California Institute of Environmental Design & Management (CIEDM)

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CIEDM Participates in Community Outreach for Smart Irrigation Month 2026 @ Arcadia Ecohome Microforest –

Smart Irrigation Month, a global campaign, first initiated by the Irrigation Association in 2005 with a focus on the irrigation industry in the US, to educate homeowners, businesses, growers, and communities about the social, economic, and environmental benefits of using advanced water-efficient technologies. The observance taken place every July to promote water efficiency during the peak of summer water demand. As backyard growers and homeowners based at the Arcadia Ecohome Microforest, via the platform of California Institute of Environmental Design & Management (CIEDM), we’ve supported and taken part in this national campaign to raise public awareness of smart irrigation since 2010.
The Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District (Upper Water) celebrates Smart Irrigation Month 2026 by holding a Home Landscape Contest. It invites local residents in its service area to share their water‑smart yards. Contesters are asked to submit photos of their landscapes and show how they're using smart irrigation practices for wining a prize.
Taking part in Smart Irrigation Month 2026 has been our plan at the Arcadia Ecohome, and as part of our participation as a qualified resident, we timely entered the contest and submitted our entry. We are pleased to share that upon Upper Water reviewed our submission, the water agency announces that the entry about the Arcadia Ecohome won first place for “Your submission demonstrated thoughtful smart irrigation practices and a strong commitment to water conservation.”
We are thrilled that our efforts of building and operating the water-smart yards at the Ecohome is recognized by Upper Water on its Facebook and with the Prize for the 1st Place -- A smart Flow Monitor Device. The attached images are the Contest' infographics and a photo taken on August 10 at Upper Water with the awarded Monitor Device in hands. We also awarded by Upper Water’s 2026 Residential Plant Voucher Program with a voucher to purchase and plant drought and heat tolerate plants in May. Upper Water's community outreach programs clearly a smart approach to raise public participation in water efficiency and conservation.
“智慧灌溉月”倡議工作分享摘要：「上聖蓋博谷水區」為慶祝2026年7月份 “Smart Irrigation Month” 舉辦的家居景園賽， 其頒佈實施要領如圖，以傳播此倡議節日。我們響應倡議參賽，亞凱迪亞生態屋節水庭園景觀有幸榮獲第一，8月10日在該機構獲得頭獎獎品—-一具智慧水流檢查器， 拍照留念。

CIEDM Campaigning for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse of Historic Lighthouses & Seascapes --

Happy National Lighthouse Day 2026!

Lighthouses are navigational beacons and shoreline landmarks in global maritime development, and historic lighthouses are heritage and anchor of shoreline and shoreline community cultures. As a member of the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s Lighthouse Enthusiast Community, a conservation-preservation professional, and an advocate for preserving historic lighthouses and coastal culture ecology, at California Institute of Environmental Design and Management (CIEDM), a member of World Ocean Day for Schools’ Guardians of Our Blue, I am taking part in the national celebrations of the National Lighthouse Day on Friday August 7, 2026.

On this special day, I commend the Lighthouse Society's leadership and the dedicated efforts by all those public agencies, nonprofits and lighthouse keepers across the nation in preserving and maintaining the shoreline heritages in our coastal landscapes. Preservation and adaptive-reuses of those heritages and celebration of National Lighthouse Day are essential for engaging maritime history education, and promoting lighthouse tours, coastal tourism, and local economy of the seaside/lakeside communities, Such endeavors are particularly important for states and regions with scenic shorelines and rich maritime history, such as the Golden Coast California and specifically Southern California.

2026 is a special year for the Lighthouse Day celebration. The National Lighthouse Museum in Washington DC is holding an event to celebrate 250 years of our American Lighthouses on Saturday August 8, 2026, as shown in the image. I wish a successful 2026 event to the Museum and other event sponsors across the nation!

CIEDM Campaign for Awareness and Appreciation: Impacts by Extreme Heat on Health & Healthcare --

Globally, extreme heat is the deadliest weather hazard, killing more people annually than other types of climate disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods. It also causes severe health crises like heat stroke and makes heart and lung diseases much worse. Recognized as a lethal climate crisis causing widespread public health emergencies, infrastructure failure, and environmental devastation, extreme heat has become major causality in public health and safety. The death tolls and number of climate refugees caused by extreme heat during this year are rising at various part of the world.

