SKYWARN actions kickoff on Skywarn Recognition Day 2025
Today, December 6, is the SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) in the US. While the NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) cancelled the SRD 2025, as a registered Official Skywarn Spotter and a SciStarter participant in the SKYWARN citizen science project stationed at the Arcadia Ecohome in the foothill community of Arcadia, California, I'm taking on a weeklong voluntarily sky-watch of the San Gabriel Mountains, a desert mountain range just north of Arcadia, as part of my actions to take part in the celebrations of both the 2025 SRD on December 6, the first Saturday of December, and International Mountain Day on December 11, along with reporting and advocacy activities such as this writeup. Monitoring the sky over desert mountains in Southern California where unusual winter wildfires have occurred in recent years, such as the devastating ones in January 2025, driven by extreme drought and heat after wet years and strong Santa Ana winds, is becoming critical in the era of climate new normal with hazardous windstorms and firestorms for our attentions and actions as members of the Skywarn Weather Spotters Network and the Fire Adapted Communities Network (FAC Net).

SKYWARN actions kickoff on Skywarn Recognition Day 2025 --
Today, December 6, is the SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) in the US. While the NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) cancelled the SRD 2025, as a registered Official Skywarn Spotter and a SciStarter participant in the SKYWARN citizen science project stationed at the Arcadia Ecohome in the foothill community of Arcadia, California, I'm taking on a weeklong voluntarily sky-watch of the San Gabriel Mountains, a desert mountain range just north of Arcadia, as part of my actions to take part in the celebrations of both the 2025 SRD on December 6, the first Saturday of December, and International Mountain Day on December 11, along with reporting and advocacy activities such as this writeup. Monitoring the sky over desert mountains in Southern California where unusual winter wildfires have occurred in recent years, such as the devastating ones in January 2025, driven by extreme drought and heat after wet years and strong Santa Ana winds, is becoming critical in the era of climate new normal with hazardous windstorms and firestorms for our attentions and actions as members of the Skywarn Weather Spotters Network and the Fire Adapted Communities Network (FAC Net).

Soil properties and soil biodiversity play significant roles in land degradation, especially in arid regions. Today is the UN World Soil Day (WSD) 2025 themed "Healthy Soils for Healthy Cities”. As an urban farmer and a USEPA recognized Qualify Water Efficient Landscaper (QWEL) working at the Arcadia Ecohome’s micro-agroforest, a Certified Bee Friendly Farm and a listed Climate Victory Garden, located in the arid Southern California, I’ve registered a local event with FAO to support the global celebrations of WSD. Our key actions taken today is focused on improving soil properties and biodiversity to combat land degradation with actions to add organic matters from fallen leaves, tree trimmings & food wastes to the forest floor through composting so as to enhance the soil sponge’s functions of taking and keeping moisture from cool night dews, to harbor a bio-diversified forest-floor inhabitants such as insects, earthworms & microbes who contribute to build healthy soils, to induce root growth for reducing soil erosion, and to minimize green & food wastes generated in urban areas to be hauled to remote desert landfills. The photo taken today (sorry, cannot be uploaded) shows sheet composting of fallen leaves all over the forest floor, pile composting of twigs & branches by tree roots and an in-ground composting of kitchen wastes, all for building healthy soils by nature-based solutions. I’m sharing what we do at CIEDM with our networks, especially my follow members in the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Communities of Learning and Practice, as part of our grassroots actions in social media campaign for WSD.

Soil properties and soil biodiversity play significant roles in land degradation, especially in arid regions. Today is the UN World Soil Day (WSD) 2025 themed "Healthy Soils for Healthy Cities”. As an urban farmer and a USEPA recognized Qualify Water Efficient Landscaper (QWEL) working at the Arcadia Ecohome’s micro-agroforest, a Certified Bee Friendly Farm and a listed Climate Victory Garden, located in the arid Southern California, I’ve registered a local event with FAO to support the global celebrations of WSD. Our key actions taken today is focused on improving soil properties and biodiversity to combat land degradation with actions to add organic matters from fallen leaves, tree trimmings & food wastes to the forest floor through composting so as to enhance the soil sponge’s functions of taking and keeping moisture from cool night dews, to harbor a bio-diversified forest-floor inhabitants such as insects, earthworms & microbes who contribute to build healthy soils, to induce root growth for reducing soil erosion, and to minimize green & food wastes generated in urban areas to be hauled to remote desert landfills. The photo (sorry, cannot be uploaded) taken today shows sheet composting of fallen leaves all over the forest floor, pile composting of twigs & branches by tree roots and an in-ground composting of kitchen wastes, all for building healthy soils by nature-based solutions. I’m sharing what we do at CIEDM with our networks, especially my follow members in the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Communities of Learning and Practice, as part of our grassroots actions in social media campaign for WSD.

