P.O.
Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635
Phone: (619) 342-5524 Website: www.dpcinc.org Blog: www.desertblog.net
Winter 2008 Editor: Larry Hogue
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
It is traditional to look back at year’s end and assess where one
has been—and where one is going. To say that the prospect of
the end of the Bush Administration’s policies is a relief would
be a gross understatement. Republican or Democrat, if you are
one who supports conservation of public lands, habitat and
endangered species, this past president has been an unmitigated
disaster for our environment. The list of outrages is too long and
familiar to recite here. Suffice it to say that the past eight years
could hardly have been worse, and last minute shenanigans took
place right until the end: from eleventh hour attempts to gut the
all-important Endangered Species Act to “drill baby drill”
regulations governing some of Utah’s, and our nation’s, most
sensitive and prized public land havens.
Nonetheless, we have endured as a body politic these tough
years and real hope for change is now on the horizon. While our
new president has little direct background on public lands and
endangered species issues, he does clearly possess a sensitivity
to issues and policies affecting our environment. His selection
of Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado to be the new Secretary of the
Interior Dept. is a hopeful and refreshing change from the Gale
Norton, scandal-plagued days of yesteryear. While not a
conservationist on the order of Congressman Raul Grijalva of
Arizona (the first choice of many conservation groups), as a
choice for Interior, Sen. Salazar is a moderately conservative
Democrat with deep roots in the land of rural Colorado and past
experience actually running a government department: the
Colorado Dept. of Natural Resources, where he established a
solid reputation for executive ability and decent overall policies,
from an environmental perspective. His executive experience,
and his reputation for reaching across political boundaries,
should serve him and us well in Washington at the Interior Dept.
Conflicts over land and natural resources can only increase,
what with the need for both fossil fuels and non-fossil renew-
able energy sources surely growing over time. As DPC mem-
bers, you have read here in “El Paisano” and on our expanding
desert blog in months past about the headlong land rush in the
California desert for solar, wind and geothermal sites. And this
is just the beginning. Literally hundreds of applications
Number 203
covering potentially over a million acres(!) have been submitted
to California desert BLM offices. Most are decidedly ill-advised
and largely speculative venture proposals by companies with
often little to no prior experience in the energy sector. Quick
buck artists smell money in the panicked push for renewable
energy in a world of post-$4 per gallon of gas.
Along those lines, many of you have by now heard the
news that the southern route of the Sunrise Powerlink project
was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission
despite reams of protests from citizens and persuasive technical
arguments against it. The PUC was under intense pressure from
the Governor and a host of powerful political entities to approve
the project despite findings from one of its own Administrative
Law judges dismissing the need for the project.
As distressing as this news is, it will be the subject of
inevitable and prolonged litigation challenging the decision;
plus, we can take some small comfort in that the project’s
preferred route through the heart of Anza-Borrego Desert State
Park was made politically impossible by years of hard work
from the conservation community. Still, the news is a blow.
DPC has fought, and will continue to be part of the fight against
ANY route for the Powerlink for the simple and straightforward
reason that it is a bad idea: environmentally, economically, and
in terms of progressive energy policy.
Follow the progress of DPC’s crusade opposed to Sunrise
on our exciting blog on the revamped DPC website. And, as
always, we can talk it over when we run into each other beyond
that next curve in a desert canyon somewhere.
Nick Ervin, President
"Compromise is often necessary, but it ought not to
originate with environmental leaders. Our role is to hold fast to
what we believe is right, to fight for it, to find allies, and to
adduce all possible arguments for our cause. If we cannot find
enough vigor in us or our friends to win, then let someone else
propose the compromise, which we must then work hard to coax
our way. We thus become a nucleus around which activists can
build and function."
-- David Brower
 CONSERVATION CORNER
By Terry Weiner
Conservation & Imperial County Projects Coordinator
Happy New Year DPC Members and Desert Defenders! 2008
was a fascinating and productive year for the Desert Protective
Council and our conservation efforts. We made progress in all
of our projects, both in Imperial County and desert-wide.
