el paisano winter 2007 #199

8/8/2019 El Paisano Winter 2007 #199

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P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635 Phone: (619) 342-5524 Website: www.dpcinc.org

Winter 2007 Editor: Larry Hogue Number 199

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

As you open this edition of El Paisano, you will notice a longer

Educational Bulletin (and thus a shorter El Paisano) than usual.

The editor has made extra space available for historian Diana

Lindsay’s important article on the intertwined history of DPCand the Anza-Borrego Foundation. Diana is a well-known

writer and publisher whose writings on Southern California

desert history go back 35 years or more. She kindly consented

to be one of the presenters at the DPC Annual Meeting this year

where she recounted many stories about our shared history,

including some of those contained in the Bulletin.

It is intriguing to read about the many twists and turns in

this organization’s history, including some that spawned

dissension within the Board. Few people have been aware that

the Anza-Borrego Foundation and Institute began as a com-

mittee of the Desert Protective Council, or that several original

founders in 1954 were high profile folks like Edmund Jaeger

(famous botanist) and Randall Henderson (editor and publisher

of the legendary Desert magazine). It is a background like that

which permits DPC to attract high caliber speakers in the

present like Diana Lindsay, current Anza-Borrego Desert State

Park Superintendent Mark Jorgensen, and past superintendent

Wes Cater and his wife Celeste.

My own history with DPC goes back at least 20 years (I

forget!). At that time I had been actively working for years as a

volunteer for the local Sierra Club chapter trying to pass the

landmark California Desert Protection Act, something we

eventually succeeded in doing in 1994. During that effort Icame to meet Harriet Allen, one of DPC’s longtime leaders and

the cement who had almost single-handedly held the organiza-

tion together for years. Through her I learned that DPC was the

only conservation group in California entirely devoted to the

desert (since then Desert Survivors has come into being).

Harriet herself possessed a sterling background in conservation,

including work with David Brower and other conservation

notables over a long period of devoted work.

Shortly after joining DPC I became a Board member and I

fondly remember many a meeting at Harriet’s house and

sometimes out in the desert itself. I count many friends to this

day from my association with DPC, including several current

Board members. My voluntary association with DPC has

changed my life and provided a host of pleasant memories.

Every member reading El Paisano can be proud of our

achievements over the years. And you can rest assured thatsome of our best years are ahead as we move further into being

a grant-funding organization on top of our other activities.

See you around that next bend in a desert canyon.

Nick Ervin, President

AdvocacyELECTRONIC HELP FOR BIGHORN SHEEP

As we went to press with our last issue, we learned of US Fish

& Wildlife’s dangerous

proposal to reduce critical

habitat for the Peninsular

bighorn. With a deadline of

Dec. 10, the comment

period fell between issues

of El Paisano. So, we

issued an online alert on

our website and through

our new electronic bulletin,

e-Paisano. We also

launched our first online

letter writing campaign

through CitizenSpeak.

Together, these Internetresources offer us a quick

way to respond to issues

with short deadlines – but

only if you’ve signed up to receive them!

If you missed out on this alert, we encourage you to sign up

for our e-bulletins. Send an e-mail with “Subscribe e-paisano”

in the subject line to: [email protected], or visit our

website. Read on to learn how you can still respond to this

important habitat issue.

Background: In a move that could lessen the chances for

survival of one of southern California’s most recognized and



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beloved endangered species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

has proposed removing critical habitat for the Peninsular

bighorn sheep. This distinct population of desert bighorn has

experienced a remarkable recovery since being listed as an

endangered subpopulation in 1998, and having 840,000 acres of

critical habitat designated for it in 2001. The new move would

reduce critical habitat by a whopping 53 percent. It would

further endanger the bighorn by “de-designating” critical habitat

in vital summer forage areas on alluvial fans and in washes atthe base of the Peninsular Ranges, and by dividing the

remaining critical habitat into three separate units.

December Update: The Desert Protective Council, State

Parks and other groups and agencies made extensive comments

on this proposal by the December 10 deadline.

Another comment period and a public hearing are coming

soon. The date, place and time are yet to be decided, but the

meeting could take place before the next issue of El Paisano. To

avoid missing out again, we hope you’ll sign up for our e-

bulletin so we can keep you up to date on this and other

important issues. We promise to send no more than two

messages per month!

