El Paisano Spring 2008 #200

8/8/2019 El Paisano Spring 2008 #200

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P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635 Phone: (619) 342-5524 Website:www.dpcinc.org

Spring 2008 Editor: Larry Hogue Number 200

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENTThe Spell of Sacred LandMany people speak of places, points on the globe, which

they regard as special. Great literature is replete with lyricaltributes to locales emotionally moving to the author, be they

whole landscapes, specific spots or man-made structures. So-

called nature writers make it their craft to interpret the

concept of place for an eager reading public.

As conservationists or public lands activists I suggest that

we are especially susceptible, or perhaps simply sensitive, to the

lure and charm of such places, real or imagined. Who of us

cannot recall a tree house, a beach, mountain or forest which

imbued us with a love of, an allegiance to, the land to place?

For a very long time after I started hiking and camping I

had not considered that the concept of the sacred could really

quite apply outside of a religious context until I read the ideasof two very different but highly skilled writers: Barry Lopez

and Edward Abbey. Writing his masterpieceArctic Dreams

some 25 years ago, Lopez masterfully delved into landscape at

its many levels of meaning both to the indigenous peoples of

the Arctic and to the rest of us residing here in a more urbanized

world. To read his words carefully is to begin to fathom how

humankind grew up with the land as the very foundation of its

world, the matrix from which our minds and bodies evolved.

Cactus Ed Abbey, the old curmudgeon and enemy of every

developer and get-rich scam artist out there in the West, railed

ceaselessly against the desecration of our southwestern

landscapes in the form of ignorance, thoughtlessness, greed and

industrial tourism. A more or less avowed atheist, Cactus Ed

nonetheless spoke endearingly of a secular paradise here on

earth in the form of wild landscapes unsullied by the human

hand. He knew the poignant feeling of sacred as applied to

the earth even if he dismissed its religious overtones.

As for myself, the term sacred is reserved for those very

few places I have encountered that inspire a heartfelt, almost

painful, veneration coupled with a sense of deep connection so

rare and poignant as to rise to the level of a quasi-religious

experience. It is a gem in the pantheon of spots I cherish.

In the California desert I have explored for 30 years now,

there is a special place, a real place of sand and rocks, sycamoretrees and cholla cactus. And it has a compound name: the

Collins Valley/Cougar Canyon complex located in the rugged

northwestern portion of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. In

January of 1978 I backpacked up Cougar Canyon with a

companion and my heart nearly burst with awe. To this day, I

have never exceeded the joy I felt that day in the wild.

One gets a similar sense of the sacred when viewing the

images in a remarkable new book from Sunbelt Publications,

Anza-Borrego: A Photographic Journey, reviewed in this issue.

The book, just out in February, is an explicit response to the

proposed Sunrise Powerlink, and is intended to encourage a

greater appreciation of the landscapes that would be decimatedby this awful example of industrial extremism.

Surely we will only fight to protect the places we hold

sacred. When we hear of proposed uranium mines on the

borders of Grand Canyon, an expansion of an OHV park that

would virtually assure the destruction of artifacts and trails that

have lain in place for thousands of years, or reductions in

critical habitat for a variety of threatened species these are

calls to action to protect the places we hold dear. And when we

hear that Americans, and especially children, are spending less

time outdoors because of growing videophilia, this is a call to

get our children out into wild country, to allow them those

experiences that foster a sacred sense of place.As youll read in this, our 200th issue ofEl Paisano, DPC i

at work on all these fronts, fighting to protect desert lands that

are threatened by development or out-of-control recreation, but

also working to educate the next generation of desert

enthusiasts in the Imperial Valley.

Whats your sacred place? Perhaps we can share it around

the next bend in a lonely desert canyon somewhere.