During the past twelve months, we have been able to advance
our desert education goals, increase our grassroots outreach and
our coalition building and have broadened our advocacy for
desert resource protection throughout the California Desert. I
would like to share some of the high points of 2008 with you.
One of the most exciting times of the year for me was
planning for and enjoying DPC’s 54th Annual Membership
meeting, which we held at the lovely 29 Palms Inn near Joshua
Tree National Park. More than 25 DPC members and friends
made the trip to 29 Palms from places all over the California
desert. Our honored guest speakers, geologists Howard Wilshire
and Jane Nielson, traveled from Sebastopol, CA, to do a
presentation for us about their wonderful new book, The
American West at Risk, which took 10 years of work leading to
its publication by Oxford University Press in May. DPC
bestowed the 2008 Annual DPC Award of Merit to Howard and
Jane for this book, which provides valuable information about
our western natural heritage, threats to irreplaceable resources
and tools to help combat our current destructive practices.
Early in 2008, on behalf of DPC and as an organizational
member of the Alliance for Responsible Recreation, I helped
plan, organize and recruit speakers for the “Desert Protection
Summit” held in Joshua Tree in April. This public educational
forum featured panel discussions on the many fragile natural
and cultural resources of the California Desert and how to man-
age the impacts of off-road vehicles in our communities and on
our public lands.
I imagine that most of you know that the newest major
threats to the integrity of the desert are the many hundreds of
proposals by huge wind and solar energy companies to build
industrial-scale energy projects and transmission lines across
the desert southwest. The Mojave Desert and areas of Imperial
County have been targeted for their intense solar resource. DPC
is moving to address this onslaught in a sensible fashion,
because the facts show that we can combat global warming
without sacrificing our deserts. The San Diego Smart Energy
2020 plan is just one example of how this can be accomplished.
Unfortunately, many of the larger environmental organizations
have come to the opposite conclusion, deciding that some part
of our deserts must be sacrificed to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. As usual, you can count on DPC to take a
courageous stand in defense of desert landscapes, even when
this stance is not popular.
To address the Big Renewables issue, I was one of the
organizers of a meeting of desert homeowners, consumer
groups, and conservation organizations to explore how to push
back against the idea that large “renewable” power plants are
2
the best way to combat global warming. The new coalition we
formed on Labor Day weekend evolved over the rest of the year
and continues to function as a discussion group and
clearinghouse for the latest information on renewable energy
developments. Several of us have been featured in the press and
on the radio with our message that we can produce much of the
energy we need through conservation and energy efficiency
(“negawatts”) and through roof-top solar and local distributed
generation. Our organizations also made a strong showing at a
recent meeting of the Renewable Energy Transmission
Initiative, a process skewed toward large-scale renewables (see
separate article).
In the fall, I participated in a panel discussion about the
nature of conservation at the Joshua Tree Eco-Summit whose
main theme was how to live more sustainably in the desert. It
was a very well attended two-day summit with speakers from
various disciplines covering the latest technology for renewable
energy, weather-proofing your home, alternative home building,
and growing your own food. The event was capped by tours of
local solar-powered, straw bale and other “green”-type
buildings.
This year, the Desert Protective Council received 70 copies
of an important educational book called Thrillcraft- the
Environmental Consequences of Motorized Recreation, edited
by George Wuerthner, our newly appointed member of the DPC
Advisory Panel. We helped distribute this book of essays and
stunning photographs to decision-makers locally and state-wide,
to libraries, to recreational equipment stores and to media in
order to foster better awareness of the irreparable damage that
off road vehicle recreation wreaks on our national public lands.
Check out the Thrillcraft web site: www.stopthrillcraft.org.
During 2008, I was pleased to be able to participate as a
member of the Imperial County Clean Air Initiative, a project to
help educate the public about ways to help improve air quality
in Imperial County. This important project has recently had its
funding renewed by the American Lung Association. Imperial
County is in non-attainment status for PM10 pollutants and for
ozone and has the second highest childhood asthma rate in
California. I have also been participating in the monthly State
Implementation Process (SIP) at the Imperial County Air
Quality District. The purpose of the SIP is for the County to
come up with a plan to meet State EPA standards and reduce
PM10 and ozone pollution. They will have their December 08
deadline extended. The air quality issues in Imperial County are
multi-faceted and are complicated by being adjacent to the large
industrial town of Mexicali, Mexico.
