El Paisano Winter 2011

8/7/2019 El Paisano Winter 2011

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The newsletter o the Desert Protective Council Winter 2011 Number 210

P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635 (619) 342-5524 http://www.protectdeserts.org

Presidents Letter

by Nick Ervin

Ihave only rarely spoken in this column about specic places I truly love as icons o my30+ years o experience as a hiker and wanderer in Americas deserts. Concentrating onsouthern Caliornias arid lands seems most appropriate given DPCs primary mission.

Sadly, historically it is the southernmost desert o Caliornia, the Sonoran portion, whichhas too oten been most neglected by the conservation movement at large (aside rom the

controversial Algodones/Imperial Sand Dunes).Nearly everyone in this region has heard

o the justly amous Anza-Borrego DesertState Park. But how many have heard o theve BLM-administered wilderness areas

adjacent to the State Park which were cre-ated by the 1994 Caliornia Desert Protec-

tion Act? Can you name them?The Jacumba Mountains Wilderness

area sits hard against the international

border in ar western Imperial County.It ranges rom over 4000 eet in eleva-tion down to just a ew hundred, makingit astoundingly diverse in landorm and

habitat. Stair-step valleys with weird boul-der piles characterize this place. There are

hidden springs and palm oases plus lots opaleoIndian artiacts to be discovered here

i you know where to look. It also holds arare US stand o crucixion thorn trees inthe middle o isolated Skull Valley only a

ew hundred yards rom Mexico. Fabulous.The Coyote Mountains Wilderness,

along the State Parks eastern boundary, ismost amous or its sculptured sandstone

wind cave and stark badland ormationsmixed with incredibly rich marine ossildeposits our to six million years old. I you

are really lucky, you will nd a small andperectly ormed natural bridge in a remote

canyon here. Gypsum crystals literallymake entire hillsides glisten in the sun. You

gotta see it to believe it.

The seldom-visited Fish Creek Moun-tains Wilderness contains bighorn sheepand the nest, most complex dry waterchute (waterall ormation) that I have seen

anywhere in the world, just an hours walkrom car access to the edge o the wilder-

ness. I once came across a nearly intactIndian olla (ceramic water jar) broken in

place on a bajada emptying out o a canyon

issuing rom this desert mountain range.Wow!The Sawtooth Mountains Wilderness

sits on the state parks southwestern fank

and extends all the way rom the desertfoor at Earthquake Valley up the slopes

o the Coast Range to the border o a pineorest. Rugged peaks, natural springs and

the densest concentration o Indian pot-sherds I have ever encountered are locatedin this special place. And i you like plenti-

ul desert plant lie, then the open space oInner Pasture is or you. A number o years

ago I stumbled across a perect rattlesnakeskin that had been shed in a canyon bot-

tom where I was hiking. I have observedrare desert bighorn sheep here on occasion,as well.

The Carrizo Gorge Wilderness sitsbetween historic McCain Valley and the ex-

treme southern boundary o the State Park.It provides panoramic views o the western

continued on page 2continued on page 2

Conservation

Corner

by Terry Weiner

Welcome to 2011. For deenders o

deserts and western public lands ingeneral, the year was o to a depressing

start with the Department o the Interiorsapproval o nine huge industrial solar

development projects on tens o thousandso acres o intact habitat in the Mojave andSonoran deserts. Other mega-solar and

wind projects are in the review process,including a 15,000-acre industrial wind

arm proposal north and west o Ocotilloin western Imperial County.

The approval o the 100-plus-mile

Sunrise Powerlink transmission line acrossImperial Valley through the ClevelandNational Forest and San Diego Countyback country was another blow to those

who support renewable solar energydevelopment in the built environment

where the power is needed. At the end o2010, Congress renewed stimulus unds

or industrial solar and wind developmenton public lands. Then came the release othe 11,000-page Drat Solar Programmatic

Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS)which expands even urther the number

o acres o southwest desert proposed ordevelopment o mega-solar projects. Once

again, it eels like a ree-or-all. Many desertactivists elt worn out by the stream o badnews beore the rst month o the year was

over.I thought about what my dear departed

mentor Harriet Allen would advise us todo: get out the calendar; ll in the dates o


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El Paisano, the newsletter o the Desert Protective Council2

Letter rom the President

rom page 1

edge o the Great American Desert belowrom a plateau with eerie rock ormations.

