17 restaurants in the City of 29 Palms have earned Gold Star Awards from The Living Desert Zoo & Gardens, an achievement earned by businesses that demonstrate the sustainable practice of consistently closing their dumpsters to protect the local community and wildlife. These awards demonstrates an interest in resolving wider social and ecological issues, and The Living Desert Zoo & Gardens is thrilled to honor the commitments made by 29 Palms restaurants owners to keeping our desert home clean, healthy, and thriving!
Maintaining closed dumpsters is critical to reduce the unnaturally large numbers of ravens now in Southern California. Ravens have proliferated around our human developments because we indiscriminately provide food, water, and nesting resources. When people forget to cover their trash, it invites predatory ravens to thrive as open dumpsters and trashcans provide an especially reliable food source. In the Mojave Desert, the raven population is now 17 times larger than it was 50 years ago. These inflated raven populations decimate native wildlife – especially the threatened and iconic desert tortoise.
We hope you will join us in supporting these Gold Star Restaurants this holiday season and beyond. Supporting local businesses helps our human community thrive, and supporting sustainable practices helps our wildlife communities thrive!
Andreas Char-Broiled Burgers
Bamboo Garden Chinese Restaurant
Burger King
Cold Stone Creamery
Denny’s
Edchadas Mexican
Jack in the Box
Las Palmas Restaurant
Papa John’s Pizza
Surf City Squeeze
Subway
The Rib Co.
Top 100 Chinese Restaurant
Fosters Freeze
Fuji Restaurant
Kitchen in The Desert
Rocky’s New York Style Pizzeria
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
For restaurant owners interested in learning more about this program and how to apply for a Gold Star Award for your restaurant, please contact Alex Ocañas at aocanas@livingdesert.org to learn more!