Thanks for Suyu's warm welcome! As a new member of this community, I'm delighted to briefly introduce myself: I'm an academic and practitioner in the field of urban and environmental planning, with an interest in nature/resources/water conservation. I've lived and worked for 40+ years in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, a part of the arid US Southwest region, and on daily basis encountered/crossed challenges and news about drought, heatwaves, wildfires, flash floods and other climate issues in this region and beyond. With my Chinese ethnic origin, growup in Taiwan, and work & travel experiences in several parts of Asian, including serving as a faculty member in Saudi Arabia and China, I'm glad to be here to share and learn with all of you in this community.

I'm sharing an event to take place on December 4 & 5 --
Event Name: CIEDM Actions on Soil Biodiversity @ Arcadia Ecohome
Event Description: As a CIEDM conservation scientist and a member of the FAO Global Soil Partnership’s International Network on Soil Biodiversity (NETSOB) and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Soil Health Scholar, Dr. Edward Huang will lead a 2-day local grassroots event to support and take part in the global celebrations of both the 2025 Wildlife Conservation Day and World Soil Day, respectively, on December 4 and 5. The CIEDM actions include event registrations with both wildlifeday.org and FAO, an engagement of leave-the-leaves cleanup of the Arcadia Ecohome's micro-forest which is a Certified Wildlife Habitat and a Certified Pollinator Habitat, a gardening work to add up the forest floor’s sponge layer with organic matters so as to enrich the soil and its ecoservice capacities including enhancement as water, heat and carbon sinks, a bioblitz walk in the forest to observe and record our discoveries of critters, insects, worms, fungus & other creatures, and a social media campaign to raise public awareness of the WCD and WSD significances and messages.

¡Únete a nosotros en #CRIC23! 🌏

A medida que la degradación del suelo se acelera a nivel mundial, la construcción de #DroughtResilience para 2030 se ha convertido en una prioridad global urgente. El UN Convention to Combat Desertification (CNULD) desempeña un papel central en la movilización de los países para prevenir y revertir la degradación de la tierra, y proteger a las comunidades en primera línea de sequía.

Esta semana, el Global Water Partnership y el World Meteorological Organization participarán en el 23º Comité para la Revisión de la Implementación de la Convención (CRIC23) de la CNULD —también bajo el estandarte del Programa Integrado de Gestión de la Sequía (IDMP)— para debatir:

🌱 Cómo movilizar financiación innovadora para la resiliencia ante la sequía y la restauración de tierras
🔍 Fortalecimiento de los sistemas globales de monitorización de sequías y aridez
🤝 Compartiendo y escalando lecciones, innovaciones y alianzas

.. ¡Y más!

Más información y dónde encontrarnos
🗺️ https://gwpo-gwp.org/news/gwp-at-cric23-advancing-drought-resilience-an…

As a new member of this community, I'm delighted to briefly introduce myself: I'm an academic and practitioner in the field of urban and environmental planning, with an interest in nature/resources/water conservation. I've lived and worked for 40+ years in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, a part of the arid US Southwest region, and on daily basis encountered/crossed challenges and news about drought, heatwaves, wildfires, flash floods and other climate issues in this region and beyond. I'm glad to be here to share and learn with all of you in this community.

Not too far: See you online at CRIC23, a space to continue the journey from the UNCCD COP16. Join here: https://www.cric23.org/#live

Glad to share this important intervention by our Daniel Tsegai, whose guidance and expertise continue to shape our shared efforts on drought resilience.

In this FRANCE 24 interview (in French), he highlights the rising drought risks and the need for strong early-warning systems, collaborative action, and long-term resilience pathways that protect vulnerable communities.
A valuable contribution to the broader conversation we will be having here on the CLP platform.

Pleased to share my Land Talks podcast episode with the UNCCD–G20 Global Land Initiative, where I discussed community-led restoration and practical solutions strengthening dryland resilience in Northern Nigeria.
Watch here on YouTube: