el paisano spring 2009 #204

8/8/2019 El Paisano Spring 2009 #204

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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 [email protected] 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


4/8

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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

el paisano spring 2009 #204

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