February 8, 2020  |   

The popular Black Rock Symposium will continue on Friday, February 28, 2020, to feature a panel-based symposium on relevant topics affecting Joshua Tree National Park and Gateway Communities. The second event of this symposium series will be “Balancing Tourism with Conservation and Preservation”. As the visitation to Joshua Tree National Park continues to increase, there is a need for a discussion on how to balance tourism with the park’s mandate to conserve and to preserve the land and ecology of the park. The panelists of this program will be Ryan Becker, Vice President of Communications for Visit California, Gary Orfield, Director of Tourism Development of the Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitor Bureau and David Smith, Superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park. 

Sponsored by the Desert Institute at Joshua Tree National Park and Copper Mountain College and funded by a grant from the California Grassroots Fund of the Rose Foundation, this symposium will be held at the Bell Center on the campus of Copper Mountain College on Friday, February 28, 7 pm – 8:30 pm. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Pre-registration is requested. For more information, contact the Desert Institute at (760) 367-5537, desertinstitute@joshuatree.org, or visit www.joshuatree.org.