Post on 10-Apr-2018
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P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635Phone: (619) 342-5524 Website: www.dpcinc.org Blog: www.desertblog.net
Spring 2009 Editor: Larry Hogue Number 204
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENTInstead of addressing a single topic this time around, Id like to
share some more-or-less random thoughts about our desert
lands and our organization.
DPCs newest Board member, Mike McColm, was raisedin Long Beach, California, but he cut his professional conser-
vation teeth in the forests of Ecuador along the Andes mountain
chain of western South America. Those Andean cloud forests
are iconic and powerful, even exotic,
symbols of both the crises and the
possibilities facing our planet. They
inspire people, governments and large
foundations around the world to pro-
vide resources for very ambitious con-
servation projects. And no one has been
more involved in conservation of such
places than our own Mike McColm.Surprisingly then, perhaps, Mike
made a special call to me the other day
to thank me with great emotion for the
work I, and others like me, have done
since his years as a boy to save places
like Joshua Tree National Park from the
developers, the military, the massive
dump enthusiasts and the other gonzo
boosters who would have ruined it in
one way or another, if they could. He
was so enthused to be able to show
beautiful desert places such as JoshuaTree to his indigenous Ecuadorian wife
and their daughter. It meant the world
to him.
That phone call reminded me of the stakes involved in
many of the projects and other activities DPC and kindred
organizations are engaging in every day, year after year, decade
after decade, slow battle after slow battle. We get our hands
dirty in the often mundane and messy tasks of agency lobbying,
letter writing, alliance building, tedious meetings and all that
kind of stuff. From the science classrooms of impoverished
Imperial County to meetings with political officials in Sacra-
mento, DPC staff, contractors and volunteers are out there
saving our precious desert heritage one acre at a time, even one
young mind at a time.
Whether it is helping to get the Imperial Valley CollegeDesert Museum over the final hurdle to completion, or relent-
lessly pushing government land management agencies on OHV
policy as it affects Desert Cahuilla and the Algodones Dunes,
we are fighting the good fight and show-
ing up for work every day as needed.
Sometimes we even have the unpleasant
task of taking on conservation brethren
over important policy issues, like siting
of renewable energy projects in the
desert. So be it, if that is what it is going
to take to keep faith with future lovers of
(desert) nature in the years and decadesahead.
From air quality monitoring in
Imperial County to help in the recording
of a famous but fading local archaeolo-
gists deep wisdom and irreplaceable
knowledge, I PROMISE YOU that DPC
will never give up and never give inno
as long as I and my esteemed colleagues
represent you on your Board.
So lets talk over that commitment,
and what the desert means to us down
deep, around that next bend in a canyonsometime.
--Nick Ervin, President
We must save wilderness because in saving it we will be savinpart of ourselves. We have been shaped by the wild lands we
have lived in, and because they are still part of our landscape,they continue to live within us. When they are gone, many of thefundamental values that created America will also vanish.
-- Karen Shepherd
Cima Dome, Mojave National Preserve.Photo by Chris Clarke
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CONSERVATION CORNERBy Terry Weiner
Conservation & Imperial County Projects Coordinator
I am delighted tointroduce AshmiUllal (at left), thenew Imperial CountyWilderness Coordi-
nator for the Cali-fornia WildernessCoalition (CWC).The Desert Protec-tive Council contrib-uted funding for thisimportant short-term
position, and we arepleased to collabo-rate with Ashmi to
promote wildernessprotection in Imper-
ial County.Ashmi has been
a resident of Im-
perial County for nineteen years, having grown up here. She
graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2008 with a degree in
Molecular and Cell Biology and has a fervent interest in science
and health. She also has a lively interest in working with
people. Among other positions, Ashmi worked at a Berkeley
youth clinic providing services to homeless and underprivileged
youth and, as a Spanish-speaking translator, assisted clients at
the Berkeley Free Clinic. In addition to English and Spanish,
Ashmi speaks Hindi. She traveled after graduation to southern
India where she worked for six months for the Global Micro-Clinic Project as the principal organizer on a diabetes awareness
and self-management project. While there, she planned and
coordinated community events and organized diabetes
patients into micro-clinics.