I am enthusiastic about the prospects for 2009. With the
ongoing support and input from our members we will continue
to work together to foster more love and appreciation for our
beloved deserts. Please do call or email me with your ideas, tell
your friends that if they love the desert they should consider
becoming members of the DPC, and please visit our DPC blog
and website frequently.
 54TH ANNUAL MEETING A SUCCESS
The Desert Pro-
tective Council’s
Annual Meeting
on October 26th
was a smashing
success. Many
participants felt it
was one of DPC’s
best ever.
The 29 Palms
Inn provided an
ideal venue for the
meeting, and
DPC President Nick Ervin introducing
thanks go to
Conservation Coordinator Terry Weiner.
owners Paul and
Jane Smith for their hospitality. The meeting was a blend of
socializing, exploring, and learning, with a diverse group of
attendees. Pat Flanagan led off the day with a talk about the
geological history of the local portion of the San Andreas fault,
and how it helped create the Oasis of Mara, which is part of the
Inn’s grounds.
Our first speaker, Joshua Tree National Park Superintend-
ent Curt Sauer gave a presentation on issues affecting the park
and surrounding lands, including military exercises, the Eagle
Mountain Landfill (with a big shout out to Larry and Donna
Charpied for their literally heroic efforts to prevent this abuse of
lands that should have been made part of the park), and
proposed housing developments on two sides of the park.
Sauer also pointed out that the park has been fighting
similar issues since it was founded in the 1930s. His bottom
line: since this is an ongoing battle (“You’ll never win, they’ll
never lose”), we need to celebrate the successes we have.
Next, Ruth Nolan (featured in the last issue of El Paisano)
read a poem entitled “After the Navajo Night Chant,” incorpo-
rating both lyricism and the environmental and human history
of the desert. She was followed by Laurel Williams from the
California Wilderness Coalition giving a quick update on up-
coming wilderness bills, including a new desert wilderness bill
for which she drafted us all to write letters. Some of the new
desert areas that could be included in the bill: Big Morongo
Canyon Preserve west of Joshua Tree, areas along the Colorado
River, and Table Mountain Wilderness Study Area in eastern
San Diego County.
After lunch it was time for the keynote presentation by
Howard Wilshire and Jane Nielsen, authors of The American
West at Risk: Science, Myths, and Politics of Land Abuse and
Recovery. With dramatic slides showing a variety of types of
destruction, the authors took the audience on a virtual tour of
the ways we are degrading the environment, and how this will
affect our society’s future. The purpose of their book is to pro-
vide solid evidence to those concerned with environmental
issues, and particularly those engaged in particular conservation
efforts.
3
The authors laid the causes of these problems at the door of
our overly consumptive way of life, and the amount of waste
that lifestyle generates. That includes not only excess CO2 that
is now heating the planet, but a variety of other waste products
from plastics to spent reactor fuel. In fact, our country’s largest
product, they said, is waste.
After their talk, Nick Ervin presented DPC’s Annual
Awards of Merit to Jane and Howard (below), as well as to Bill
Powers (in absentia) for his work promoting viable, local re-
newable and effi-
cient power sources
as alternatives to
the Sunrise Power-
link. In their differ-
ent ways, these
three have done
much to protect the
environment of our
southwestern
deserts.
One would
think that the pre-
sentations, mostly
dominated by a list
of environmental
problems, would
leave the attendees
deflated and depressed, but just the opposite occurred: everyone
seemed glad of the opportunity to mingle and discuss these
issues and to chart a better course.
Issue Updates and Actions You Can Take
check out full coverage of these issues at www.dpcinc.org
• New California Legislation: While three separate wilderness
bills for California moved forward in the Senate as part of an
omnibus lands bill, plans are in the works for a new desert
wilderness bill, and DPC has been helping out.