Nick Ervin, President


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BOOK REVIEWAnza-Borrego: A Photographic Journey by Ernie Cowan

Review by Larry Hogue

In 1960, David Brower and the Sierra Club revolutionized

environmental rhetoric and debate with the publication of their

first Exhibit Format coffee table photo book, This is the Amer-

ican Earth by Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall. The series

would go on to feature such landmark works as In Wildness is

the Preservation of the World (with photos by Eliot Porter, textfrom Henry David Thoreau, and an introduction by Joseph

Wood Krutch) and The Place No One Knew: Glen Canyon on

the Colorado (again by Porter, with text from Thoreau, Wallace

Stegner, Owen Wister, Loren Eiseley, and others). The books

combined compelling narrative about the natural world with

stunning images presented in a large format in which, according

to Brower, the eye was required to move about within the

boundaries of the image, not encompass it all in one glance.

They were much more than collections of pretty nature images

but calls to action that helped propel the Sierra Club in its ten-

fold growth from 1952 to 1969, making it one of the nations

(and eventually the worlds) foremost environmental groups.*Following in the Sierra Clubs tradition, Sunbelt Books, in

cooperation with the Anza-Borrego Foundation and California

State Parks, has releasedAnza-Borrego: A Photographic

Journey by award-winning photojournalist Ernie Cowan. The

publication also has an explicit conservation purpose: to

highlight the landscapes that are at risk from SDG&Es

proposed Sunrise Powerlink, an energy superhighway that

would cross Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, destroying

wilderness viewsheds over 90,000 acres. At 96 pages, and

nearly the size of the Sierra Clubs coffee table series, the book

is a welcome addition to the genre.

Arranged as a tour of the park, the book covers some of

Anza-Borregos most popular spots, such as Fonts Point,

Collins Valley and Borrego Palm Canyon, as well as lesser

known areas in the Carrizo Badlands. While sunrise and sunset

shots are abundant, Cowan captures the desert in all its moods,

from the harsh light of noon to the somber tones of an overcast

day. Some of the books most arresting photos spotlight thestars of Anza-Borregos nature show, the annual wildflowers.

Suitable to the books purpose, the abundant beauty and

changing moods of the Anza-Borrego landscape are allowed to

speak for themselves, without undue intrusion by the artist.

While photographers like Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell set

out to change our way of seeing the natural world, Cowans

intention seems simply to introduce us to this place of wonders

and to encourage our love of it. Spend some time, he says in

his preface, let the sand get in your shoes, and learn the

deserts little ways. Thats the challenge in attempting to

speak a word for nature to allow nature to speak for itself.

Likewise, the text is unobtrusive, bringing out just the righamount of natural history detail or emotional undercurrent in

the photographs, without being didactic. Take, for instance, this

description of a common desert inhabitant: Rarely flying and

often running swiftly ahead of hikers, roadrunners are members

of the cuckoo family, distinguished by their X-shaped foot-

prints. Curious and animated, roadrunners are a delight to

observe as they bob and weave through underbrush in search of

snakes, lizards, and insects. The conservation message is im-

plicit throughout, rather than driven home with a sledgehamme

Heres a description of a typically wild scene: Views like this,

that have not been altered by man, allow the mind to see what

others have seen since the first footprints were scuffed into thedesert sands.

The Parks Are Forever message is further underscored by

Diana Lindsays introduction covering the history of the park

and the conservation visionaries who helped create it, and by

the quote from Frederick Law Olmsteds 1929 Report of the

State Park Survey of California on the back cover: Certain

cont. next pag

TAKE ACTION ON THE SUNRISE POWERLINK!The hearings are over but you can send written com-

ments to the California Public Utilities Commission until

April 11, to: CPUC/BLM

c/o Aspen Environmental Group

235 Montgomery Street, Suite 935

San Francisco, CA 94104

Fax: (866) 711-3106

Email: [email protected]

Points to make to the commissioners:

Heed the Draft EIR and reject this damaging line.There are many better alternatives to SPL.Real green energy is local green energy.

Go to www.dpcinc.org/_sunrisepower.shtml for more.