Ashmi has been working in her new wilderness
organizing position since March and has already
developed a large number of contacts with Imperial
County citizens and politicos, which is not sur-
prising considering her natural ease and her out-
going and charming personality. She has attended a
number of Imperial County community events,
meetings and seminars in order to introduce herselfto the community and familiarize herself with the
major issues of concern in the county. I am enjoy-
ing working with Ashmi and introducing her to our
Imperial County DPC members and friends.
With the political climate in Washington now
looking much more favorable for new wilderness
legislation (see Desert Notes, next page), and
Senator Dianne Feinstein contemplating protecting
the desert in a variety of ways, now is the time to
gather support for potential desert wilderness areas
that were left out of previous bills. Thats where Ashmi comes
in. Her job is to let Imperial County residents know how
important it is to protect their wild areas as formally designated
wilderness, and to gather letters of support from the public,
local businesses and political representatives. This kind of
support is critically necessary in order for Senator Feinstein to
include the areas in upcoming legislation.
The great news is that in eastern Imperial County there are
several areas with wilderness potential for which Ashmi istraveling the county and gathering support and letters. These
areas are the Milpitas and Vinagre Wash proposed wilderness
areas, the Palo Verde wilderness additions and the Indian Pass
wilderness additions. These areas are wildly beautiful and
contain a spectacular variety of special features including a very
large and rare stand of old growth palo verde and ironwood
woodlands (called microphyll woodlands because of the tiny
leaves on both species). The washes are full of diverse plants
and animals. Our California state reptile, the desert tortoise,
builds its burrows in these wash banks. Some of the low desert
hills in the area are of volcanic origin and are wonderfully
colorful in contrast to the verdure of the huge trees and lushdesert plant community.
The Indian Pass proposed wilderness contains a wealth of
fragile ancient Native American trails, sleeping circles, and roc
art. Desert pavement that is thousands of years old covers the
surface in some of these areas.
I highly recommend visiting these areas. They are within a
reasonable distance of the western side of the Colorado River.
Perhaps you will be inspired to write a letter of support for
Ashmi to give to Senator Feinstein, encouraging her to protect
these precious areas for future generations of desert inhabitants
and for our human community as well.
For more information on these wild places and how youcan help protect them, or simply to submit a letter of support,
contact Ashmi at ashmiullal@gmail.com or (760) 235-9481.
The rugged volcanic desert near Vinagre Wash. Photo by John Dittli / CWC
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RETIREMENT LETTERThe day before his retirement, Mark Jorgensen, Supt. of Anza-
Borrego Desert State Park, sent this letter to activists andcommunity members with whom hed worked over the years:
Tomorrow, March 27th, will be my last day as the Superintend-
ent of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. I want to thank all of
you for your work to
make Anza-Borrego
one of the supreme
parks in all the
world.
Since beginning
work as a park aide
studying bighorn
sheep in Anza-
Borrego in June,
1972, I have been
fortunate to parti-
cipate in some of the
greatest resource
management, inter-pretive, law enforce-
ment, and public
service programs in
the country. I have
had so many oppor-
tunities to meet the
most wonderful
people in the world, from former Presidents to ambassadors, to
actors, legislators, TV personalities, park rangers, interpreters,
maintenance folks, and park administrators.
I have been fortunate to represent California State Parks
throughout the western states, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Mon-golia. Ive spent over a thousand hours flying over Anza-
Borrego in helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Ive crashed
twice while serving State Parks its less fun than it used to be.
Ive caught wild cows and seen them fly. Ive helped rid
this park of tamarisk, goats, cows, feral horses, unlicensed
OHVs, and a few other things I cant talk about.
Working in Anza-Borrego has been a new adventure every
single day. Never a day have I been bored or wishing I was
working somewhere else. I love this place and will live here the
rest of my life.
We, as a team, have never lost a battle to save this park.
Weve been sued many times to give up our resolve, and neverlost a single case. Weve been threatened with power lines,
highways, water pipelines, radio towers, high speed rail lines,
airports, and flood control dikes. Weve worked together
through many exciting and sometimes trying times. Weve been
in major fires together, some we started and others we got called
to. Weve evacuated towns together, weve responded to numer-
ous searches, dead bodies, and weird animal calls. We could put
an interesting book together of all of our antics, experiences,
and behind the scenes projects!
