The LA Times broke news that Cadiz Inc. has been permitted to start mining groundwater in the desert, despite years of opposition from researchers, scientists, and environmental stakeholders.

Our grassroots nonprofit humbly invites Cadiz Inc. to consider growing water-saving “Tiny Forests” at each of their proposed Water Pumping Stations.

(Let’s call it the Cadiz Water Oasis Network.)

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Dear Cadiz Inc.,

We are writing to you directly, in the form of an Open Letter. Not with a lawsuit or a protest sign, but with a proven concept in hand.

We are For Every Star, A Tree, a community-led nonprofit working to heal desertified Earth in the Mojave Desert—where your water mining operation will take place.

We recently published an Op-Ed in response to the federal approval of your groundwater pipeline project. In that piece, we shared our perspective, which we are certain you agree with:

Water in the desert is not merely a resource to be extracted and sold, but a miracle to be tended and regenerated.

That's why we are publicly extending our hopeful invitation to Cadiz Inc:

Let’s grow a water-saving network of "Tiny Forests" near each of your proposed water pumping stations.

We believe in transcending political aisles and adversarial arguments in service to the global, environmental good. This Open Letter serves as a humble idea: Cadiz Inc. has the resources, partnerships, and ability to pioneer an initiative to rejuvenate the Mojave Desert landscape. It can seal its legacy as an environmental hero and water protector by spearheading the movement to plant water-saving oases at each of its water pumping stations.

Our proposal to grow native "Tiny Forests" doesn't come out of thin air. In fact, our pilot "Tiny Forest in the Desert" is a 45-minute drive from one of your proposed water pumping stations.

Your team is more than invited to visit and learn our "Tiny Forest" methods, and replicate our small success on a much grander, ambitious scale.

How You Can Lead The Way

Everyone is already calling this “yet another story of corporate greed and extraction.”

But there is another way.

We understand your company has invested decades and significant resources into the Cadiz Water Project. We understand that you believe this project will bring reliable water supplies to under-served communities in California. We may disagree on methods, but we believe we share a common goal: ensuring water security for communities that need it.

Here is what we know: the Mojave Desert is capable of retaining more water than it currently does…but you have to heal the Earth to reap the benefits of phenomenal levels of groundwater recharging.

The good news? Since 2021, our volunteers have been growing a Tiny Forest in the Desert on a simple 10 acres. In that time, we have watched birds return to branches that didn't exist. We have felt the temperature drop as our growing canopy creates shade where there was once brutal, unrelenting sun. We have inhaled the scent of living soil where there was once only inert dirt.

We have been growing our own regenerative water-saving "battery" into the Earth: not by extracting or mining, but by putting water back.

Here's Our Ask: Let’s Grow A Constellation of Tiny Forests across the Mojave Desert

Instead of asking you to abandon your project, we are asking for your help in proving there is another way.

We are asking Cadiz Inc. to help us expand our "Tiny Forest in the Desert" site into a constellation of 7 native Tiny Forests across the Mojave Desert.

Help us grow 7 Tiny Forests at or near each of your 7 Water Pumping Stations.

Here is why this matters:

1. Regenerative Agriculture works. Our Tiny Forest is demonstrating that desertified land can be restored. When we turn sand into soil that holds moisture, we are not only sequestering carbon; we are recharging the underground water systems that everyone, including your company, depends on. A healthy desert ecosystem does not compete with water extraction...it supports it.
2. This is an opportunity for meaningful engagement. The Cadiz Water Project has faced significant opposition from environmental groups, Native American tribes, and concerned citizens. By partnering with us to grow a thriving oasis, your company would demonstrate a genuine commitment to the desert...not just as a source of water to be piped elsewhere, but as a living landscape to be healed and honored.
3. The optics—and the reality—are powerful. A network of 7 10-acre oases in the Mojave, supported by a water company, would be a beacon of hope in a landscape that is increasingly marked by extraction and depletion. It would show that Cadiz Inc. is not simply taking from the desert, but giving back to it.

What Partnership Could Look Like

We envision a true collaboration. We are open to discussing what form this partnership might take:

• Financial support: Resources to expand our irrigation systems, purchase native plants, and hire staff to maintain and monitor the entire network of Cadiz Oasis Network.
• Technical expertise: Your team's knowledge of water systems could help us design even more efficient water-capture and retention systems for our forest.
• Land partnership: If Cadiz Inc. holds land that could be restored, we would welcome the opportunity to bring our regenerative methods to additional acres.
• Co-branding and visibility: As we grow, we would be honored to recognize Cadiz Inc. as a partner in restoration, showing the world that your company is invested not just in extracting water, but in returning it to the earth.

We hope this Open Letter can be viewed as an investment in a different kind of legacy:

Instead of being viewed as corporate extraction and greed, the Cadiz Oasis Network will be remembered as a brave act of climate hope.

A Vision Beyond Extraction

Cadiz Inc., the world is watching how companies respond to the climate crisis. The era of extractive development is being challenged not only by activists and regulators, but by the land itself. We all see it. It's in the aquifers that don't refill, the soils that lose their capacity to hold water, the ecosystems that collapse under the weight of overuse.

You have an opportunity to be part of a different story.

Our Tiny Forest in the Desert is small: just a speck of green in a vast, desertified landscape.

But it is growing.

And with your help, it could grow into something truly transformative:

The Cadiz Water Oasis Network, where 7 native "Tiny Forests in the Desert" can prove that the desert doesn't need to be drained to support life.

It just needs to be healed.

We believe you share our commitment to water security. We believe you understand that water is life. Now we are inviting you to demonstrate that belief not only through extraction, but through regeneration.

Will you join us?

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you, to show you our Tiny Forest, and to discuss how we might grow the Cadiz Oasis Network together.

Please reach out to us at ForEveryStarATree.org

The desert is waiting.

And we are here, with hopeful hands, to help it grow.

Love from the Land,
For Every Star, A Tree

"For every gallon of water that is taken away, we are putting ten gallons back into the soil."