By Birgitta Jansen | Death Valley’s Backcountry Law Enforcement Ranger Bernard and I were driving down Panamint Valley Road enjoying the impressive sweep of the valley surrounded by rugged mountains, when we spotted a dot in the sky. Being long-time Mylar balloon watchers, we knew immediately what it had to be: a Mylar balloon. It looked […]
In This Issue: • Up, Up and Away… But Not Quite • From the Editor • When Mine Tailings are Stored… • Keep Long Valley Green • Off Highway Routes in the Amargosa Basin • Federal Legislation • The Amargosa Niterwort • Paradise Valley: Leapfrog Development Turned Down • Desert Updates • The Players and […]
By Jora Fogg | The rush to implement new technologies to meet California’s renewable energy mandate has spurred several new proposals for pumped storage in the Eastern Sierra. This technique involves pumping water up hill between two or more reservoirs during times of low energy demand and then releasing it downhill to power turbines to generate electricity at […]
By John Hiatt | As a result of the passage of the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act in 1971 (the Act), wild (feral) horses and burros on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service lands in the West have enjoyed federal protection against capture, killing, or harassment. Without significant natural enemies, horse and burro […]
In This Issue: • Pumped Storage Proposals in the Eastern Sierra • From the Editor: We Need To Hear From You! • Gold Butte National Monument: Two Years Later • Wild Horses and Burros: A Most Contentious Issue • A Brief History of Death Valley Junction • The Silent Menace: Wind Turbine Infrasound, Part 2 […]
By Anthony Tróchez | This essay does not directly deal with desert issues. Instead it is concerned with a worldview that threatens all aspects of our environment. It will be controversial and perhaps even offensive to some. On the other hand, it represents a point of view that can not be entirely dismissed and deserves […]
By Ileene Anderson and J.P. Rose | In the wild heart of California, at a crossroads where valleys, mountains, and deserts meet, lies Tejon Ranch, California’s quintessential natural landscape. Home to the California condor, Tejon encompasses more than 270,750 acres of private land between Los Angeles and Bakersfield – and it continues to be threatened […]
In This Issue: • Will Bad Ideas Never Die? Gemini Solar Project • From the Editor • Lead Toxicity • Conserving Tejon Ranch • A Word From the World of Plants: Death Valley’s 2019 Spring Bloom • Panamint Valley Lithium • On The Topic of Pollution and the Loss of Common Sense • The Silent […]
By Robin Kobaly | We are witness to assaults on our desert landscape every day, but we usually recognize only what we see above ground. In fact, these surface alterations result in critical changes below ground that have far-reaching implications that are mostly unnoticed or unappreciated. If we could see the intricate systems that […]
By Thomas Egan | The endangered Sonoran pronghorn, or “Desert Ghost,” may be returning soon to its historic haunts in the southern California Deserts. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is in the process of finalizing an Endangered Species Act Non-essential, Experimental Population Rule, which would allow this Spirit of the Desert to […]