IMPERIAL COUNTY PROJECTS UPDATE

By Terry Weiner

2007 has been a productive year for the Desert Protective

Council in Imperial County. We had a booth at the Imperial

County Earth Day festivities in El Centro and in honor of the

occasion, funded a two-day desert-to-ocean Imperial Valley

College student ecology field trip. Dr. Michelle Stevens and her

students explored ecosystems from below sea level in the

Imperial Valley through the Anza-Borrego Desert and Coachella

Valley, to the transition zones of Mt. San Jacinto, and over thegrassland and chaparral plant communities to their final

destination of UC Santa Barbara.

In October, DPC funded a grant proposal from Susan

Massey, parent liaison for Holtville Unified School District, for

an overnight camping field trip to Anza-Borrego Desert State

Park to introduce recent immigrant families to the beauty and

fragility of the desert. DPC provided money for camping

equipment, translation into Spanish of educational materials,

transportation expenses, and food. The 15 adults and 20

students enjoyed an impromptu interpretive talk at their camp-

site by State Park Interpreter LuAnn Thompson and a naturalist-

guided tour of the visitor center garden focusing on Native

American uses of desert plants.

The DPC continued funding the Anza-Borrego Foundation

and Institute for two successful desert education programs for

school children. Through interactive videoconferencing

technology, the PORTS Program (Parks Online Resources for

Teachers and Students) has been very successful in bringing

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park into the classrooms of Imperial

County. These distance learning sessions increase knowledge

and wonder of many facets of the desert and create a desire to

experience the desert first-hand. In 2007, PORTS reached 2560

El Centro High School students and three new programs were

formed for elementary schools in Holtville and Calexico. A new

element made possible by this year’s DPC funding is the 4WD

mobile studio, which lets rangers beam their lessons from spots

in the park, rather than the indoor studio. The second program,

the Fifth Grade Environmental Tent Camp at Anza-Borrego,

expanded its outreach with a total of 84 students from Imperial

County schools attending the program in 2007.DPC’s funding for the Center for Biological Diversity

(CBD) has given us many hours of assistance in Imperial

County with the wonderful work of Attorney Lisa Belenky from

the San Francisco CBD office and with the consultation of

wildlife biologist Chris Kassar and botanist Ileene Anderson.

Attorney Belenky guided our lawsuit over interim management

of the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area to a successful settle-

ment agreement in August. Ileene and Chris continue to work

with us on resource issues in Desert Cahuilla. CBD will be

writing comprehensive comments on the US Fish & Wildlife’s

proposal to cut the critical habitat for the Peninsular bighorn in

Imperial County (and throughout the rest of its range in SanDiego and Riverside counties).

DPC’s 2005 funding of the Imperial Valley College Desert

Museum Society to help finish building the Desert Museum in

Ocotillo, California, will come to fruition with a planned

official opening of the Museum late this year or early next year

The DPC is currently considering an additional contribution

toward finishing the exhibit cases for the Museum.

Another past grant bore fruit this year with the completion

of Journey from Spirit Mountain an innovative and moving 35-

minute video focusing on the Quechan creation story, as told by

Quechan elder Preston Arrow-weed. A co-production of Arrow-

weed’s Ah Mut Pipa Foundation and Hokan Media Productionsthe video had its San Diego premiere November 29, playing to

an enthusiastic crowd of 100 Sierra Club members and others.

DPC made the video possible with a $30,000 grant in 2004.

I am currently working with several teachers in the

Holtville Unified School District on field trips (“outdoor

education experiences”) to important desert places in Imperial

County such as the ancient shell beds in the Coyote Mountains,

the Algodones Sand Dunes and the Salton Sea. I am also

working with Helena Quintana, Susan Massey and Elizabeth

Molina de-Torre, Director of the Valle Imperial Science Project

This program trains “lead teachers” in the sciences to bring a

program of teacher enhancement in science education into

schools in Imperial County. Our project with them will be to

conduct desert field trips for the lead teachers so that they will

promote outdoor education experiences as part of their teacher

enhancement program.

The Clean Air Initiative has just completed a DPC-funded

air-borne particulates pollution-monitoring project in the

Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area. Imperial

County Air Basin is heavily impacted by particulate pollution

from many sources such as agricultural burning, diesel truck



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Imperial County Project Update (continued)

traffic from moving agricultural goods, and cross-border

pollution from the industrial city of Mexicali. Air pollution from

off-road vehicle recreation has not been addressed in Imperial

County and DPC believes it is time to bring this issue to the

public.

Also on the conservation front, DPC funded a new

organizer for the San Diego Smart Energy Solutions Campaign.