I have had the chance to work with many of you and I
consider you the finest people in the world. I am proud to call
you friends. Thanks to each and every one of you for the good
times, the friendship, and your hard work. Weve worked
together to leave Anza-Borrego better than we found it, I am
confident of that.
Im getting out of the office life, and back where I belong,
out in the desert. I truly look forward to hiking the Park I fell in
love with more than 45 years ago. I look forward to volunteer-ing and helping out where I can, and I look forward to spending
more time with you, my friends and family and enjoying life to
its fullest.
Many Thanks and Much Love to You All,
--Mark Jorgensen
DESERT NOTESBrief news items from around the deserts
In a grand victory for wilderness enthusiasts, Congress
passed and President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land
Management Act of 2009 last month, featuring overtwo
million acres of newly designated wilderness across thecountry. 700,000 of those acres are in California, with over
100,000 located in the desert in and around Joshua Tree
National Park. Other desert areas included 200,000 acres of
BLM wilderness in southwest Utah, where the Colorado Platea
meets the Mojave Desert and the Great Basin. Even as the
desert faces threats from renewable energy development and
military expansion, its important to pause and savor this
success. These lands now have the highest protection possible,
thanks to leaders like Sen. Barbara Boxer, Reps Mary Bono
Mack, Buck McKeon, and Jim Costa, organizations like the
California Wilderness Coalition and the Sierra Clubs CA/NV
Wilderness Committee, and everyone who called or wrote theirelected officials. More protection for Californias desert lands
could be coming soon in the creation of a Mojave National
Monument, protecting a large swath of land along the
Interstate 40 corridor. Additional wilderness designations for
Imperial Valley are also being studied, with DPCs help (see
story on page 2). DPC participated in a renewable energy
meeting organized by Defenders of Wildlife in early April and
subsequent conference calls. The discussions included agency
folks and representatives of a number of large conservation
organizations, and had two major goals: 1) to arrive at some
agreed-upon environmental criteria for siting any proposed
desert solar development and to locate some potentially
appropriate sites on disturbed public lands and especially on
private lands; 2) to come to agreement on a set of talking points
for representatives of the environmental community to take to a
meeting with Senator Feinstein. The situation is very fluid right
now, with multiple processes and proposals, including
Feinsteins national monument proposal, competing to carve up
the desert into renewable energy zones and protected areas.
Well keep you posted on www.desertblog.org, and our next
newsletter (continued on page 6)
Mark Jorgensen addressing DPCs 2007Annual Meeting. Photo by Larry Hogue
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In Joshua Tree
In the land that crowns its needled glories with sand
In the desert made of pavement fallen from the Milky Way
In the desert made of deep holes, carved by grinding
stones
In the desert made of gashed canyons, cut straight through
stone
In the desert made of walking rain that the eye can far-off
see
In the desert made of fan tree palms
In the desert made of cold
In the desert made of blinding mirage
In the desert made of light so old it whispers like grooved
bones
Where the woolly mammoth and rattlesnake cross timeand home,
Oceans of time rising and receding, land quaking in their
paths
Where the granite batholiths arch their backs
Where the red-tailed hawks vault their hunting songs
Oh, desert night lizard!
With your comet tail, sparking eternities of stars
With your rustling inside the fallen Washington fan palms
With your invisible sipping at faint oases
With your instinct for scuttling sideways up sharp rock
hills
With your narrow paths in the native grasses
With your nest inside fallen Joshua Trees,
With your burrowed body penetrating sand dunes
With your zigzag shape, you whip your way into
abandoned mines
In Joshua Tree
In the land that prophets barren land with shouldered
Trees that are not trees, but lilies, they call you by manynames
In the desert, where flash f loods chorus and howl in
summers long crawl
In the desert, where footsteps penetrate the night
In the desert, where bobcats and mountain lions prowl
In the desert, where the bighorn sheep scuttles at sunset in
the highest rocks
In the desert, where shade rests in deep and narrow space
In the desert, where the early Pinto people carved their
words into eternity
In the desert, where Chemehuevi Indians called Oasis of
Mara home
In the desert, where small cemeteries mark the empty land
Oh, desert homestead!
