biodiverse ecosystems not only in a public education setting, but also in the courtroom. Joni and her compatriots are not afraid to take on anyone who may threaten their home. PARA acknowledges that copper is a crucial resource in today’s renewable energy economy and its demand cannot be ignored as necessary to transition away from fossil fuels. When posed with this dilemma, PARA suggests that we as a society should search for more ways to recycle, share, and repurpose copper rather than extracting it in a harmful manner from ecosystems with a wealth of biodiversity at stake.

Though their work is at times an uphill battle, Joni leaves us with a philosophy that has kept her motivated all these years - “despair can't root in something that's moving. So keeping active, keeping moving, even if it's just going out for a walk when you're feeling really bottomed out, is important…if you just trust that you're on the right path and you're doing the right work, trust that things will work out”

by Griffin Arnett