• New Strategic Plan for Cal. OHV Program: the State Off-
Highway Vehicles Division is once again working on a
strategic plan for managing off-road vehicles in the state. The
drafts so far have many flaws, and we hope you’ll comment.
• Sunrise Powerlink: Not unexpectedly, the Public Utilities
Commission approved a southern route for the Sunrise
Powerlink in December, with BLM following suit on Jan.
20th. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition for
review with the Cal. Supreme Court on Jan. 21st.
• Desert Cahuilla: Our injunction against unpermitted,
unreviewed ORV events in this fragile area remains in effect,
but the “interim management” is still broken.
• 29 Palms Marine Base Expansion: We have grave concerns
about the Marines’ plan to extend military operations into
350,000 acres of desert, including desert tortoise habitat and
bighorn sheep travel corridors.
RED ROCK CANYON: STATE PARK or ORV PARK?
By Karen Schambach, California Coordinator for
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
California’s Red Rock Canyon State Park, a resource-rich and
stunningly beautiful park in the El Paso Mountains of the
Mojave Desert, is now threatened with becoming yet another
ORV-ruined landscape. These desert canyon-lands, which were
supposed to receive “maximum protection” when they were
transferred to State Parks in Senator Dianne Feinstein’s 1994
Desert Protection Act, are about to become ground zero in a
face-off between traditional park users and off-road interests.
The Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is cash-
strapped, while the Off Highway Vehicle Division of State
Parks is flush with funds, thanks to generous transfers from the
state’s fuel tax revenues. As a result, a General Plan amendment
for Red Rock appears headed for allowing dirt bikes and ATVs
to use more areas of the park than they already do, possibly
even including the park’s current “preserves,” in exchange for
funding from the OHV Division.
Red Rock Canyon is a spectacularly beautiful canyon-land,
sandwiched between Jawbone Canyon and Dove Springs Can-
yon, both on Bureau of Land Management lands. These two
areas were designated by BLM for ORV use years ago and are
both now largely denuded landscapes, the result of thousands of
ORVs racing up and down hill slopes and across the desert veg-
etation. Users of these two areas now want unfettered access to
Red Rock, which BLM transferred to the state to ensure protec-
tion of its abundant natural and cultural resources. Unfortu-
nately, some in DPR seem willing to sacrifice this beautiful area
to ORV destruction.
Red Rock Canyon State Park includes some of California’s
richest fossil sites (including the premier sites for Miocene-age
fossils), as well as numerous historic and prehistoric sites. It
hosts several sensitive wildlife and plant species, and springs in
its canyons create rare desert riparian areas. All of these re-
sources are currently threatened by off-road vehicles, which are
allowed on some of the park's dirt roads but also ride illegally in
areas closed to vehicles. Opening more of the park to them
would be disastrous.
In the General Plan Amendment process initiated this fall,
PEER is heading up an effort to ensure Red Rock does not meet
the same fate as Dove Springs and Jawbone Canyon’s. An ear-
lier attempt at a General Plan Amendment was aborted in 2003
when DPR Director Ruth Coleman refused to send a compro-
mise plan to the Parks Commission unless OHV Deputy Direc-
tor Daphne Greene agreed to the plan. Greene, at the urging of
her ORV constituency, refused, and the plan died. (See
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=915.)
A new planning effort faces the same fate, unless conser-
vationists and traditional park users weigh in strongly against
turning our State Parks into ORV play areas. Scoping for the
project has been extended to January 31; if you’re reading this
after that date, we still encourage you to submit a comment.
Send your letters urging maximum protection for Red Rock
4
Canyon’s cultural and natural resources to Russ Dingman:
rdingmanATparks.ca.gov or to redrockATedaw.com. You can
also ask Mr. Dingman to add you to the mailing list for Red
Rock Canyon, as there will be opportunities later this year to
comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
For more information, please write capeerATpeer.org.
.
California’s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative
By Larry Hogue, Communications Coordinator
On Saturday, Jan.14, I travelled to Palm Desert to represent the
Desert Protective Council at the first public meeting of the
Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI). While this
process has been underway since early 2008, this was the first
meeting the initiative held for public comment.