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desert areas have a distinctive and subtle charm, in part depend-

ent on spaciousness, solitude, and escape from the evidence of

human control and manipulation of the earth, a charm of con-

stantly growing value as the rest of the earth becomes more

completely dominated by mans activities. With Anza-Borrego

facing onslaughts from all sides (and from both within and

without the State Park system), this book serves as a timely

reminder of what seem like forgotten values.

At $19.95, the book is a great bargain, and proceeds go tobenefit the educational programs of the Anza-Borrego Foun-

dation and Institute. Order directly from the publisher at:

www.sunbeltbooks.com.

*Info on David Brower, the Sierra Club, and their Exhibit

Format Series from Finis Dunaway.Natural Visions: The Power

of Images in American Environmental Reform. 2005, University

of Chicago Press. (www.press.uchicago.edu.)

DESERT NOTESBrief news items from around the deserts

If you thought uranium mining was just a quaint legacy in

the history of Grand Canyon National Park one that made thewaters along parts of the Tonto Trail undrinkable for the

foreseeable future but otherwise a thing of the past youll

have to think again. A British company has been approved to

explore for uranium in the Kaibab National Forest within a few

miles of the South Rim. As theNew York Times and other

newspapers have pointed out, the Forest Service had little

choice but to approve the exploratory drilling because of

another quaint legacy from the old days: the Mining Law of

1872. This law gives corporations both foreign and domestic,

but usually foreign carte blanche to rip apart and poison our

public lands, earning huge profits while returning little to the

U.S. Treasury. With metals prices surging and mining claims allacross the western U.S. sky-rocketing, its more important than

ever to send this archaic dinosaur to the dustbin of history,

where it belongs. With pressure from groups like EarthWorks

(www.miningreform.org), the U.S. House of Representatives

passed a reform bill this winter, but the Senate has yet to act on

it. Seems like a good time to pick up the phone or write a letter

to your senator. And one senator a guy from the Grand

Canyon state who is also running for president should be

especially willing to hear from all Americans on this issue.

Meanwhile, the exploratory drilling in the Kaibab is being

fought on other grounds. The Center for Biological Diversity

has protested the Forest Services decision based on legalproblems with it, and legislation to ban mining near Grand

Canyon National Park is being explored. At Februarys

Conference on Global Warming and the California Desert,

bighorn sheep expert Dr. John Wehausen made the most explicit

call yet to reconnect the isolated and fragmented populations of

what was once a single metapopulation of bighorn sheep in

the California Desert. This would involve building wide, open

bridges over freeways and canals, which have proven to be

effective barriers to gene flow between sheep living in separate

mountain ranges. This gene flow may be vital to the long-term

survival of the species as it faces an uncertain future of global

climate change. (See www.dpcinc.org/_educationbulletins.shtm

for a report on the conference.) The bridges would be expens-

ive, but money may be available in the form of Federal High-

way ISTEA funds, which can be spent to mitigate the effects of

highways on wildlife. Certainly, this is a better use for these

funds than expanding an offroad vehicle park. In another

setback for species it was meant to protect, the US Fish &

Wildlife Service has released a final rule in yet one more criticahabitat reduction. This time its habitat for Peirsons milkvetch,

that purple-flowering plant in the pea family that struggles to

make its home amidst the motorized onslaught of the Imperial

Sand Dunes Recreation Area. This is just one of many decision

that prompted one blog commenter to ask, Is the Fish & Wild-

life Service on crack? (Hey, we didnt say it, but it makes one

wonder) The bottom line: under this approach to the Endan-

gered Species Act, only those species that dont get in the way

of our industrial culture will be protected. BLM-El Centro is

offering two wilderness hikes this spring. The first will explor

the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness on Sat. Mar. 8. The

second, on April 12, will take the Pepperwood Trail into theSawtooth Wilderness. The hikes are free but space must be re-

served by calling the hike reservation hotline. Visit

www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/elcentro/recreation/hiking.html for