It also has a huge desert palm oasis in oneo its steep canyons. From a vantage pointin this wilderness you can see across Carrizo

Gorge to the amous trestles in Goat Canyon

o the deunct San Diego & Arizona EasternRailway. When built 100 years ago it was thelargest wooden train trestle in the world.

These are all gems too little visited bythe public, except the Wind Caves area othe Coyote Mountains. They are not noted

destination points like Joshua Tree andDeath Valley national parks, the Mojave

National Preserve, or even the nearby StatePark. Nonetheless, they hold beauty and

habitat value to match much better-knowndesert places.

Your DPC ghts every day or unique

places like these, along with the morevisible projects we are always involved in,

some o which are described elsewherein this newsletter. But we can always talk

about your avorite desert haunts when wemeet each other around that next bend in adesert canyon somewhere.

Nick Ervin, President

all the upcoming public hearings, projectscoping meetings and comment deadlines;work with colleagues to divvy up the at-

tendance at meetings and comment-letterwriting, so there would be a voice or the

desert at every possible venue and at least acouple o letters submitted on all the major

project proposals.Action is indeed the antidote to despair.

I am glad to report that there have been a

number o positive actions so ar this newyear, which may help slow down the solar

juggernaut to some degree:In December the Quechan Tribe led

a lawsuit against the Imperial Valley SolarTwo project in Ocotillo, and was grantedan injunction based on imminent harm to

signicant cultural resources.Tessera, the owner o the Imperial

Valley Solar Two project, sold the projectwithout breaking ground.

In January, La Cua de Aztlan SacredSites Protection Circle, a Native American

cultural protection group, led suit in USDistrict Court challenging BLM permit-

ting o the Ivanpah, Blythe, Imperial Valley,Lucerne Valley, Calico and Genesis projects.

Also in January, the Protect Our

Communities Foundation and Backcoun-try Against Dumps led a NEPA lawsuit

against Imperial Solar Two. DPC contrib-uted $20,000 toward this lawsuit.

The Ninth Circuit Court in San Fran-cisco reversed and set aside DoE approvalo the Southwest and Mid-Atlantic Nation-

al Interest Electric Transmission Corridors.See more on this on page three in the Alerts

section. The DPC is proud to have been anintervening plainti on this litigation.

Over the past two years we have keptyou inormed about the Wind Zero project,the massive proposed law enorcement

training acility and Grand-Prix-styleracing resort community slated or the

western Imperial Valley. In January, theDPC and the Sierra Club sued the Imperial

County Board o Supervisors and WindZero over the project. You can read more

on the acing page. The Quechan Tribeled a separate lawsuit on Wind Zero this

month on the basis o impacts to culturalresources on the site.

Meanwhile, DPCs Chris Clarke and

our distributed generation expert Bill Pow-ers met in January with Steve Black, coun-

sel to Secretary o the Interior Ken Salazar,as well as Department o Energy sta, and

were able to share inormation about thealternatives to remote desert solar projectson public lands.

We are seeing more and more mediacoverage o rootop solar. Our Solar Done

Right web site (solardoneright.org) is at-tracting increasing interest and inquiries

and incoming Caliornia Governor Brownhas a plan to aggressively pursue rootopsolar and local distributed generation.

So theres lots o reason or optimism.We cant do it without you, though. Why

not get in touch and see how you can helpout?

Conservation Corner

rom page 1

There is something infectious about the magic of the Southwest. Some are immune to it,

but there are others who have no resistance to the subtle virus and who must spend the rest

of their lives dreaming of the incredible sweep of the desert, of great golden mesas with

purple shadows, and tremendous stars appearing at dusk from a turquoise sky. Once infected

there is nothing one can do but strive to return again and again. H. M. Wormington

Wildowers in the Fish Creek Mountains Wilderness. Photo by Stephen Peel, BLM


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http://www.protectdeserts.org 3

The site o the proposed Wind Zero Law Enorcement Training Project in the Yuha Desert

near Ocotillo. Photo by Chazz Layne.