According to The New York Times, at least 10,000 people died from heat-related causes across Europe in June alone, while more than 300,000 have been forced from their homes, as the summer of 2026 breaks meteorological records throughout the continent. It is no exception in the US, even air conditioning is more accessible at home and in work and healthcare environments. The Washington Post counted 70 deaths in the US from July heat domes, according to its news released on 26 July 2026.

Unfortunately, the heat domes and heat waves are continuing striking the US. On 2 August 2026, The Beautiful Planet publishes a news titled “URGENT WEATHER ALERT: Historic Heat Dome Blankets the West.” on its page. The alert is about a massive, unusually intense heat dome settled over the Western U.S., trapping hot air close to the ground like a lid on a boiling pot. Nearly 50 million people are currently under heat alerts, and dozens of temperature records are to fall across at least 12 states. The massive heat dome with enduring heat waves currently covering the US and beyond are clearly needed to be addressed as an issue above and beyond drinking water and stay indoors. It is no longer a risk or threat but a hazardous issue to be deal in inter-state and federal public heath policies and programs.

California Institute of Environmental Design & Management (CIEDM) has served for several years as a Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) Ambassador for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). With current weather patterns in Summer 2026, we at CIEDM are compelled to take the following actions at the Arcadia Ecohome for raising public awareness of and readiness for the extreme heat weather events in the US and beyond:

1. In light of Air Conditioning Appreciation Days in the US being observed from July 3rd to August 15th, we are supporting and partaking in the national event by calling for public appreciations to what air conditioning (AC) has help us to go through every summer, and focusing our campaign message that air conditioner does not just give us cold air, but also provides the following benefits from health and healthcare perspectives:
(a) Treats air for those with extreme allergies – air conditioning allows people with severe allergies to find a little relief. It’s also filtering out pollens, dust, and other airborne particles that can cause sneezing and even wheezing attacks.
(b) Medical advancements – Before there were ACs, hospitals were simply cooled off via fans or other less effective devices.. Patients, especially higher risk groups such as children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to overly hot environments. With the air conditioners available nowadays in typical hospitals, noy only patients but also doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers are able to more effectively combat diseases.
2. We’ve submitted this writeup to WRN Ambassador Success Stories to raise awareness and CIEDM profile as an Ambassador.
3. We are spreading The Beautiful Planet’s FB post as its a top fan, and other relevant news and articles, and sharing my comments to the posts for raising awareness of and readiness for the dangerous heat waves and domes.
4. As a member of World Health Organization’s Integrated Health Services (IHS) Global Hub and an Advocate for American Lung Association (ALA) Lung Action Network, I’ve shared the CIEDM story at the IHS Global Hub and ALA websites, with the above messages.



Image source/credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu2IJpxKKFQ&t=

Backyard Avocado Farm-to-Table Helps Monarch Conservation – A Story @ Arcadia Ecohome Microforest --
National Avocado Day and International Avocado Day are celebrated every year on July 31st, and the date also kicks off the 10-day International Monarch Monitoring Blitz, a community science event in North America. We avocado lovers and monarch enthusiasts at the Arcadia Ecohome, California, are celebrating the two events together with grassroots actions in the Arcadia Ecohome Microforest with online advocacy, action program listing on data/event platforms, participatory science based bioblitz walk and data sharing, and field works in habitat rewilding.
As foresters we’ve grown and maintained a micro-forest at the Ecohome for 20+ years, and the miniforest has been awarded as a Certified Wildlife Habitat, Certified Pollinator Habitat, Certified Bee Friendly Farm and specifically Certified Monarch Waystation. As backyard growers, we have grown an avocado grove (see attched picture)within the Ecohome Microforest because of avocado being an essential produce of the food culture in the US and consumed by us at home on daily basis. We understand that the imported Mexico avocados dominate the produce markets in the US and the avocado farms in Mexico often replace monarch habitats and cause decline of monarch population. As an advocate for protecting monarchs and their habitats, we are pleased with what we do in our own yards to grow milkweeds and other plants that attract monarchs and meanwhile practice farm-to-table with home-grown avocados for reducing our demands for purchasing the fruits in the markets.
With eight mature avocado trees in the grove currently bearing fruits, we are expecting good farm-to-table harvesting season during and after the holidays. Happy National/International Avocado Day and International Monarch Monitoring Blitz 2026!