vital info and phone number. ... In an unsettling, but not-too-

surprising finding, researchers discovered that nature-based

recreation is on the decline, not only in the U.S. but also in

Japan and Spain. They linked the decline to increasing indoor,

video-based recreation, which they term videophilia. The

study, commissioned by The Nature Conservancy and publishe

in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found

an 18% to 25% decrease in various types of outdoor recreation,

including hiking, camping, hunting and fishing. ResearchersOliver Pergams and Patricia Zaradic conclude that declining

contact with nature leads to decreasing concern for conservation

and biological diversity. Thats why DPC is increasing its

support for outdoor education programs in the Imperial Valley,

place where many children never set foot outside of the agricul

tural and urban zone to experience the desert in its natural state

(See page 6 for more on these programs.)

Grand Canyon, one of our nations landmarks under threat from the 18

Mining Law. Photo by Larry Hogue


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CONSERVATION CORNERBy Terry Weiner

Conservation & Imperial County Projects Coordinator

During these first two months of this new year, your Imperial

County Projects and Conservation Coordinator has been

particularly focused on actions involving the Desert Cahuilla

Prehistoric Area, about which most of you have heard a great

deal. The Desert Protective Council continues to work closely

with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), the Anza-

Borrego Foundation (ABF), the Sierra Club and concerned citi-

zens to urge the California Department of Parks and Recreation

(DPR) to take action to protect this gorgeous area from ongoing

damage from unmanaged off road recreation. As those of you

who read our DPC website know, the DPR released their Notice

of Preparation (NOP) of an Environmental Impact Report for

the Desert Cahuilla Area in December. The NOP was lacking ina number of ways. DPC and CBD submitted detailed comments

and suggestions regarding issues that must be addressed in the

crafting of management plan alternatives for Desert Cahuilla.

We have conducted two monitoring trips to the area this

year to document ongoing damage from ORV activity with

photos and video footage. Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular

Recreation Area and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park are

supposed to be collaborating on weekend patrols, on contracting

for natural and cultural resource surveys, and on publication and

distribution of educational materials about the area, but staff of

Anza-Borrego State Park and the Colorado Desert District of

State Parks have been cut out of the process. Meanwhile DPC

has teamed up with ABF to share costs of conducting air quality

surveys, monitoring particulate pollution in the Ocotillo Wells

and Borrego Valley areas. (On some weekends this winter the

dust has been so bad that some Borrego Springs residents have

left town temporarily to protect their health, and others are con-

sidering moving out entirely.) We are also collaborating on the

production of videos from our on-the-ground monitoring as aneducational and consciousness-raising tool for various agency

staff and for other target audiences. You can view the first video

by going to YouTube.com and searching for Desert Cahuilla.

The Desert Cahuilla Area will continue to suffer damage

until an appropriate management plan can be crafted. Unless w

can persuade DPR to take interim protective measures such as

establishing and enforcing limitations on off road travel in the

area, this unmitigated destruction will last for up to three years

until a plan is approved. We will work in every possible way to

gather evidence that supports the plan to place the management

of a large part or all of the Desert Cahuilla Area under the man-

agement of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Fresh tracks entering an area clearly posted as closed, in a parcel

owned by the Anza-Borrego Foundation. Photo courtesy ABFI

A desert lily, cut down in the prime of life by an errant vehicle in th

Desert Cahuilla Area. Photo by Deborah Knapp


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What can you do? While we had a productive letter writing

campaign leading up to the close of the comment period on

February 13th (see Craig Deutsches citizen comment letter,

below, as an example), we are asking you to continue writing

letters to Director of State Parks Ruth Coleman, with a c.c. to

Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman. State your concern

(outrage) about the irreparable damage this new State Parks

acquisition is suffering from unmanaged ORV activity and that

you want DPR to take action to stop it. See our web site to findout what to do:www.dpcinc.org/_cahuilla.shtml.I want to encourage all of you with an interest in the

perennial topic of how best to manage Off Road Vehicle Rec-

reation on our public lands, and how to control it on private

lands, to consider attending a daylong conference on April 5 in

the town of Joshua Tree. DPC is one of the sponsors of the

conference. Please see the announcement and invitation to this

event on our web site:www.dpcinc.org/_events.shtml. Thekeynote speaker is Dr. Howard Wilshire, a long-time DPC