With your early people, hunting big game
With your ancient glaciers, carving the land to bone
With your old men and women, anxious for gold
With your young lovers, Willie Boy and Carlota, who
could not share
Their love in silence with the land
With your reliance on the creosote for medicine and tea
With your vast wisdom of how every spare desert plantcould be food
With your cemented reservoir at Barker Dam, a sweet
man-made pool
With your earth-gouged wounds, gutted for their jewels
With your global tourists and rock climbers, hikers, plein
air artists,
Musicians, ravers, thrilled children, all feeling they have
found a home
In Joshua Tree
In the land where rattlesnake meets highway
With your ancient Indian trails snaking their way from
Colorado River
To the coast, the California Hiking Trail and Highway 62
follow
Your wise old routes
With your hidden built-in palm oases, shouldering
timeless stands
Of Washington Palms that survived the time of the
dinosaur
With your visiting painters and photographers andHollywood directors,
Walt Disney painted colors on pictographs he could show
With your nearby cities, fighting to eat your rare resources
With golf courses blowing their invasive species of
mustard grass
With Marine base blowing up the ancient, sacred sister
mountains
With high desert towns competing for your northern love
Joshua Tree Imprimatur-after the Navajo Night Chant
By Ruth Nolan
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With your sloped drop on your southern edge into the
land we call low
In the desert raging with fires that burn invisible things we
cannot see
Until they are dissolved
In the desert where people wander off and get lost
In the desert where coyotes and jackrabbits and kangaroo
rats and tarantulas shoulder the slow, desert tortoise
crawl
In the desert, where Minerva Hoyt came to your rescue
and made you a National Park
In the desert, where Eagle Mountain dump nibbles at your
eastern fringe
In the desert, where orange and ruby sherbet sunsets are
your dessert
In the desert, where your shallow rooted namesake trees
Gnarl their arms skyward in a massive prayer
In the desert, where wind shreds your needled skin into
pulpIn the desert, where snowstorms powder the barren
ground
In Joshua Tree
Where canyons spill into nowhere lands
Where dayglo bright colors paint the sand in springs
melodic verse
Where the June sun tarnishes the artists canvas brown
Where garbage blows indiscriminate of color, age or race
Where boulders become pillows for societys aching back
Where lovers fight and surrender into the long sweep of
Keys View
Where the Wall Street Mill offers empty promises of old
Where the families camp and come to explore
In the desert, where the crush of nearby Los Angeles, San
Diego, Orange Counties falls away
In the desert, where motorcycles cant whine, forbidden
here
In the desert, where Ryan Mountain superimposes its stoic
landhold
In the desert, where the Little San Bernardino Mountainsrise to pinyon pine
In the desert, where transition zones abound
In the desert, where rain may not visit for a year
In the desert, where water may destroy
In the desert, your name is scratched into stars
In the desert, you survive, you survive
In Joshua Tree.
Oh Joshua Trees, populating this arid ocean,
In the land where prophets turn for words
When colors bloom and fade
When lovers come and do not stay
When the last footprints have quickly blown away
When the first impressions of human hands have been
found
You find your true name
Where the sands filter through your handsIn the desert, you are lost, and you are found.
Ruth Nolan, M.A., grew up in the Mojave Desert. She is Associate
Professor of English at College of the Desert, where she teaches creative
writing, poetry, Native American and desert literature. She is also a poe
writer, and book editor/publisher. Her poetry and prose have appeared
in Pacific Review, Mosaic, Epicenter, San Diego Poetry Annual
2007 and 2008, El Paisano, Womens Studies Quarterly, and
American Indian Review. Her poetry collections include: Negotiatin
With Testosterone (1995, Northern Arizona University;)Wild Wash
Road (1996) and Dry Waterfall (2008) (Petroglyph Books). She is
editing a collection of desert literature, No Place for a Puritan: the
literature of Californias deserts, to be published by Heyday Books in
fall, 2009, and is advisor and editor of the new California desert literar
magazine, Phantom Seed.
In the wilds of Joshua Tree. Photo by Florian Boyd
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(Desert Notes, continued)
On a sad note, the US
Fish and Wildlife Service
finalized its ill-conceived
plan to reduce critical
habitat for the endangered
Peninsular bighorn sheep, a
move designed to placate
developers in the CoachellaValley more than to pursue
the agencys central mis-
sion of conserving wildlife.