What is RETI? RETI’s website states its purpose this way:
“Extensive improvements … are needed to California's electric
transmission infrastructure to get the electricity generated by
new renewable power facilities to consumers. [RETI] is a state-
wide initiative to help identify the transmission projects needed
to accommodate these renewable energy goals, support future
energy policy, and facilitate transmission corridor designation
and transmission and generation siting and permitting.”
As those of you who have been following our opposition to
the Sunrise Powerlink will know, DPC believes California can
reach its renewable energy goals (even the new 33% goal)
mainly through improved “in-basin” generation and energy
efficiency, negating or reducing the need for distant power
sources or long transmission lines. This is the basic premise of
Bill Powers’ San Diego Smart Energy 2020 Plan, which we
strongly support. And even if some large-scale renewable gen-
eration is needed, there are plenty of disturbed sites, such as
fallowed farmland, that can be used. We don’t have to sacrifice
functioning desert habitats for this purpose.
Based on its own mission statement, RETI assumes just the
opposite: that we will need vast new quantities of large-scale
renewables located in the desert and “extensive” transmission
lines to reach them. As we and other desert activists looked fur-
ther into the RETI process, we found that these assumptions led
to a variety of faulty analyses and conclusions.
First, while DPC emphasizes energy efficiency measures as
our society’s first, most environmentally friendly defense
against global warming, the RETI process doesn’t adequately
consider California’s recently enacted efficiency requirements
and the impact these will have on our total power needs. This,
in turn, creates a much larger renewable energy target for new
power generation to meet.
Second, in deciding how much large-scale renewable
power our state would need, RETI had to figure out how much
power could be produced cost-competitively by all types of
renewable generation. In doing so, RETI overestimated the
costs for distributed photovoltaic generation (by modeling
outdated PV technologies), and underestimated the costs for
large-scale renewables (by neglecting to include the costs of the
far-from-complete Sunrise Powerlink, GreenPath North, and
other transmission lines). Thus, RETI’s “base-case” model con-
cluded that we would need vast quantities of power from dis-
tant, large-scale power plants, while distributed PV could pro-
vide for only a tiny fraction of our needs. This simply ignores
what’s going on in today’s marketplace, including a photo-
voltaic solar boom in Palm Desert, where the meeting was held.
Finally, while the Sierra Club’s Carl Zichella and NRDC’s
Johanna Wald have ensured that parks and preserves are
excluded from RETI’s “Competitive Renewable Energy Zones”
(or CREZs), they have been less successful in giving previously
disturbed lands (both public and private) preference over func-
tioning habitats for energy development. Apparently, this set-
back for environmental concerns came as a result of objections
by the Farm Bureau, which didn’t want even fallowed farm land
targeted for renewable energy development. This creates the
absurd possibility that good desert tortoise habitat will be sac-
rificed for solar power (for instance, at the proposed Ivanpah
Solar project site), while large swaths of fallowed land go
unutilized (land that has simply become too alkaline to grow
anything, or that has been fallowed as a result of the Imperial
County-San Diego water transfer, to take two examples).
These are the concerns that DPC and a variety of other
environmental and community groups made known at the
meeting in Palm Desert. We hope these considerations will be
taken into account in Phase 2, in which the analysis done in
Phase 1 will be “ground-truthed.” However, RETI officials at
the meeting showed little indication of understanding our
concerns, especially those about failing to include all new
transmission as a cost of large-scale renewables.
There is no doubt that California needs sound renewable
energy planning in order to find the most effective and environ-
mentally friendly way to reduce our energy-related carbon foot-
print. But RETI, with its assumption that large-scale renewables
will be our primary form of generation, its over-representation
from Big Renewables interests and its lack of representation
from the photovoltaic industry, independent consumer groups
and desert-based conservation and community groups, seems
ill-equipped to meet this need.
We hope you will also comment on the RETI process,
either using the points above, or your own. E-mail them to
Clare Laufenberg Gallardo: claufenbATenergy.state.ca.us. Or
use this regular mail address: California Energy Commission,
Attention: Clare Laufenberg Gallardo, 1516 Ninth Street,
MS 46, Sacramento, CA 95814.
