In fact, "desert" may be one of the oldest words in the world, according to UC Davis history professor Diana K. Davis. In her book, "The Arid Lands," she said "desert" may come from the Egyptian hieroglyph pronounced "tesert," which became the Latin deserere, meaning to abandon and forsake, before becoming the "desert" we know today. Call it what you will; just don’t call it barren. “That’s the perception of people from overly green places,” said Frazier Haney, conservation director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust in Joshua Tree, dedicated to acquiring and protecting desert places. “It’s all about looking closely.”

The Mojave Desert Land Trust has acquired the private property in the Whipple Mountains Wilderness, 50-miles south of Needles in extreme southeast San Bernardino County.

Thanks to a partnership forged four years ago between the California Conservation Corps and the U.S. Forest Service – establishing a work-training program for post-9/11 military veterans – public lands are being restored and vets are gaining valuable experience and developing skills that are helping them gain jobs as they transition back into the civilian workforce. One of the most recent examples of this partnership-in-action took place a couple of weekends ago in the Rodman Mountains Wilderness southeast of Barstow.

Seeing water in the desert is a reminder to Danielle Segura, executive director at the Mojave Desert Land Trust, that monument protections are not just for what’s on top of the land. “We’re protecting not just what we see, but everything above it and below it,” said Segura, whose group purchases land and donates it to the government for conservation. “That’s important as we stare down problems like Porter Ranch and Flint, Mich.”

Section 33, located just south of California Highway 62 between La Contenta Road and Joshua Tree Memorial Park, is scheduled for the fourth annual cleanup effort between Combat Center Marines and Morongo Basin community members April 23, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. until noon. The land was purchased by the Mojave Desert Land Trust in conjunction with the Combat Center, The Trust for Public Land and the California Wildlife Conservation Board.

Mary Joe Burger, 19, from Maine, is in the yard of the Mojave Desert Land Trust picking out mustard weed, an invasive plant that inserts itself into the desert, strangling native plants. Burger doesn’t mind the work. She loves gardening, and it gives her a sense of helping.