CIEDM Actions @ Arcadia Ecohome Mcroforest for Conservation of Natural Resources & Ecosystems --
Introduction
California Institute of Environmental Design & Management (CIEDM), a California based conservation grassroots, is engaging actions in a single program to provide local supports and participation in two global awareness campaigns that are closely related to each other in the end of July 2026. The two observances are World Nature Conservation Day (WNCD) and Earth Overshoot Day (EOD), respectively, on July 28 and 30. Not only they both are observed globally and close in time, but also they are inter-related on their shared campaign goals and objectives – Conservation of natural resources and ecosystems – which is coincided with the missions of CIEDM. We thereby have developed and carried out the action program to celebrate the global campaigns and to raise public awareness and actions for them.
Conservation Actions
WNCD, established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1997, is about protecting natural resources, preserving biodiversity, and maintaining a healthy environment for future generations on this planet. EOD, similarly, marks the date when humanity’s demand for natural resources and services in a given year exceeds what our planet’s ecosystems can regenerate in that year. Based on footprint and biocapacity factors, calculation by Global Footprint Network reveals that the global wide EOD for 2026 falls on July 30, and warns that human consumption of natural resources beyond that date is at risk.
With CIEDM serving as a Partner for the IUCN Nature For All, a global initiative to inspire people to love, connect with, and care for nature, and myself as a member of the ICUN Research Taskforce and Inter-commission Human-nature Connectedness (HNC) Task Forces, we are compelled to take lead-by-example actions and share with others as to what concerned citizens and grassroots can do for natural conservation. Our voluntary community engagements for WNCD and EOD through this last week of July and beyond include such components as online campaigning and knowledge sharing, public policy advocacy, capacity and network building, in-person gardening and yard maintenance works, and hybrid community/citizen science engagements. Specifically, they are listed as following:
1. We’ve engaged an online campaign to raise awareness of the two global events and the needs for protection and restoration of natural resources and ecosystems. The CIEDM campaign takes the forms of program announcements on event platforms and social media and of publishing articles and posting SME, or subject matter expert, comments to news on social media posts. For example, serving as a Writer for Happy Eco News, I’m submitting this writeup as a SME comment and a draft for a potential article to be published.
2. I’ve made a Green Hour pledge with National Wildlife Federation (NWF) to “Come Together for Nature with the Americas by spending two hours a day at the Arcadia Ecohome Microforest, a NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat.
3. We’ve planned a landscape rewilding and cleanup event at the Arcadia Ecohome Microforest, a Certified Monarch Waystation and Certified Pollinator Habitat, for maintaining and enhancing features that attract monarch, other butterflies and pollinators.
4. I’ve added my name to the message by Nature for All in Los Angeles, for the continued protection of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument with adequate funds and resources for the newly expanded San Gabriel Mountains National Monuments, just north of Arcadia.
5. I’ve joined the Wilderness Society to send a message to Interior Department Secretary Burgum requesting for keeping the Greater Chaco region in New Mexico protected from new oil and gas drilling.
6. In respond to Conservation International (CI) calling for conservation supporters, I’ve joined the CI campaign for protecting vital forest ecosystems and planned to share our experience of managing and rewilding the Ecohome Microforest.
7. I’ve signed a Stand.earth’s petition calling on the British Columbia and federal government to reject the Tilbury LNG expansion plan for protecting fragile coastal and marine wildlife in the Salish Sea.
8. As in 2025, we’ve signed up and registered the Ecohome Microforest, as the site for Project Phoenix 2026, a community science monitoring project to study the effects of smoke on birds in neighborhoods across the three states along the U.S. West Coast. Bird walks for bioblitz and sightings of birds at and around the Microforest through this summer will be conducted and the outcomes will be shared on eBird, a birders’ data platform.
9. We are also committed to partake in the 10th anniversary of International Monarch Monitoring Blitz, a community science initiative in North America, initiated by Journey North, during July 31 and August 9. Specifically, we are going to share the observations, records, and interactions with monarchs if any, about the growth of a potted tropical milkweed at the Microforest, a Monarch Watch’s Certified Monarch Waystation, on data platforms such as iNaturalist and Project Noha as part of CIEDM’s ongoing efforts in supporting participatory science projects.
10. For capacity and network building, I’m scheduled to attend the IUCN HNC Task Force’s Capacity Building Group meeting and IUCN Research Taskforce Resolution 127 meeting on, respectively, 4 and 28 August 2026.
11. Following the stories we shared at Nature for All’s Stories, we are going to post our story about our activities for partaking in WNCD and EOD 2026.
Concluding Remarks
2026 is the UN International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development (IVY 2026). As part of CIEDM New Year Resolution for 2026, this CIEDM action program for protecting and restoring natural resources and ecosystems around the end of July 2026 represents our local support and participation in WNCD and EOD 2026 as well as for IVY 2026. All the above listed voluntary activities are implementing CIEDM objectives to provide voluntary community services for sustainability, and will be shared with IVY 2026.

