School and Community Partnerships to Build Youth Stewardship and Engagement in the Mojave Desert

Since 2016, the USFWS and Get Outdoors Nevada (GON) have been working in partnership to engage southern Nevada community members with outdoor spaces like Desert National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) through education and creation of urban wildlife habitat for pollinators and the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). Partners have leveraged resources from FWS to fund the creation of student-designed naturalized habitat areas on urban school grounds, parks, and community centers. GON has developed curriculum modules covering environmental topics such as native plants and desert wildlife for schools and community sites, and engaged with teachers to integrate this curriculum into classrooms.