IMPERIAL COUNTY PROJECTS
by Terry Weiner
In 2008, the Desert Protective Council continued to support a
wide array of educational and conservation initiatives in the
Imperial County desert through our Mesquite Fund, and added
some exciting new projects.
In the educational arena, we continued to support the Cali-
fornia State Parks Online Resources for Teachers (aka PORTS),
which brings desert education to classrooms throughout the
5
Imperial Valley from the video studio at Anza-Borrego Desert
State Park headquarters and from outdoor locations in Anza-
Borrego via a SUV-mounted satellite purchased by DPC.
During the past 12 months, due to the efforts of PORTS lead
LuAnn Thompson, PORTS has expanded its Imperial County
outreach. This past fall, LuAnn signed up six more teachers and
400 more students from Imperial County. Now PORTS reaches
all seventh graders in the County.
DPC granted another $15,000 for 2008/09 to what we think
of as the important companion program to PORTS: Anza-
Borrego Institute’s Environmental Tent Camp. This renewed
funding will provide for three tent camp episodes for 90 Imper-
ial County 5th graders who will spend three days hiking, learn-
ing about the desert environment, and sleeping outdoors. For
many students, this is their very first experience in a wilderness
desert setting. The eloquent testimony written by students at the
completion of their camp-out indicates that for many the exper-
ience provides them with “aha” moments and quite a bit of fun.
DPC also supports the Anza-Borrego Foundation and
Institute with funding for the publication of a Spanish-language
version of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Magazine. We will
be working with ABFI to assure effective distribution in
Imperial County.
2008 also saw rapid development of our own outdoor
education programs for Imperial County students. In the spring,
DPC funded a record number of Imperial County school field
trips. Holtville High school teacher Bonnie Sorensen took her
solar competition-award-winning class on a trip to the Salton
Sea to conduct a solar water distillation experiment. There were
two 2nd grade class field trips to Fossil Canyon in the Coyote
Mountains accompanied by Anza-Borrego Paleo lab volunteer
Jimmy Smith. We also funded a field trip to eastern Imperial
County to the historic Tumco Mine Site and the Algodones
Dunes. BLM El Centro Resource staff accompanied students on
this trip.
We are particularly pleased to have contracted with natural-
ist-educator par excellence Pat Flanagan, to design and develop
an Imperial County desert ecology curriculum and field trip
program, called the Salton Basin Living Laboratory. This curri-
culum is specifically oriented to the natural and cultural re-
sources and to the geologic history of Imperial County. Pat has
collaborated with graphic artist Callie Mack and with teacher
Judy Ramirez. Pat has convened a core group of 12 teachers
from 4th, 5th and 6th grades and consulted with them regarding
the instructional materials, maps and artwork that will ground
the teachers in the recent geologic history of the Salton Basin.
These unique materials are designed to ground the teachers in
the recent geologic history of the Salton Basin. On January 9th
and 10th, Pat and Judy conducted a training workshop for the
teachers on introducing the Salton Basin Living Laboratory to
their students. On Saturday, Pat conducted a van field trip
through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, focusing on the
geologic history of the area and creating an awareness of how
much the natural features in the entire Salton Basin have
changed since Geologist William Blake conducted the Pacific
Railroad Survey in 1853. They also visited the Paleo Lab in the
state park headquarters. The teachers were very enthusiastic
about learning this new way to look at the environment of the
Imperial Valley, and excited about bringing this program to their
students. The first field trips will take place this spring.