Advisory Panel member, retired USGS Geologist, respected soil

scientist and author of many papers on the effects of off-road

vehicle recreation on desert soils. Brent Schoradt, PolicyDirector of the California Wilderness Coalition and Karen

Schambach, Western Director of Public Employees for Environ-

mental Responsibility and author ofCalifornia Off Highway

Vehicles: In the Money and Out of Control, will also do presen-

tations on recent OHV legislation and where we need to go

from here. The conference will be a wonderful opportunity to

participate in discussions with local policy makers, represent-

atives of the law enforcement agencies and BLM personnel, and

to mingle with local desert residents who have successfully

organized to help craft a County ORV management ordinance.

Whether or not you are able to attend this event, please do

circulate the invitation tofolks who may be interested

and feel free to send a

donation to cover the costs of

putting on this event. Contact

Community ORV Watch at

[email protected] or

Morongo Basin Conservation

Association, ATTN: COW,

P.O. Box 218, Twentynine

Palms, CA 92277.

As always, I thank you

for your support of DPC and

invite you to call or email me

with your desert thoughts and

suggestions. (619) 255-6111

(office); (619) 342-5524;

[email protected] .

DESERT CAHUILLA COMMENT LETTERby Craig Deutsche

Ed. Note: Something about the CEQA process seems geared to

frustrate citizen input. Perhaps its all the acronyms: CEQA,

NOP, DEIR, etc. What is CEQA anyway? Its the California

Environmental Quality Act, and its basic intention is to insure

that policy makers and the public are fully informed about a

given projects environmental impacts.. It also allows average

citizens to voice their opinions and provide information aboutthe impacts a project could have. While it can seem like an

arcane process, we thought Craig Deutsches letter on the

upcoming Truckhaven/Desert Cahuilla General Plan was a

moving, fact-filled expression of his concern for this special

place an outstanding example of how citizens can speak a

word for nature. Though the official comment period has

ended, were asking you to continue writing letters to Parks

Director Ruth Coleman and State Resources Secretary Mike

Chrisman.

I thank you for an opportunity to comment on the prep-

aration of the Truckhaven/Desert Cahuilla General Plan. The

area in question is a jewel of the Colorado Desert, and planningfor its future must be carried out carefully, in full compliance

with the law, and with extensive public participation. The land

belongs to the people of the state, not to a select group of users.

I have visited this area a number of times. I have seen the

fish traps along the ancient Cahuilla shoreline, the sleeping

circles, and the old trails. I have talked with a number of

archeologists who are distressed that the resources there have

not yet been studied or even catalogued properly. Please, these

objects must be protected; they must not become collateral

damage produced by vehicular recreation. Signs and fencing ar

needed until inventories have been completed, and routes

A network of scars left by vehicles mars the fragile landscape of the Desert Cahuilla Area. Who knows what

clues to the regions cultural and natural history have already been lost? Photo by Phil Farquharson


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leading to the most significant archeological resources must be

closed or damage will inevitably follow.

I visited the Desert Cahuilla area specifically last February

17, 2007, and while I slept in Palm Wash, fireworks were in the

sky several miles to the west (WITHIN the boundaries of Anza-

Borrego State Park). Sand rails and motorcycles raced up and

down the wash in the dark, and I was obliged to sleep within

three feet of my vehicle to be certain that I would not be struck.

While off-road recreation is sometimes touted as family recre-ation, I would be quite unhappy if my children were to learn the

lessons that were apparent that evening. On the next day, Feb.

