By Edie Harmon | There is a popular and incorrect belief that the deserts of the southwest are too hot and dry for ticks to survive. Tick bites and tick-borne infections in Imperial County CA and Mexicali BC prove otherwise1. From documents with links from the California Department of Public Health-Vector Borne Diseases Section, one […]
by Joan Taylor | As the saying goes, “Whiskey is for drinking, but water is for fighting!” Nowhere is that truer than in the American southwest. And unfortunately, the long-term fate of the Salton Sea rests squarely on a regular influx of water and lots of it. Currently the lifeblood of the Salton Sea […]
By Nick Ervin, Sylvia Henry, & Birgitta Jansen | After a wet winter, all across Southern California the spring flower bloom was astonishing. Three personal accounts follow. The message, of course, is that deserts are not desiccated wastelands but wear many faces and appeal to many kinds of people. The parks, monuments, and wildernesses […]
by Neil Havlik | When several proposals for solar power facilities in the Carrizo Plain area of eastern San Luis Obispo County, California, became publicly known in 2009, those proposals raised many questions. How big would they be? How would they be managed? What would be the environmental and social impacts of their creation? […]
by Pat Flanagan | I live in the Morongo Basin community of Desert Heights on top of a Sand Transport Path (STP). This geologic feature is a wind-driven sand deposit over 140 miles long that begins at Emerson Dry Lake in the 29 Palms Marine Base, twenty-three miles north of the Sunfair community in […]
by Emily Swaim | Air pollutants in the Imperial Valley impact the public’s health and can be exceedingly dangerous to young ones, elderly, and those living with certain medical conditions. These pollutants can cause a variety of lung diseases and respiratory problems including emphysema and asthma, as well as inducing brain and nervous system damage. […]
by Wynne Benti | On October 7, 2016, residents of Gabbs had little notice that the Navy was coming. There is no newspaper in Gabbs, Nevada, a quiet mining and ranching community about an hour and forty-five minutes northeast of Bishop, California. Nothing was posted or publicized about the last of the Navy’s public […]
by Frances Nicklen | I have lived in the Imperial Valley, specifically the city of El Centro, since I was four years old. I have suffered through dust storms and dry spells and polluted air for fourteen years of my life – but I didn’t always know it. Before my family moved to the valley, […]
by Ruth Nolan | “In the beginning…they laid a woman, Ninmaiwaut (palm) on her back…took a wooden spindle and drilled her. First blood, then fire came forth. This woman then became a palm tree.” –from Tempalpakh: Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants It’s a very windy March afternoon, and I’ve just driven into […]
by Christian Schoneman | The Salton Sea, near Californa’s southern border, is a GREAT place. It is home to lots of birds, a State Recreation Area, a State Wildlife Area, and a National Wildlife Refuge. It is California’s largest lake. It has been a military training ground and a set for movies. NASA uses it […]