Micah Mitrosky has very ably taken over the work done byKelly Fuller (who continues to work on energy issues from her

new home in Minnesota). Under Micah’s tenure, the campaign

has turned in a new direction, promoting a very credible

alternative to the Sunrise Powerlink authored by professional

engineer Bill Powers. The campaign has a new website, also

funded by DPC. Check it out at www.sdsmartenergy.org.

We are very excited about a brand new aerial photographic

and geologic mapping project in the Desert Cahuilla Area in

partnership with the Anza-Borrego Foundation. Chuck Houser,

geologist and pilot with Petra Geotechnical, Inc. will be hiring

the services of an aerial photo mapping company to fly the area

and produce a color digital “orthophoto” of the entire area with1-foot resolution. This will be followed by ground mapping of

geological features and mapping of cultural features and ground

disturbances such as vehicular damage to the mud hills and

desert pavement-covered mesas.

We plan to use the resulting information in our comments

on the public land management planning process for the newly

acquired State Park sections in the Desert Cahuilla Area. Please

check our DPC website for notice of State Parks’ release of the

Notice of Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report on or

before December 15th. I will be sharing notices of meetings and

comment deadlines and how you can participate in the public

process toward an appropriate management plan for protectionof the unique resources of the Desert Cahuilla Area.

Please do call or email me with your comments and

suggestions. Please let me know of your ideas for Imperial

County environmental education and/or protection projects and

inform interested parties that the DPC invites proposals for

these types of projects.

Happy Holidays!

DPC NEWS

Membership renewal letters went out as we were going to press

and you should have received yours by now. If you renew

before the end of the year, your dues will be deductible for

2007. If you’re not already a member and would like to become

one, or if you haven’t received your renewal envelope, just fill

out the form on the right and mail it with your check.

IN MEMORIAM

ELIZABETH "BETTY" FORGEY passed away this fall. She

was a long-time DPC member active on behalf of desert tortoise

conservation.

DESERT PROTECTIVE COUNCIL – WHO WE ARE

Nick Ervin, President

Geoffrey Smith, Vice President

Martha Bertles, Secretary

Larry Klaasen, Treasurer

Byron Anderson, at large

Terry Weiner, Imperial Projects & Conservation Coordinator

Shirley Harshenin, Webmistress – www.nutheadproductions.comLarry Hogue, Communications Consultant

KEEP YOUR MEMBERSHIP IN DPC CURRENT

Membership in the Desert Protective Council is based on a

January 1 to December 31 term of membership. If you are a life

member you do not need to renew. However, we are always

receptive to gifts to keep our projects going. Many of our

members, life and regular, are most generous, and your

donations help ensure that DPC remains 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 MesquiteMine lawsuit. Since we engage in many other projects and

issues outside of Imperial County, we keep nonrestricted

donations in a separate account for use on more general desert

issues.

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: DPCMail to P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635Dues 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 thisnewsletter electronically, rather than in the mail, pleasesend an e-mail message stating “subscribe electronically”to: [email protected].



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P.O. BOX 3635 SAN DIEGO, CA 92163-1635

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Bighorn Sheep Critical Habitat..................... page 1

Imperial County Projects Update.................. page 2

News About Our Members ........................... page 3

Journey from Spirit Mountain

San Diego Premiere

An enthusiastic crowd of 100 Sierra Club members and other

guests gave a warm welcome to the Desert Protective Council,

Hokan Media Productions’ Dan Golding, and Quechan Elder Preston J. Arrow-weed at the San Diego premiere of the video,

Journey from Spirit Mountain. Funded with a grant from the

Desert Protective Council, the 35-minute video is a co-

production of Hokan Media Productions and Arrow-weed’s Ah

Mut Pipa Foundation. It tells the Quechan creation story

through a creative interweaving of Preston’s singing in

Quechan, his retelling of the story in English, footage of key

locations in the characters’ journey from desert to sea and back

again, and commentary by Quechan tribal officials, government

and university archaeologists, and others. A key theme is the

importance of preserving not only the Quechan language,

stories, and songs, but also the places where the story took place. The video ends with Arrow-weed’s grandson taking up

the song on his own, a vivid image of the success Preston has

had in preserving Quechan tradition and transferring it to a new

generation. This is a production of which all DPC members

should feel proud.

To obtain a copy of the DVD, send a check for $25.00

(which includes shipping and handling) to:

Ah Mut Pipa Foundation

P.O. Box 160

Bard, CA 92222

Quechan Elder Preston J. Arrow-weed speaking at the San Diego premiere of Journey from Spirit Mountain

Enjoy this complimentary copy

of El Paisano, and consider

joining today!

el paisano winter 2007 #199

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