DPC Sues to Block Wind Zero

The Desert Protective Council (DPC) and the Sierra Club led suit in Caliornia

Superior Court in Imperial County on January 26 against the Imperial County Boardo Supervisors and Wind Zero, developers o a proposed law enorcement training acility

and Grand-Prix-style racing resort community slated or the western Imperial Valley.

The groups contend that the Board oSupervisors acted unlawully when theyapproved the project on December 21, as

they and the developer ailed to address theprojects ull impact on the local ederally

protected, sole-source aquier that pro-vides the Ocotillo/Nomirage area with its

drinking water. The groups charge that thedeendants did not adequately analyze the

high noise levels Wind Zero would create.The suit asks that all permits and plans ordevelopment o the site be rescinded.

The Imperial County Board o Super-visors made a mistake in giving this project

the green light, said Terry Weiner, ImperialCounty Coordinator o the DPC. The Su-

pervisors ignored overwhelming evidenceprovided by People Against Wind Zero(PAWZ) that Wind Zero would shatter

their desert silence and dry up their wells. The proposed training acility and race

course are not in the best interests o thecommunity or Imperial County, said Edie

Harmon, an Ocotillo resident and PAWZmember. No community and no countyshould be considered a sacrice area or

private prot, or the dumping ground or aproject that is unwelcome in more afuent

communities or counties.Wind Zero would include a six-mile

race track, two helipads and a landing

strip, 56 aircrat hangars, and both indoorand outdoor shooting ranges, all o whichwould be sited immediately adjacent to

both the residential community o Nomi-rage and the BLM Yuha Basin Area o Criti-

cal Environmental Concern. The projectwould include a gated community with 32

luxury townhouses, a 150-unit RV parkand 100-room hotel, restaurants, and sup-

port and maintenance acilities.The completed development could use

as much as 89 acre-eet o groundwater

each year, pumping it rom an aquier thatis already in decline.

The Wind Zero project is blatantly in-consistent with the established community

plan o Ocotillo/Nomirage said CatherineNicklen o PAWZ. It would alter the ruralcharacter o the community and, more

importantly, it would put the communitysonly source o water at risk.

The Ocotillo area is a jewel with itsmountain views and rich desert vegeta-

tion, said Susan Massey, o PAWZ. Myretired riends who live there love the placeor the beauty and the peace. Many o us

who live and work in the cities o the valleylove going out there to hike, take pictures

o the wildfowers, and enjoy the quiet. Itsnot a place to put shooting ranges and a

racetrack.

Activist receives PresidentsVolunteer Service AwardThe Center or Community Action andEnvironmental Justice (CCAEJ), whichserves communities in Riverside and San

Bernardino counties, honored Donna

Charpied at a Volunteer RecognitionDinner on February 3. Donna receivedGold Service Level o The Presidents

Volunteer Service Awards in recognition odonating more than 840 hours o volun-teer time helping to make her community

better. Donna, who has served on CCAEJsBoard o Directors, conducted a successul

20-year battle against a massive proposedlandll or LAs garbage on the edge o

Joshua Tree National Park wilderness. Sheis now organizing opposition to a massivesolar plant in the same region.

I am honored and humbled, said Don-na. I never expected recognition rom the

President o the United States. The irony othis award is that the Presidents misguided

energy policy has created an exponentialincrease in the need or volunteer activities.We are up to the challenge.

Court Setback or TransmissionIndustryA three-judge panel rom the Ninth U.S.

Circuit Court o Appeals ruled 2 to 1February 1 that the US Department o

Energy did not adequately consult aectedstates or conduct environmental reviewswhen it designated huge new ast-tracked

transmission corridors across 100 millionacres in the Mid-Atlantic and Western US.

Such corridors in Caliornia would haveincluded much o Death Valley and Joshua

Tree national parks and Mojave NationalPreserve, Anza-Borrego Desert State Parkand seven national orests.