18, I drove several of the washes in the area and observed vehi-

cle tracks going up hills, climbing out of the washes, and in

some places going cross-country. All of this travel was illegal. It

is rather an understatement to say that management of the area

has been very lax. Signs, educational materials, and visible

enforcement have been promised while the management plan is

under preparation, but they have not been delivered. These

failures need to be rectified, or there will soon be nothing left

that is worth planning for.

Given the historic and prehistoric features in the DesertCahuilla area, given its extraordinary scenic value, given its

proximity to the Anza-Borrego State Park, and given the

intentions that initiated the purchase and transfer of these lands,

they should become an integral part of the Anza-Borrego Park.

Vehicle traffic should be limited to specific, authorized routes.

Open play areas for off-road vehicles are not appropriate unless

it can be clearly demonstrated that environmental damage

would not follow very likely a difficult position to defend.

The alternatives presented in the EIR that will accompany the

management plan need to cover a full range of activities and

uses. These must not be slanted toward off-road recreation

solely, or to other specific user groups. Protection of resources archeological, recreational, biological, and scenic must be

prominent in all of the alternatives.

Finally I urge you to make your planning process

transparent, broadly based, and open to the public. Meetings

need to be publicized widely through a variety of media and

sufficiently far in advance that all who are concerned may

attend. Comment periods need to be sufficiently long and

sufficiently publicized that a truly representative public

may respond. It is important that a variety of agencies be

involved in the planning the state parks, the ORV

division, the Colorado Desert District. In the long run, a

narrowly focused approach to planning will become a

failure.

The formulation of a management plan for the Desert

Cahuilla area represents an opportunity to serve the people

of the state and to demonstrate the competence and

integrity of its agencies. I urge you to seize this

opportunity.

Sincerely, Craig Deutsche

Find out how you can write your own letter to protect this

precious area: www.dpcinc.org/_cahuilla.shtml.

IMPERIAL COUNTY PROJECTSby Terry Weiner

This spring, DPC has funded several new desert field trips

for students from second grade through high school in Imperial

Countys Holtville School District. Thesetrips are part of our

expanding program to allow Imperial County kids to experienc

the wonders of the Imperial Valley deserts.

Second graders will visit Shell Canyon in the CoyoteMountains with parent coordinator Susan Massey,accompanied by a paleontology volunteer from the

Begole Center for Archaeology in Anza-Borrego.

Holtville High School teacher Bonnie Sorensen will betaking her students on a field trip to the Salton Sea

Recreation Area for a guided nature walk. These student

won the solar-powered vehicle challenge at Imperial

Valleys Earth Day 2007 and their prize was a set of

solar distillation equipment. After the walk, theyll use

the equipment to test the feasibility of purifying Salton

Sea water with energy from the sun.

Sandra Durans fifth graders have a field trip planned toeastern Imperial County to explore the old Tumco Townsite just west of the Colorado River and to the nearby

Algodones Dunes the same day, accompanied by one of

the El Centro Bureau of Land Managements natural

resource specialists.

Finally, DPC has just funded field trips to Anza-Borregofor 140 fifth graders in four classes, who will tour the

visitor center and hike up Palm Canyon.

Its been a growth year for DPCs desert education pro-

grams. In the future we hope to involve more Imperial County

School Districts, and to develop environmental education and

science curricula focused on specific spots in the Imperial

Valley Deserts. The goal is to make it easy for teachers to gettheir kids out of the classroom and into the desert, at the same

time educating them in science topics that fit both the Californi

science framework and the specific textbooks already in use. In

the process, we hope these students will gain both knowledge

of, and appreciation for, the natural habitats that surround them

A fossil sand dollar, just one of the many wonders of the Colorado Desert, whic

students can experience on DPC-sponsored field trips. Photo by Larry Hogue


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IN MEMORIAMWe have the sad news toreport that our dearfriend and conservationcolleague BYRONANDERSON died inDecember at his home inEl Cajon. Byron hadbeen battling cancer forthe past year and a half.He was a formerExecutive Committeemember of the localSierra Club Chapter, alongtime supporter ofThe Nature Conservancy,and a former Presidentand Treasurer as well as