And finally in the education area, good news about the
Imperial County Desert Museum in Ocotillo. The museum
building is finished inside and out, except for the construction
of the exhibit cases. The Imperial Valley College Desert
Museum Society (IVCDMS) had not been able to open the
museum to the public because of changes in agreements in the
past two years with Imperial Valley College as to which entity
was going to fund and manage the day-to-day operation of the
museum. In the past few months, the IVCDMS Board and Ed
Gould, the new president of Imperial Valley College, have been
negotiating a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
They have extinguished the old 1992 MOU, and have crafted a
new one, which all parties are nearly ready to sign, with signi-
ficant financial support coming from the college. This agree-
ment will enable the Museum Society to hire a director and
open the museum to the public. The Museum Society will
curate all of the College’s artifacts and the College will retain
the right to use the museum for educational activities or related
events with proper notice. The Desert Museum Society held
their December Annual meeting and party at the new museum
building and all agreed that it is a great space. We are looking
forward to the opening of the Desert Museum, as the western
gateway to Imperial County and a wonderful educational re-
source for the cultural and natural resources and of the region’s
Native American heritage.
We have been equally active in the conservation area. DPC
is pleased to have granted funding for the fourth year in a row
to the Center for Biological Diversity to continue this organiza-
tion’s very effective advocacy on behalf of endangered species
in Imperial County. In addition to continued monitoring of on-
going management issues with the Desert Cahuilla Area and
input on the EIR for the Desert Cahuilla General Plan, CBD
botanist Ileene Anderson and wildlife biologist Chris Kassar
continue to dog other Imperial County habitat issues, such as
the effects of ORV emissions on air quality, the new proposed
management plan for the Algodones Dunes and issues involving
the flat-tailed horned lizard and burrowing owl.
During the summer of 2008, DPC donated $500.00 and
became an organizational sponsor of the CLEAR water project,
an eastern Imperial County desert community’s effort to work
with federal agencies to clean up two toxic, weed-infested tribu-
taries of the Colorado River near Palo Verde, Ca. This clean-up
effort has been spearheaded by the Tamarack Lagoon Corpor-
ation, a coalition of property owners in Walter’s Camp on the
west side of the Colorado River. The project has produced a
short video on the history of this section of the Colorado River
and their proposals for helping restore these lagoons to health.
6
In upcoming projects, DPC is supporting photographer
Christina Lange’s Salton Sea photographic exhibit in Imperial
County this spring. Christina makes her home in the U.K. She
fell in love with the beauty of the Salton Sea on a visit a couple
of years ago and returns to photograph and learn about the flora
and fauna of the Salton Sea a couple of times each year. The
exhibit will kick off with an opening celebration featuring a
presentation by a local tribal wetlands restoration ecologist.
Check DPC’s web site later this spring for dates and locations.
NEWS ABOUT OUR MEMBERS
IN MEMORIAM: Lewis “Mucaw” Jefferson, July 4, 1987 -
November 26, 2008.
Our hearts go out to
DPC members Preston
Arrow-weed and Helena
Quintana. Preston lost
his 21-year-old grand-
son, Mucaw, on Novem-
ber 26th in an apparent
accident, the circum-
stances of which are
being investigated. For
most of his young life,
Mucaw was apprentice
to Preston, tribal elder
of the Quechan Tribe,
based on the Fort Yuma-
Quechan Reservation. Together, Mucaw and Preston strongly
advocated for protection of sacred lands in Imperial County,
including many lands that are now the subject of administrative
and legislative protection under the state parks system and the
BLM. Many more of these sacred lands are at great peril of
destruction, including those affected by the Quechan's own
casino project near Yuma. This young man was a faithful carrier
of the tribal traditions and customs imparted to him by his
grandfather. He appeared in the recently-released movie,
“Journey From Spirit Mountain,” in which he received the
ceremonial rattle from his grandfather as a symbol of the
passing of tradition to future generations. The Desert Protective
Council was the proud sponsor of this film production. It is
with heavy hearts that we bid farewell to Mucaw, and it is with
a profound sense of love and admiration that we extend our
sympathies to Preston Arrow-weed and Helena Quintana, who
were such an important part of Mucaw's short life – and of the
long tradition of the Quechan people.
Donations in memory of Mucaw are being accepted. These
funds will go toward a short video on Mucaw's struggle to
protect sacred sites and his devotion to cultural traditions.
