Project Wildlife - Bisbee

06/05/2026

Nesting about 4’ from the ground

04/24/2026

There’s lots in bloom today at the park (Chihuahua Desert Park at the Upper Vista). The cactus is just getting started but there’s lots more to admire 🤗

04/24/2026

04/24/2026

Sharing a pic of Project Wildlife Bisbee volunteers from the Earth Day event at Bisbee Science and Exploration Research Center yesterday. Thank you, Donnette, Doug and Clint!

04/22/2026

Project Wildlife Bisbee will be at the Bisbee Science Exploration & Research Center at 519 West Melody Lane tomorrow for their Earth Day event, 3-6 pm.
We hope you’ll attend and that you’ll stop by and say hello. See you tomorrow!

04/20/2026

Five dollars per square foot. Cash. No tax deduction, no rebate paperwork that comes six months later. Actual money for actual square footage of lawn you tear out and replace with California natives.
I did the math while standing at this nursery in the photo. Those are Eschscholzia californica and Cleveland sage waiting for pickup. A standard 1,000 square foot front yard in a San Fernando Valley suburb—that modest patch of Bermuda grass struggling against the heat—nets you $5,000. The check comes after inspection, but it comes. LA is literally buying back its desert identity one yard at a time.
The demand broke the initial program budget. They had to inject more funding because homeowners ran the numbers and realized the rebate covers the plants, the mulch, the installation labor, and leaves money leftover. Meanwhile, the water bill drops 60% once the natives establish. You're getting paid to lower your utility costs.
The ecological benefits cascade. Native bees specializing on California sagebrush suddenly have forage in neighborhoods where they haven't been seen in decades. Hooded orioles nest in palm trees but feed in these restored yards. The urban heat island effect drops when reflective turf becomes layered canopy with mulch underneath. Root systems go six feet deep instead of the three-inch mat of Bermuda grass.
Cultural psychology is the real hurdle. For seventy years, an LA lawn meant you'd arrived. It signaled affluence and waste capacity. The rebate program weaponizes that signaling—it makes lawn ownership financially irrational. Your neighbor cashes a $5,000 check and watches their water bill plummet while you're still paying $300 a month to keep Kentucky bluegrass alive in 100-degree heat.
The irrigation lines in the photo are for establishment only. Two years from now, that nursery bed survives on 15 inches of annual rainfall—the natural desert climate. No sprinklers. No guilt about waste during drought restrictions.

04/03/2026

If you were to visit the Chihuahua Desert Garden in the Upper Vista, this is what you might do or see.

04/02/2026

It’s Native Plant Month! Help us celebrate, and if you haven’t already, get certified as a Wildlife Habitat!

For April, you can get your garden recognized as a Certified Wildlife Habitat® and get a yard sign, all for 20% off with the code GARDEN20 when you certify!

https://www.nwf.org/Native-Plant-Habitats/Create-and-Certify

Celebrate Native Plant Month!

01/04/2026

There are better ways!