An ORV raceway
The Pala Raceway, a 240 acre ORV circuit of 12 sand tracks planned for the pristine Pala/Pauma river valley in northern San Diego County is just below Mt. Palomar and a few feet from the San Luis Rey River, the largest underground river in Southern California. It will also be directly located above the underground Magee creek which was altered years ago by a mining operation. This racetrack could have huge impacts on the San Luis Rey river watershed and water and air quality for many in the closed valley of Pauma. Other Indian reservations will be effected as will migrant workers in the groves and fields throughout the valley. The Pauma Valley County Club, which has many elderly members, will also be directly affected from the particulate matter.

There is discussion within the tribe (band) currently. A letter was sent by the Pala/Pauma Research Committee on August 8th to residents of zip code 92059 explaining health and other hazards from ORV activity. It included a particulate mask and ear plugs with an addendum of documentation as to its information. Sources now say that the Pala Raceway will not start in early November, 2008, but will possibly start in June of 2010!

Desert Tortoise Relocation Challenged
On July 2, 2008, the Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors filed suit in federal court against the Army and the BLM over the relocation of hundreds of federally threatened desert tortoise. The goal of the litigation is to improve desert tortoise survival in the western Mojave Desert. So far 770 animals have been moved, and heavy mortality has occurred on the 300+ animals that are being monitored. The Army is proposing to move an additional 1200 animals either this fall or next spring.

Relocation of desert tortoise at such a large scale has never been attempted. Problems with predation by hungry coyotes were the initial cause of mortality, but the Army also proceeded to move healthy tortoises into known diseased populations against the recommendations of top tortoise epidemiologists. Recent population genetics have identified populations in the western Mojave Desert around Fort Irwin as genetically distinct from their relatives in Nevada and further south and east in California. The outcome of the litigation is pending.

Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan Revised
In August 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released their new "recovery" plan for the Desert Tortoise, despite having an excellent yet unimplemented recovery plan in place. The proposed recovery plan severely weakens recovery recommendations for desert tortoise recovery, despite the fact that the species continues to decline severely over its range. The US Fish and Wildlife Service's new plan is available at
http://www.fws.gov/nevada/desert_tortoise/documents/recovery_plan/DraftRevRP
_Mojave_Desert_Tortoise.pdf (it is over 7MB), and they are taking public comment until November 3, 2008. The Center for Biological Diversity is asking them to keep the 1994 Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan in place and implement it instead of adopting the inadequate proposal. Your comments are welcome and may be sent to Nevada Fish and Wildlife Office, 1340 Financial Boulevard, Suite 234, Reno, NV 89502 or submit them to by email to dtrecovery@fws.gov

Snake Valley Water Hearings Delayed
On July 15, 2008 the Nevada State Engineer held a pre-hearing conference to establish ground rules and a hearing date for the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s (SNWA) applications for groundwater withdrawal from Snake Valley in east-central Nevada. The Water Authority was pushing for an early hearing date in order to clear the way for its’ proposed pipeline from White Pine County to Las Vegas. However, when State Engineer Tracy Taylor announced that any groundwater models used for predicting the impacts of groundwater pumping would have to be presented with full disclosure of all assumptions and results the Authority unexpectedly stated that it would need more preparation time. As a result the hearing on the Snake Valley water applications has been put off until the Fall of 2009. There is much speculation about why the Authority needs an additional year to produce its’ groundwater model and the calculations derived from it.

Proposition 7: More than meets the Eye
Proposition 7, scheduled to appear on the November ballot in California, is forty-two pages long and extremely complex. Although it initially appears to be laudable, it deserves careful consideration. The Alliance for Responsible Energy Policy has studied the document and concluded that this proposition is a deceptive scheme favorable chiefly to big energy and wealthy investors. Many of their findings follow here:

Tax dollars will be used to fund taking private property by eminent domain. To name Prop 7 CLEAN is misleading as many Big Solar Plants require fossil fuels in some aspects of their operation. These destructive and unnecessary projects can potentially scrape hundreds of thousands of undeveloped acres and consume billions of gallons of California water annually. The Big Solar scheme fails to promote roof top solar, a truly clean and locally generated energy. Prop 7 also restricts California Courts from hearing any case related to the construction or operation of any Big Solar power plant or transmission line, thereby denying citizens the right to use the courts to contest any of these projects regardless of how environmental destructive they may be. Prop 7 fast tracks approval of Big Solar and transmission projects to only 6 months, a time frame insufficient to conduct the comprehensive analysis required by California law to protect our environment.

Of most significance, Prop 7 promotes only a single vision for generating energy without consideration of other, potentially preferable strategies for meeting our energy needs. This is not the time to close doors on our future. For more information visit www.protectourlands.com

Mining Company has Eyes on Pristine Area
Timberline Resources of Coeur D’Alene Idaho is requesting a BLM permit to explore the Conglomerate Mesa area of the Inyo Mountains. If taken to conclusion, the effort could result in an open-pit cyanide heap-leach gold mine in the mountains directly east of Owens Lake.

Conglomerate Mesa is a pristine, undisturbed area, about 7-1/2 miles x 6 miles, and which never been mined, grazed, or seen ORV activity. The higher elevations have scattered piñons, with occasional Joshua trees. Mid-elevations include a Joshua tree ‘forest’. Parts of the area are a badlands of exposed twisted and contorted limestone beds. The cheat grass invasion has not arrived, and may never. Marks of man are scarce -- a freighting trail left from the 1800s, a few weathered piñon stumps when the trees were cut to support historic smelting at Cerro Gordo, and some strange rock ‘fireplaces’ that may have been connected with charcoal production for Cerro Gordo. The few roads that existed previously have been reclaimed and revegetated.

Timberline is a public company, traded under the symbol TLR. It’s attracted to Conglomerate by the recent lofty price of gold. Even so, the stock market has not looked kindly on the company – the stock is down from around $4.50 at the start of the year to half that price now.

Contacts: BLM – Randy Porter, 760-384-5400, Randy_Porter@ca.blm.gov. Sierra Club: Tom Budlong, 310-476-1731, TomBudlong@RoadRunner.com.