In This Issue • Saving Walker Lake • From the Editor • The Joshua Tree Conservation Coalition • Burrowing Owls: One Step Closer to State Protections • What's The Real Problem? • West Mojave Route Designation Project • A Proposed Area of Critical Environmental Concern • Ripples in the Groundwater: A Tribute to Bill Christian … Continue reading January 2025
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October 2024
In This Issue • Mono Lake Still Needs Saving • Amazing Critters: Scorpions • Biocrusts Of The Mojave Desert • Wild And Free-Roaming Horses And Burros • Book Review: Death Valley Rocks by Marla Miller • Politics, Money, Corporations, And The Environment • Desert Updates • Wilderness Anniversaries: A Year to Celebrate • If Wishes … Continue reading October 2024
Mono Lake Still Needs Saving
A Second Hearing with the California Water Board Approaches by Caelen McQuilkin Standing at the shore of Mono Lake and looking out across the rippling water, you are looking at one unique and specific ecosystem, but also a thread that weaves together many landscapes, causes, and bodies of water. Protecting Mono Lake today means finding … Continue reading Mono Lake Still Needs Saving
Biocrusts of the Mojave Desert
A Personal Journey and Discovery by Lydia Bailey My first season in the Mojave was the hardest. Moving eighty miles east of Death Valley in mid-June is a real shock to the system. I was a summer intern at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, hired for a restoration project that was delayed in a questionable … Continue reading Biocrusts of the Mojave Desert
Wild and Free-roaming Horses and Burros
Necessary Management for Land Health by Sherman Swanson Members of Coalition for Healthy Nevada Lands, Wildlife, and Free-roaming Horses recall many experiences walking public lands and celebrating the diversity of wildlife. We also worry about loss of habitat and soil erosion, often from a history of overgrazing. We are a group of conservationists and wildlife … Continue reading Wild and Free-roaming Horses and Burros
Death Valley Rocks
Text and Photos by Marli Miller Reviewed by Craig Deutsche An Overview: In eastern California, Death Valley is a dry land with an astonishing display of rocks, sculpted landforms, and history. With little vegetation to hide the geology, the story of the land is largely exposed for those who can read the clues. Death Valley … Continue reading Death Valley Rocks
Amazing Critters: Scorpions
Animal Encounters in Death Valley National Park by Birgitta Jansen Summer 2009 I have just arrived in Death Valley National Park for a six-week stint in the Visitor Center providing tourists with park information. With the campgrounds closed, I have been assigned a one-room apartment. I pull into the parking area of a nondescript one … Continue reading Amazing Critters: Scorpions
Wilderness Anniversaries
A Year to Celebrate by Vicky Hoover This year, 2024, is definitely Wilderness Anniversary year! We celebrate the SIXTIETH anniversary of the Wilderness Act, then more round numbers − a fiftieth, a fortieth, a thirtieth, a centennial − and still more. The 1964 Wilderness Act was the landmark legislation that brought us our National Preservation … Continue reading Wilderness Anniversaries
Politics, Money, Corporations and the Environment
California's Investor-Owned Utilities Seek Special Status J. David Garmon, M.D., President, Tubb Canyon Desert Conservancy Winston Churchill once said, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." Perhaps no industry has implemented this advice to greater advantage than California's investor-owned utility (IOU) industry, composed principally of San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Pacific Gas & … Continue reading Politics, Money, Corporations and the Environment
If Wishes Were Horses . . .
Beware of False Promises for Climate Solutions by Craig Deutsche "Exciting New Discovery Will Solve the Climate Crisis . . . " How many headlines similar to this one have you seen in the past three month? Reading the article (or listening to the news report), you are told that some new breakthrough has been … Continue reading If Wishes Were Horses . . .