The Natural Resources Deense Coun-cil, Caliornia Wilderness Coalition, and

Wilderness Society were lead plaintis inthe case. DPC and eight other groups and

individuals joined as intervenors.The study at issue identied areas in

which electrical transmission capacity was

deemed insucient to meet growing en-ergy demand, especially in an era in which

ederal policy stresses widespread remoteutility-scale wind and solar generation. The

Alerts and Events

continued on page 5


4/8


The company wants to begin construc-

tion by the end o 2011. Ocotillo Windwould, at build-out, produce 550 mega-

watts o electricity with 193 wind turbines400 eet tall. Pattern Wind claims that the

projects nal permanent ootprint will beonly 142 acres. That is a laughable claim,considering the act that 36-oot-wide

roads to each turbine will be scraped oall desert plants and soil, and considering

the destruction to the desert viewshed ormany miles around, the obliteration o the

wild desert character and dark skies o the

area and the permanent loss o the rural

residential character o Ocotillo. Criticalhabitat corridors or the Peninsular big-

horn sheep and the fat-tailed horned lizardwill be ragmented. Federally protected

golden eagles have been observed in thearea, and would be seriously threatenedby hundreds o moving blades. With other

nearby proposals or industrial energyprojects in the area, and with the destruc-

tion o a 100 plus mile swath o desertand national orest and conservation areas

or the boondoggle Sunrise Powerlink

transmission line, the cumulative destruc-tion would cause long-term and tragicdevastation to hundreds o thousands o

acres o viable desert habitat in Caliorniaand Mexico. Other proposed utility-scale

renewable energy projects throughoutadjacent southwestern states threaten to

wreak widespread loss o desert on anunprecedented scale.

DPC is working to promote the alterna-

tives to these remote desert solar and windprojects. We plan to carry our message o

energy conservation, eciency and localrootop solar and distributed generation

to key congressional committee members,Governor Browns sta and to local deci-sion makers. We must slow the progress o

these industrial desert proposals, and per-suade the Obama administration to shit

incentives or renewable energy develop-ment to local jurisdictions, and home and

business owners.

An Ill Wind or Ocotilloby Terry Weiner

In 2010, Pattern Wind submitted an application to the BLM to build a 15,000-acre windarm in Imperial County. Ocotillo Wind, between the Jacumba and Coyote Wildernessareas and abutting the southern end o Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, would surround

the town o Ocotillo on three sides. The BLMs drat Environmental Impact Statement willlikely be available or public comment this spring with a nal document issued this all.

In December, the Department o Energy

and the BLM jointly released the drat SolarPEIS. At 11,000 pages, describing in excess

o 677,000 acres o Solar Energy Zones(SEZs) across six states, and with a short

three-month period or public comment,the PEIS on the ace o it seemed like abrick weighing that runaway reight trains

throttle down to ull speed ahead.The reality was even worse. Under

ederal law, an EIS must describe a rangeo alternatives to the proposed action or

policy, with the environmental eects oeach compared. Generally, these alterna-tives include a Preerred Alternative the

strategy the planners really want to put or-ward and a No Action Alternative to oer

a baseline level o impact against which theother alternatives might be measured.

Slating more than 677,000 acres o pub-

lic lands or industrial solar developmentis only one alternative in the Solar PEIS.

The agencies Preerred Alternative, calledthe Solar Energy Development Program

Alternative, would merely make develop-ment o the SEZs a priority, while stillencouraging development o more than 20

million additional acres o public land inthe southwest.

While one might reasonably expect sucha documents No Action Alternative to

describe the baseline eect o not develop-ing any public lands or industrial solar,No Action in this document is construed

to mean no new regulation o develop-ment. The agencies have identied about

70 million additionalacres o public land

theoretically vulnerable to development

under this alternative.Nowhere in the PEIS is the cumula-

tive eect o other energy developmentconsidered, a staggering deciency giventhat much western public land not physi-

cally suitable or solar development is being

considered or wind projects.Nowhere are market orces considered;

the solar power market is evolving rapidly

as urban photovoltaic becomes more andmore competitive, and many o the sixstates plan to export renewable energy to

the other ve.The PEIS nowhere considers a distrib-

uted generation alternative, or the potentialtrue No Action alternative o aggressive

energy conservation, which is within thepurview o at least one o the agenciesinvolved.

The document is atally fawed.It may be that the PEIS will survive

with minor changes, with the 677,000-acrealternative chosen and maybe one or two

o the more problematic SEZs shrunk oreliminated. Such an outcome would seema reasonable compromise according to

the rules o the game, but it would stillconstitute an unprecedented assault on our

desert. We can do better.

