Borrego Sun - Since 1949

Everyone has heard of the Cherry Blossom Festival – there are many in the U.S. and around the world, where the trees themselves are the main attraction in these events. The trees are given center stage, and they are celebrated by residents and visitors alike.

Borrego Springs has no cherry trees, but we do have the Palo Verde. It is surely "Borrego's tree," with its distinctive green bark, elegant branches, and a canopy of yellow flowers that splash across the desert sky and carpet the ground in gold during April of each year. And they are everywhere: around homes, in the ABDNHA Desert Garden, at The Mall, in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and in the new County Park – the latest addition to Borrego's widespread arboretum of Palo Verdes.

The Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association (ABDNHA) plans to highlight Borrego's display of yellow with a Palo Verde Festival in April of 2022. This will not be a single day event, but rather a more extended period of time when visitors can come on both weekdays and weekends to enjoy our unique desert community when it is bathed in yellow. Firm dates have not yet been selected, but the 10-day period from April 14 – 24 is being considered.

ABDNHA will be providing related programs and activities during this period, but their hope is that the idea will grow into a community-wide event, with other organizations, hotels, restaurants, and businesses getting involved by creating their own activities, and the more creative the better. Suggestions have come in, as well. Someone suggested the mixologists in town come up with an official drink, or maybe each restaurant develops their own, giving diners the chance to sample a variety of "palo verde" specialty food and drink over the course of the festival.

ABDNHA has a page online where individuals can add their email to an event mailing list and where organizations and businesses can indicate that they want to be involved. That page is http://www.abdnha.org/paloverde.