Please send checks to:
Lewis ‘Mucaw’ Jefferson Memorial Fund
c/o Ah-Mut Pipa Foundation (ID #33-0761249)
P. O. Box 160, Bard, CA 92243
- Geoffrey Smith
 NEW BOARD & ADVISORY PANEL MEMBERS
DPC is pleased to announce the addition of writer, photog-
rapher and activist George Wuerthner to our Advisory Panel.
Growing up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, George had an
early love for the outdoors and quickly became a naturalist
interested in all aspects of nature. George has degrees in liberal
arts, botany and wildlife biology, and a graduate degree in
Science Communications, and worked in between his studies as
a wilderness guide and instructor for the University of Montana
Outdoor Program, river ranger/biologist on the Fortymile River
in Alaska, a backcountry ranger in the Gates of the Arctic
National Park, a surveyor for the BLM in Alaska, a botanist/
biologist for the BLM in Idaho, and a junior high school teacher
in California. He also regularly guided wilderness trips in the
Rockies and Alaska. He has published 34 books, including his
most recent, Thrillcraft -- the Threat of Motorized Recreation.
In addition to his photography and writing, George occasionally
teaches field ecology classes, photo workshops, and guides
natural history wilderness tours through his company Raven-
trails. In the research and writing of a number of books on
mountain ranges, wilderness areas and parks, George has visited
more mountain ranges in the West than most, having explored
hundreds of ranges from New Mexico to Alaska. He has also
visited more than 350 wilderness areas, and hundreds of
national parks. He makes a unique and well-versed addition to
our Advisory Panel.
We’re also pleased to announce that Mike McColm has
joined our Board of Directors. Mike’s youth was filled with
trips to the desert, with favorite spots including Big Morongo
Canyon, Living Desert Museum, and Joshua Tree, Anza-
Borrego and Baja California. As an adult, he has spent 15 years
working in Ecuador and Peru. He was the founder of Jatun
Sacha, a non-governmental organization promoting sustainable
development, the creation of national parks, and other conser-
vation programs in South America. His experience in these
endeavors, as well as in grant-writing, setting up a large intern-
ship program, and previous service on non-profit boards will
serve DPC well. Mike currently works for Nature and Culture
International, which works to establish protected areas in
Ecuador, Peru and Mexico, supported by conservation edu-
cation, sustainable development, and applied research projects.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Double retirement party for
Anza-Borrego Desert State Superintendent Mark Jorgensen and
Ranger Bob Theriault, April 25th, place and time TBA.
DPC is a proud member of:
7
DESERT PROTECTIVE COUNCIL – WHO WE ARE
Nick Ervin, President
Geoffrey Smith, Vice President/Secretary
Larry Klaasen, Treasurer
Mike McColm
Terry Weiner, Imperial Projects & Conservation Coordinator
Shirley Harshenin, Webmistress – www.nutheadproductions.com
Larry Hogue, Communications Consultant
SUPPORT DPC BY JOINING, RENEWING
OR MAKING A SPECIAL DONATION
Membership in the Desert Protective Council is the best way to
support our desert conservation and education goals. Just fill out
the form below and mail it in with your check, whether it’s for a
new membership, a renewal, or a special donation. Your support
ensures that DPC will remain 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 Mesquite
lawsuit. But these funds cannot be used for many general
operating expenses or for our many projects and issues in other
parts of the desert, including the Big Solar onslaught that is now
threatening so many desert habitats. That’s why your support is
so important!
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: DPC
Mail to P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635
Dues 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 this
newsletter electronically, rather than in the mail, please
send an e-mail message stating “subscribe electronically”
to: terryweinerATsbcglobal.net. EP 203
 P.O. BOX 3635
SAN DIEGO, CA 92163-1635

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Conservation Corner ..................................... page 2
54th Annual Meeting Report ......................... page 3
Red Rock Canyon State Park........................ page 4
Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative .. page 4
Member News............................................... page 6

FAVORITE DESERT PLACES: RED ROCK CANYON STATE PARK

If only we could print in color: The scenic cliffs of California’s Red Rock Canyon State Park. This unique unit
of the state park system is up for a general plan amendment, and you can help insure that the plan truly protects
the area’s scenic features and fossil treasures (see page 4).