The Solar PEIS: A Too-Fast Take

by Chris Clarke

In 2010, desert deenders quailed as they watched one massive ast-tracked public landssolar project ater another sail through the approval process with what seemed haphaz-ard and cursory review. Sympathetic sta in regulatory agencies suggested that the long-

awaited Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement or Solar Energy Developmentin Six Southwestern States, aka the Solar PEIS, oered a sane way orward: a systematic,coordinated way o managing what had been a chaotic review process. Finally someone

would be in control o the runaway reight train.


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http://www.protectdeserts.org 5

Member Profle

Tom Budlong

by Chris Clarke

Though he grew up ascinated by hisathers travels to China Lake as adeense contractor during World War II,Tom Budlong didnt plan to become adesert conservation activist when he moved

to Van Nuys in the late 1950s. A mechanicalengineer in his early 20s, hed moved romIllinois to work or a San Fernando Valley

missile contractor. Once he got to know thedesert a little, though, it didnt take a rocket

scientist to gure out he was a desert rat.The desert became a continual attrac-

tion, he says. Several o us had a habito driving out what is now Highway 14 toshoot at rabbits. Notice I said shoot at, not

shoot. The rabbits spooked early and ranast so we called it Rabbit Aversion Train-

ing. It didnt take too long to realize it wasa lot more interesting to watch the rabbits

and other things than bother them. Ivebeen hooked since.

A hal century later Tom is still hooked,

and that stretch o the western Mojave nearHighway 14 still holds a special place in his

aections. In recent years Tom has workedto keep o-road vehicles out o Surprise

Canyon in Death Valley NP and miningcompanies o o Conglomerate Mesa.

Hes helped rediscover the historic 40-mile Lonesome Miner Trail in the InyoMountains, abandoned since 1941. He

hiked the trail end to end at least twicein the 1990s. (His usual hiking pace can

leave people two decades his junior inthe dust, a act to which this writer can

personally attest.)Toms also worked to prevent solar

developers rom blading the desert,

including some o the last Mojaveground squirrel habitat near Ridgecrest,

submitting testimony to the BLM andCaliornia Energy Commission (CEC).

Desert solar is the issue that concernshim most these days, Tom says, witho-road vehicle abuse running a modest

second place. Theres huge potential orhuge destruction, he says. Accordingly,

Tom has spent a considerable amount otime intervening in the CECs approval

process or several large solar projects,

including the ill-ated Imperial Solar Twoproject, recently sold by the foundering

Tessera corporation to an East Coast rm.Toms background in mechanical engi-

neering helped him ask some devastatingquestions about the real-world reliability oTesseras unwieldy SunCatcher technology.

On Toms mind o late is Inyo Countys

general plan, being rewritten to promotedevelopment o renewable energy romSandy Valley to Centennial Flat. It appears

Inyo County eels anything fat or unde-veloped or outside designated wildernessshould be used or solar or wind, he says.

A member o just about every organi-zation that works in the desert, rom the

Sierra Club and Caliornia Wilderness Co-alition to the Center or Biological Diver-

sity, Tom says he joined the DPC becausethe DPC works to spread the word that thedesert is worth something.

People just dont get that theres valuehere, he says; scenic value, biological

value, cultural value. Policy gets made bya bunch o people in New York and DC

whove never slept on the ground out here.They think its a barren wasteland becausethey dont know whats here. For more than

50 years the DPCs been working to showpeople whats out here, to get them to love

it. Thats why Im a lie member.

Tom Budlong. Terry Weiner photo

court directed the department to start its

so-called congestion study again.The DoE had argued that its decision

would not result in environmental impacts

because it merely identied broad cor-

ridors and did not issue permits to licensespecic routes. The panel did not nd theargument persuasive.

