ARK UNIT 1, BORREGO SPRINGS

DESERT RESTORATION

The Funders Portfolio

Ark Unit 1 is a half acre of desert in Borrego Springs, California, being brought back bed by bed. These photographs were taken on November 1, 2026, across one morning of work: a hugelkultur bed built beside the front steps, brush chipped into mulch, logs stacked to cure, beds made ready for planting, and the HALO perimeter fence going up along the fence line. This is the portfolio the Ark keeps for its funders, the work shown as it happens.

A young woman standing on the gravel drive at Ark Unit 1, waving, a shovel in her other hand, ocotillo and desert shrubs behind her — Morning at Ark Unit 1, shovel in hand, the work begins.

A cleared gravel bed in front of the house at 3160, beside paver steps, yellow lantana in bloom along the wall — The bed beside the front steps, cleared and ready.

Cut logs laid in a mulched trench beside the paver steps, cinder blocks staged on the steps, the house behind — Logs laid in the trench, the bones of the hugelkultur bed.

A young woman tipping a shovel of soil onto the hugelkultur bed beside the steps, logs and mulch below — Soil over the logs, building the bed up.

A young woman holding a shovel loaded with soil beside the paver steps and cinder blocks, the house and a flowering cassia behind her — Loading soil beside the new paver steps.

A young woman digging into the gravel pile at the edge of the drive, mountains and desert scrub beyond — Digging fill at the gravel pile.

A large pile of gravel and soil in the foreground, a row of young trees behind it, a power pole and mountains in the distance — The fill pile and the young tree row.

A rack of cut logs stacked tight on cinder blocks against a chain link fence, a green hose coiled on the sand in front — Cut logs stacked and curing in the rack, tomorrow's beds in waiting.

A blue wood chipper standing among brush piles on ground covered with fresh chipped mulch, a car and palo verde trees behind — The chipper and the brush piles, clearing made into mulch.

The front of the house at 3160 with blue shutters, a deep mulched bed below yellow lantana in full bloom, cinder blocks standing on the paver steps — Front beds mulched at 3160, the lantana in bloom.

A man working at the fence line under a large palo verde tree, cleared ground around him, a white car on the drive — Putting up the fence, clearing the HALO perimeter.

Black fence rails laid out on cleared ground beneath a palo verde tree, a rake resting against the trunk, a man working at the fence beyond — The fence line laid out under the palo verde.

A man standing at the fence line looking over the cleared ground, fence rails laid out in the foreground, the palo verde's cut trunk beside him — Clearing the perimeter fence line.

A row of young citrus trees mulched with straw beside the gravel drive, a power pole rising behind them — The young citrus row, mulched with straw.

The gravel drive running past the tree row under a blue sky of tall white cumulus clouds — The drive and the tree row under building clouds.

The Work

The beds in these photographs follow the Ark's hugelkultur research: wood buried under soil and mulch, holding water in the ground where the desert asks the most of it. Read the field essay behind the method: How to Create an Oasis in the Desert.

Dawn Littlefield, for the Ark Initiative