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CIEDM Campaign @ Arcadia Ecohome Microforest for Conservation & Restoration of Blue Carbon Ecosystems – Part 2: Tidelands & Estuaries in Coastal Regions ---
The CIEDM campaign for conserving and restoring blue carbon ecosystems was kicked off on July 25 with a focus on the ecosystems of rivers and lakes in arid regions, and on July 26 is shifting its focus on the ecosystems of coastal tidelands and estuaries. Every July 26 is World Mangrove Day, and July 26 to August 1 is Nitrate Pollution Awareness Week. World Mangrove Day, officially known as the UN International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, is a global campaign established by UNESCO in 2015 for protecting and restoring the special mangrove ecosystems around the world. Nitrate Pollution Awareness Week, on the other hand, is a nationwide initiative focusing on raising awareness of nitrate contamination in water bodies especially at estuaries and adjacent coastal environment, its health and environmental impacts on coastal ecosystems and communities in the United States.
Blue carbon ecosystems at estuaries and tidelands along coastlines are commonly featured with salt marshes, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows. These transition zones where freshwater meets saltwater often create suitable habitats for diversified coastal and aquatic/marine creatures. Specifically, mangrove forests in tidal wetlands provide vital ecoservices such as shoreline protection, carbon sequestration and storage, water filtration, and fishery and wildlife nurseries. These valuable coastal ecoservices, however, could be compromised by water pollution caused by nitrate and/or other discharges into water bodies or directly to oceans. The well-known case of nitrate pollution has been the frequent disasters of “dead zone” by the estuary of the Mississippi River at Gulf of Mexico, caused by agricultural fertilizers, urban runoff, and wastewater with rich nitrates and nutrients that trigger huge algae blooms that decompose and suffocate coastal ecosystems and marine life. I’ve lectured on the subjects of blue carbon ecosystems and dead zone disasters in several universities, both locally and overseas.
In light of both awareness campaigns being observed on the same time, and interactive in nature that has to do with water quality, public health and shoreline ecosystems, CIEDM as a grassroots is timely engaging a local campaign to support and take part in both international and national campaigns and to raise awareness of the needs for conserving and restoring those vital blue carbon ecosystems along coastlines, including tidal wetlands and mangrove forests.
We’ve offered online several SME, or subject matter expert, comments to postings about the two awareness campaigns, mainly on social media such as Facebook. We have spread the postings and shared our comments to raise public awareness of significances of the two campaigns and to encourage participation. In addition, we are engaging cleanups of the Ocean Friendly Garden made of an integrated rainwater-graywater harvesting system with distributed raingardens in the Arcadia Ecohome Microforest in order to reduce stormwater pollution to local waterways, shorelines and the Pacific Ocean at the end of waterways. The cleanups also include the water-themed environmental art installations at raingardens. This campaign for blue carbon ecosystems with cleanups are scheduled to conclude on July 31.

CIEDM Campaign @ Arcadia Ecohome Microforest for Conservation & Restoration of Blue Carbon Ecosystems – Part 1: Rivers & Lakes in Arid Regions

Happy Colorado River Day and Lakes Appreciation Month 2026!