Wilderness Study Areasback on tableIn December the Obama administra-tion rescinded a Bush-era Department o

Interior rule barring the creation o newWilderness Study Areas. Desert lovers again

have an opportunity to work with theirlocal BLM oces to propose or study andprotection areas o the desert with wilder-

ness qualities. I the BLM determines thatan area has wilderness qualities, the agency

will once again be able to manage the areaor protection in anticipation o possible

uture wilderness designation.A urther positive development is a new

Interior Department drat manual instruct-

ing the BLM to consider and protect landswith wilderness characteristics in its land

use plans. The manual directs BLM StateDirectors to help eld oces ensure that

lands with wilderness characteristics areadequately considered and wildlands are

appropriately designated in land use plans.

San Diego Supervisors ApproveEurus Solar in Borrego SpringsThe San Diego County Board o Supervi-

sors unanimously approved permits or a35-megawatt solar energy project on 341

acres o intact desert habitat along PalmCanyon Drive in Borrego Springs, CA inJanuary.

It was an unpopular decision. Theolks in Borrego eel [the project] is a good

idea in the wrong place, Borrego Springsresident Mark Jorgensen, ormer superin-

tendent o Anza-Borrego Desert State Parktold the San Diego Union Tribune ater thedecision. Jorgensen pointed out that allow

armland more suited to the project liesjust north o town.

Alerts and Events

rom page 3

continued on page 6


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[T]he most important thing I could door my students was to get them to supple-

ment their indoor classroom and laboratoryexperiences with direct contact with Naturein the out-o-doors. I wanted them to go into

the deserts and mountains where they couldlearn frsthand the delights o primitive living

and playing while gleaning knowledge o thenatural world.

That same thinking underlies DPCsSalton Basin Living Laboratory Program(SBLL). Since 2008 we have worked to

develop and rene the programs curricu-lum and teacher training, which has relied

on eld trips to Anza Borrego Desert StatePark and the paleontological laboratory

at the Stout Research Center in BorregoSprings. This year, through a mutuallysupportive partnership with the Imperial

Valley Regional Occupational Program(IVROP) we are able to add eld trips to

the New River Wetlands Project and theSonny Bono National Wildlie Reuge. Ivan

Soto, the coordinator or the IVROP En-vironmental Program, is doing wonderul

work with us both on site with the studentsand collaborating in the development ostudent eld materials. We are also working

with the proessional sta at the Reuge

to ensure all materials are relevant to theReuge mission.

As a participant in SBLL, my best andmost inspiring times come with the stu-dents. The th graders in the photo have

just completed an owl-pellet dissectionlab, the ollow up activity to the previous

days visit to the Salton Sea NWR. They areposing with a barn owl ound alongside

a eld earlier that day. Their mugging orthe camera doesnt hide their respect orthis bird, gently held and touched. Mo-

ments earlier they had blown on the short

eathers in the acial disc, parting them tosee the naked channel along which sound

travels to the ears. They held the owl andmarveled at its weight, so light or its size.

They inspected the sot fuy edges o thefight eathers and began to understandsilence. The class was able to take advantage

o an unexpected mortality and will carry a

living memory with them.Were told that students are jaded by

media and have to be continuously stimu-

lated. As it turns out, gleaning knowledgerom the natural world oers them con-tinual opportunities or stimulation. Our

job is developing materials and providingopportunities that support this gleaning.

Your contributions to SBLL via the DPCwill help us keep this program going.

Watch this space and the DPCs websiteat protectdeserts.org and we will keep youinormed on how were doing.

Federal Judge Orders BLM toControl ORV AbuseA ederal judge held in February that the

BLM violated both ederal law and its ownguidelines when it designated 5,098 miles

o o-road vehicle (ORV) routes as parto the Western Mojave (WEMO) Plan. USDistrict Court or Northern Caliornia Judge

Susan Illston also ruled that the BLM hadnot inormed ORV users about the limits

o legal riding areas, monitored ORV abusesuciently, maintained accurate maps o the

areas under their jurisdiction, or adequately

ground-truthed route locations.

The ruling mandates that the BLM com-plete a new designation o ORV routes by2014 and reconsider o-roadings destruc-

tive environmental impacts on public landsin the Western Mojave Region. Other parts

o the ruling require the BLM to increaselaw enorcement to prevent illegal activ-

ity; provide signage on designated routes;install inormational kiosks; better inormthe public on ORV restrictions; and imple-

ment immediate measures to monitor ORVabuse on public lands.