a current Board member of the Desert Protective Council.Byron was raised in the country and never lost interest inwild lands and wilderness. He was an avid bird lover andserious amateur archaeologist. He made many contribu-tions to local conservation organizations, not the least ofwhich were his considerable business skills and financialacumen. These were of tremendous importance to theDesert Protective Council, as he guided the managementof our Mesquite Fund. Almost to the very end, he wasengaged in locating desert lands suitable for preservationbecause of their biological or archaeological values.Byrons busy, active retirement years were well used totheir fullest. We in the San Diego and desert environ-mental communities lost a good friend. We are saddenedat Byron's passing, though he leaves a rich legacy behind.

Nick Ervin

Have you missed issues of El Paisano?Weve been overhauling our database, and some

members in good standing may have been left out of

our newsletter mailings.

Here are the issues weve published over the past

year: Winter 06/07

Spring 07

Summer 07

Fall 07

Winter 07/08

If youre a paid-up member and youve missed

receiving any of these in the mail, just let us know

which ones, and well be happy to send them. Or, you

can always view them online at

www.dpcinc.org/_about.shtml.

Reach us at: Desert Protective Council

P.O.Box 3635

San Diego, CA 92163-1635

(619) 255-6111

[email protected]

DESERT PROTECTIVE COUNCIL WHO WE ARENick Ervin,President

Geoffrey Smith, Vice President

Secretary Open

Larry Klaasen, Treasurer

Martha Bertles,Fifth Officer

Terry Weiner,Imperial Projects & Conservation Coordinator

Shirley Harshenin, Webmistress www.nutheadproductions.comLarry Hogue, Communications Consultant

KEEP YOUR MEMBERSHIP IN DPC CURRENTMembership in the Desert Protective Council is based on a

January 1 to December 31 term of membership. If you are a life

member you do not need to renew. However, we are always

receptive to gifts to keep our projects going. Many of our

members, life and regular, are most generous, and your

donations help ensure that DPC remains a strong voice for

conservation in all of our deserts.

Much of our current activity is based on projects in

Imperial County, as required by the settlement of the MesquiteMine lawsuit. Since we engage in many other projects and

issues outside of Imperial County, we keep nonrestricted

donations in a separate account for use on more general desert

issues.

DESERT PROTECTIVE COUNCIL NEW AND

RENEWAL MEMBERSHIP FORM

Enclosed is my remittance of $_______

[ ]New Membership [ ]Gift Membership [ ] Renewal

Name_________________________________________Address_______________________________________City, State, Zip________________________________Phone_________________________________________Email_________________________________________Please make checks payable to: DPCMail to P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635Dues and all donations are tax-deductible.

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS (please check)[ ] Life $300.00 one time[ ] Sustaining Membership $50.00 annually

[ ] Regular Membership $25.00 annually[ ] Joint Membership $35.00 annually[ ] Senior/Student/Retired $15.00 annually[ ] Additional Gift of $_________

Have you remembered DPC in your estate planning?

Help us save paper! If you would like to receive thisnewsletter electronically, rather than in the mail, pleasesend an e-mail with the words Subscribe e-Paisano inthe subject line to: [email protected].

Photo by Geoffrey Smith


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P.O. BOX 3635SAN DIEGO, CA 92163-1635

INSIDE THIS ISSUEAnza-Borrego: A Photographic Journey ...... page 2

Desert Notes.................................................. page 3

Conservation Corner..................................... page 4

Imperial County Projects .............................. page 6

In Memoriam: Byron Anderson.................... page 7

We hope youve enjoyed thisonline version of El Paisano.

Please consider joining today:

www.dpcinc.org/_join.shtml!

FAVORITE DESERT PLACES: VIEW FROM QUEEN MOUNTAIN, JOSHUA TREE N.P.

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El Paisano Spring 2008 #200