ROOTBALL: Word has gotten out

Rootball is the newsletter of Pando Populus.

Pando’s success is producing two things: A generation of capable young people who take on real issues with the courage, knowledge, and stick-to-itiveness needed to invent and develop real projects that make an actual difference. And their successful projects that are quietly changing the world.

The Pando Days 2025/26 lineup

The most ambitious, successful, fun, outrageous effort ever to break out of the classroom to save the world.

Word has gotten out, and more and more colleges and universities are joining the Pando Days lineup – extending our coverage for the first time as far east as San Bernardino County and north to the Bay Area.

More than 30 institutions have participated to date – from research universities to community colleges and trade schools.

By season’s end, the program will have delivered nearly 100 projects to help create a more sustainable region.

As we grow, we’re hoping to more deeply spread within each institution – across disciplines and departments. And foster intercollegiate opportunities.

We’re also doing all we can to help keep great projects alive once they’re in the world and making an impact.

The 2025/26 season is sponsoring 21 teams from 16 higher ed institutions, including four institutions that are new to the Pando community: Cerritos College; California State University (CSU), Dominguez Hills; Occidental College, and San Francisco State University.

Magenta House for middle school comes with a suite of free resources to help students create the change for water and power sustainability that they want to see.

We’re back to paint the town Magenta

Magenta House is launching twenty real-world sustainability projects across Los Angeles middle schools this spring — and that’s just the result of word of mouth. Prepare to be astonished once more and more students and teachers become aware. Prepare to be astonished over what you’ll see in the fall.

If you’ve followed Magenta House over the years, you know that release follows extensive development-prototyping-testing of the tools 6th, 7th and 8th graders need to build their own futures for water conservation and power efficiency. Magenta House students don’t just write papers or produce dioramas; they create genuine, on-the-ground and implemented sustainability solutions for the communities where they live.

Dios Rios Ranch, located in the San Joaquin Valley. Photo: Saxon Holt/PhotoBotanic

State-level biodiversity programs in California

By Mark VanderSchaaf

Throughout 2025, I provided four Pando blogs focusing on biodiversity issues: how Pando supports L.A.’s biodiversity; international biodiversity policies and programs; national biodiversity research and policy in the United States; and “best practice” biodiversity programs in major biometropolises. As issues of biodiversity have continued to evolve in what I’ve coined as the Los Angeles biometropolis*, programs have emerged in the city and county of Los Angeles as well as their surrounding areas. Naturally, this topic has become an increasing focus for Pando as well.

In this blog, we’ll look more closely at what exactly is being done regarding biodiversity in the entire state of California.

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