The ruling was prompted by a suit inederal court brought by Community

ORV Watch, The Alliance or Responsible

Recreation, The Wilderness Society, Friends

o Juniper Flats, Western San BernardinoLandowners Association, Caliornia NativePlant Society, the Sierra Club, Public Em-

ployees or Environmental Responsibility,and Desert Survivors.

The judge determined that the BLMhad avored ORV use over the protection

o natural resources, water quality, en-dangered species and archeological sites.The judge ruled that the BLM must place

notices on open routes, erect inormationalkiosks and actively prosecute riders ound

on closed routes and in areas o limits toORVs.

Alerts and Events

rom page 5

Fith graders rom Phil D. Swing Elementary School in Brawley learn about owls. Photo by

Ivan Soto.

Salton Basin Living Laboratory Update

by Pat Flanagan

Since 1954 the DPC has worked to educate the public about our magnicent westerndeserts. Today, education generally reers to ormal schooling. But or DPCs ound-ing member biologist Edmund Jaeger it meant camping under the stars, tramping, sitting,

watching, and recording the deserts show o lie. For 33 years as Proessor o Zoology at

Riverside City College he brought his students to the desert. Jaeger said;


7/8

http://www.protectdeserts.org

Desert Protective Council

New and Renewal Membership Form

Enclosed is my remittance o $_______New Membership Git 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)Lie $300.00 one timeSustaining Membership $50.00 annuallyRegular Membership $25.00 annuallyJoint Membership $35.00 annually

Senior/Student/Retired $15.00 annuallyAdditional Git o $_________

For donations o $100.00 or more, we will send you a copy oCaliornia Desert

Miracle by Frank Wheat or Tortoises Through the Lens (Lamrom and Knighten,

eds). Help us save paper! I you would like to receive our newsletter electronically,

rather than in the mail, please send an e-mail message stating subscribe electroni-

cally to: [email protected].

!

Desert Protective CouncilNick Ervin, PresidentGeofrey Smith, Vice President/

SecretaryLarry Klaasen, Treasurer

Terry Weiner, Imperial Projects &Conservation Coordinator

Chris Clarke, CommunicationsConsultant

First Ever! DPC T-shirts Now Available

With the DPC logo on the ront, andLaura Cunninghams fne Save theImperial Valley graphic shownhere on the reverse side.

$10.00Email [email protected]

or call (619) 342-5524 to order.

Available in sizes small, medium and large.

Proceeds benet the Desert ProtectiveCouncils work to protect the

deserts.

Books

Jules: Desert Adventure and FoundTreasureby Paul Wertlake

Reading level: Ages 9-12

Publisher: CreateSpace (September 24,2010)

Jules, a Viszla(Hungarian huntingdog), visits Anza-

Borrego Desert StatePark and the paleon-

tological sculpturesnearby. Colorul

photos o the sculp-tures and wildfow-ers, along with

anciul accompanying text writtenrom Jules perspective, make this a

diverting read or young dog ans discov-ering an interest in the desert. You can

purchase this book, as well as the authorsother work, by visiting vistasbypaul.com.

Last Chance To Sea? The EvitableDecline o the Salton Seaby Christina Lange

78 ppPublisher: Blurb.com

A portrait o the Salton Sea eaturingimages o wetlands, residents and visitors.

The book documents wetlands that werecreated to help clean up the rivers that

fow into the sea, the people o the SaltonSea area, and images o the beautiul and

ascinating lands nearby. Purchase at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1387890.


8/8

Desert ProtectiveCouncilSince 1954protectdeserts.org

P.O. Box 3635San Diego, CA92163-1635

The newsletter o the Desert Protective Council

El Paisano #210 Winter 2011

Inside:

3 DPC Sues Over

Wind Zero

4 Ocotillo Wind,

Solar PEIS

5 Member

Profle:

Tom Budlong

6 Salton Basin

Living Laboratory

Update

Books & T-

Shirts

Bullard Wash, AZ: This lush stand o creosote with both Joshua trees and saguaros is one o 24 Solar Energy Zones

which the Interior Departments Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement designates

as suitable or industrial energy development. Photo by Chris Clarke.

Documents

El Paisano Winter 2011