The agency insisted that
new scientific evidence
about bighorn sheep be-
havior led them to conclude
that less habitat was needed
or used. However, the lead-
ing researchers most famil-
iar with the Peninsular
bighorn, disagreed strenuously. That includes Dr. Esther Rubin,who conducted the most intensive study ever on bighorn habitat
use patterns in the mountains around Anza-Borrego. With the
lack of scientific credibility to support this decision, lawsuits
are sure to follow.
IMPERIAL COUNTY PROJECTSby Terry Weiner, Imperial Co. Projects Coordinator
Archaeologist Jay von Werlhof epitomizes the professional who
has dedicated his life to preserving information about the fragil
cultural resources located within California, particularly in
Imperial County. He has spent countless hours and years docu-
menting the geoglyphs (rock art created by placing stones on
the ground) found throughout Imperial County. This spring,
DPC donated $7,500 to archaeologist Russell Kaldenberg andhis colleagues at ASM Planning and Research Collaborative
(ASM PARC) to assist in collecting invaluable information on
the geoglyphs, rock alignments and aboriginal trails from the
experiences and collections of Mr. von Werlhof. Russ will
spend time with Jay documenting his oral history on Imperial
Countys cultural resources. They will scan Jays photographs
and extensive field notes, preserving them in a high-quality
digital format. Jays stories are a precious part of the cultural
history of the area. Without the data Jay has gathered, large gap
would exist in our knowledge of the geoglyphs, their locations
and their interpretation. ASM PARC will work with Dr. David
Whitley, a world-renowned rock art expert, to find a publisherto print a tabletop-style book on the geoglyphs of Imperial
County. DPC is grateful to Russ and his associates for taking on
this important project.
For more on DPCs grant-making, go to www.dpcinc.org.
Save the Date:
Western Wilderness Conference 2010: New Aims, New AlliesThe Western Wilderness Conference 2010 will take place April 8 11,
2010, on the campus of the Univ. of California, Berkeley.
Save the date now! For anyone who cares about the wild places of
the Westthis is one event not to miss!Although the event will take place in Californias San Francisco
Bay Area, wilderness organizations and advocates from all twelve
western states, including Alaska, are involved, and wild lands
advocates from all those states are enthusiastically invited to
participate in this grand event.
Whos invited? Wilderness advocates, both professionals and
volunteers, new advocates; Native American leaders, land agency
personnel, outings leaders, individuals, college students and faculty,
representatives of organizations working on quiet recreation and on
varied land-preservation efforts, decision makers at different levels of
government.
Why attend? Western Wilderness Conference 2010 will:*inspire interested new advocates, including students, to preserve our nations remaining wild places
*re-inspire longtime dedicated wilderness advocates to vigorous new advocacy with renewed motivation
*offer a forum to discuss timely wilderness-related topics, particularly as they relate to global warming changes
*explore how to incorporate Native American traditional land-ethic and cultural values into wildlands advocacy
*promote getting children outside into Natures wildplaces!
*feature training sessions to help activists become more effective advocates for wild places
Plus, there will be lots of fun music, meals, outings! Its all part of the celebration of the Wests wild places. Sierra Club, California
Wilderness Coalition, and Northwest Parks and Wilderness Conference are the main planning organizations. Check out the conference
website: www.westernwilderness.org.
--Vicky Hoover, chair, Sierra Club CA/NV Wilderness Committee Chair
Peninsular bighorn in Borrego PalmCanyon. Photo by Larry Hogue
In the San Jacinto Wilderness. Photo by Larry Hogue
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P.O. BOX 3635SAN DIEGO, CA 92163-1635
INSIDE THIS ISSUEConservation Corner..................................... page 2
Mark Jorgensens Retirement Letter............. page 3
Desert Notes.................................................. page 3
Joshua Tree Imprimatur (poem) ................... page 4Imperial County Projects .............................. page 6
2010 Western Wilderness Conference Notice ... page 6
Member News............................................... page 7
FAVORITE DESERT PLACES: GRAPEVINE MOUNTAIN, ANZA-BORREGO
View toward Grapevine Wash and the Pinyon Ridge from the slopes of Grapevine Mountain in Anza-BorregoDesert State Park. Thanks to the efforts of DPC and countless other community and environmental groups, thisview will remain unsullied, and the habitat undisturbed, by transmission lines (although the Sunrise Powerlink stillthreatens a large swath of equally beautiful and fragile backcountry landscapes). Photo by Larry Hogue