Indigenous Solidarity Gardens & Endangered Species

Indigenous Solidarity Gardens

We are growing ceremonial crops such as white sage and ceremonial tobacco at the request of our indigenous partners and provided free of charge or expectation for use in their ceremonies. We have been working primarily with the Mayan Spiritual Leaders so far to provide ceremonial tobacco and sage plants for a number of ceremonies throughout this year.

This means they are able to avoid purchasing plants which keeps Mayan money in Mayan pockets and builds stronger community ties of permaculture and mutual aid.

This year, we have more than doubled our early production and we are raising funds to pay for supplies, including nicer terra cotta pots so these plants will be able to live and provide to the community for many years.

Endangered Species Gardens

Another key piece of the long-term plans for the High Desert Institute's future land projects (called Outposts) is to build gardens where we cultivate endangered plants in the places where they are from. Many of the High Desert's endangered plant species are very long-lived, including Joshua Trees and Saguaros.

We have already started these, as they take many years to reach the point of being able to survive on their own in the wild with the current environmental conditions. Temperatures in the High Desert are much higher today than just a few decades ago, and rainfall has dropped significantly as air pollution keeps the water in the air as humidity rather than allowing it to rain down and irrigate these endangered plants.

Our future outposts plan to use this problem for the advantage of these endangered plants. We will install solar powered atmospheric water generators which extract humidity from the polluted air and provide it to the endangered plants through careful and conservative irrigation strategies which will allow these beautiful plants to survive the harsh conditions humanity has created for them.

About The High Desert Institute

The High Desert Institute is a 501(c)3 nonprofit working to build a foundation for the survival of humanity. HDI is organized into Guilds working on specific types of projects. All funds donated to this GoFundMe will be restricted to the projects of the Floramancers' Guild. The Floramancers' Guild works on projects involving plants.