July 25 is Colorado River Day, a U.S. campaign for promoting awareness and actions for water conservation and watershed health of the Colorado River Basin. The River is an interstate river crossing seven states and the longest river in the Great American West, including the arid region of the U.S. Southwest. For the River Day 2026, it is timely observed as the U.S. federal government prepares to unveil a new management framework following a failure of the seven basin states to reach a consensus on water cutbacks resulted from a multi-year water shortage and allocation disputes among the states. The Bureau of Reclamation of the U.S. Department of the Interior is set to release its preferred alternative for managing the river with a final environmental impact study shortly after Colorado River Day 2026.

The shortage issue is embedded with climate change that the Colorado River is drying up at its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains due to severe warming, vanishing snowpack, long lasting drought, and parched meadows. So does the water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two main water reservoirs that provide water and power supply to urban centers and agricultural fields along and by the River Basin. As two of the biggest reservoirs in the U.S., they have dropped to a historic low combined water storage level, as of late July 2026. Overall, this water crisis threatens 40 million people across the American Southwest, including Los Angeles where I live. Examining the crisis of the two lakes is as significant as of the river, in light of Colorado River Day being in July, Lakes Appreciation Month (LAM) in the U.S. Established by the North American Lake Management Society, LAM highlights the vital value of freshwater resources and raise awareness about threats like pollution and climate change, and encourages communities to protect and enjoy local water bodies such as lakes and reservoirs.
As concerned citizens and scientists, river and lake enthusiasts, Climate Reality Leaders, and advocates for conservation and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems, we at California Institute of Environmental Design & Management (CIEDM) are engaging a campaign to raise the public awareness of the crisis and of the two national campaigns for water body conservation and restoration, as part of our participation in the campaigns.

Our campaign actions include a social media campaign with our SME, subject matter expert, comments to postings and sharing our engagements online. In addition, as part of our sharing activities, we are engaging a cleanup and showcasing the environmental art installations at the Arcadia Ecohome Microforest’s “Desert Oasis”, namely, “The Great American Southwest” featuring the Colorado River Aqueduct channeling water from Lake Mead to Southern California crossing through red-rock formations and the desert landscapes.

CIEDM Actions for 2026 @ Arcadia Ecohome --
Happy National Agave Day 2026 on July 23!
As an agave enthusiast, I’m taking part in the national awareness campaigns for agave species by sharing two pictures taken one year apart, focusing on a towering blue agave, which is a Southern California native species and one of the anchor plants at the Arcadia Ecohome’s Desert Oasis featured with a collection of several agave and other desert plant species. One of the photos was taken on July 15, 2025 when the agave was blooming with yellow flowers on its towering central flower stalk, just in time for us at CIEDM to celebrate 2025 by holding a citizen-science based garden bioblitz tour at the Ecohome Miicroforest on July 26 and to appreciate the species’ “death blooming” that attracted a number of hummingbirds. The other photo was taken on July 22, 2026 when the stalk is still standing straight and flower stems maintain the project arms but their green color has been slowly given away to brown and the dried-out leaves at the base of the plant were removed in this Spring 2026. For this year, we are having a garden walk at the Desert Oasis and other parts of the Microforest. In addition, I’m spreading this posting with photos as part of my participation in 2026 for raising awareness of this unique blue agave and other agave species, and sharing what I’ve learned from my daily observations of the plant’s shape after the blooming -- the blue agave’s death blooming while dramatic in nature but , the life of the plant itself takes time to completely die-off as a visible landscape element.

CIEDM Actions for Orcas & Ocean Habitats @ Arcadia Ecohome
Happy 2026 World Orca Day on July 14 and World Orca Week (WOW) on July 13–19 during the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development!
The US West Coast and specifically the coast of California are prime habitats for orcas (killer whales). California's coastal waters are home to four distinct ecotypes, including Southern Resident Orcas. Due to Orcas highly dramatic hunting acts, the killer whales draw a lot of whale-watch tourists to California and play vital roles in our marine & coastal tourism. As an Oceana's Wavemaker and a member of UNESCO-IOC’s Ocean Literacy Community and OceanExperts, I’m taking two actions to take part in the global campaigns by;
(1) engaging a cleanup of the Arcadia Ecohome’s Ocean Friendly Garden for reducing stormwater pollution at the Pacific Ocean and coasts along Southern California, and;
(2) writing up and spreading this posting to raise awareness of the unique marine species and the global campaigns for protecting the species and their habitats.