Pahrump Earth, Arbor Day festival returns, honoring founder John Pawlak

Pahrump’s Earth/Arbor Day celebration returns to the Bob Ruud Community Center at Petrack Park on Saturday, bringing more than 30 organizations together for a day built around conservation, stewardship and the realities of living in a desert community.

The 23rd annual event, hosted by the Southern Nye County Conservation District, runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will again mix information tables, free raffles, food, art and hands-on activities. Lead organizer Tamalyn Taylor said the gathering will give residents a chance to talk with local environmental groups and learn more about how to be better stewards of the planet.

This year’s celebration carries added significance because it is the first Earth/Arbor Day event since founder John Pawlak died on Nov. 11, 2025. Pawlak started the Pahrump Earth Day Celebration in the early 2000s and later expanded it to include Arbor Day, turning the event into a spring fixture in the valley’s civic calendar.

That legacy now sits beside an urgent local issue: water. Nye County and state officials formed a Basin 162 Groundwater Management Plan Advisory Committee in January 2014 to confront over-appropriation of water rights, and county records say Basin 162 has a yield set at 20,000 acre-feet per year. A county document also cited 21,513 residential meters in Basin 162 and a Pahrump population estimate of 44,738, underscoring the pressure on the aquifer behind the conservation message.

The Nye County Water District, established in 2007 under Nevada law, says its mission includes developing a long-term sustainability plan and evaluating environmental impacts. County officials said the water-conservation plan was approved by the Nevada Division of Water Resources on Sept. 17, 2021.

The festival’s lineup reflects that focus. Returning participants include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pahrump Master Gardeners, Great Basin Water Company, Ash Meadows Wildlife Refuge and the Nye County Water District. Newer and returning groups also include the Private Well Owners Association, Lakeview Executive Golf Course, Water Rock Farming, Solar United Neighbors of Nevada, Great Old Broads for Wilderness and Pahrump Big Brothers Big Sisters.

A popular desert tortoise exhibit is expected to draw attention to one of the region’s most recognizable wildlife issues. Nevada wildlife officials say desert tortoises spend most of their lives in burrows and need soils firm enough to hold burrow shape. The species is federally and state listed as threatened.

The event also connects to the broader educational network that serves Nye County. University of Nevada, Reno Extension says its Nye County/Pahrump office works with ranchers, farmers, schoolchildren, gardeners, business owners and local officials, a reach that mirrors the mix of families, landowners and civic groups expected at Petrack Park. Among the participating organizations listed for the celebration are Valley Electric Association, the Bureau of Land Management, Desert Research Institute, the National Rural Water Association, the Pahrump Community Library and the Pahrump Valley Garden Club.

In a county where growth, water supply and land use are constant questions, the festival is less a spring festival than a public conversation about how Pahrump plans to live within its limits.