By Tara Callaway | I posed a question to high school students during a presentation on desert tortoise at Joshua Tree National Park in 2016: How would you deal with the issue of ravens eating desert tortoises? I received a multitude of feasible answers, which showed me that these students understood the issue. However, […]
By Geoffrey McQuilkin | Located high in the California’s Eastern Sierra, Mono Lake is an oasis for migratory birds, a popular destination for photographers and outdoor adventurers, and the source of a legendary piece of California water history. Mono Lake’s salty, alkaline waters support a unique ecosystem ⎼ instead of fish, a population of […]
In This Issue • Protection and Restoration: Advocates For Mono Lake Make a Difference • The Amargosa Valley: Different Perspectives From Above and Below • The Burning Question: Air Quality Issues Related to Agricultural Burning • Ravenous Ravens in the Desert • Conservation Planning in the California Deserts • Adapting to Extremes: Desert Communities and Water Scarcity • Service in Our […]
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 […]
In This Issue • Water In The Mojave Desert? • Pinyon-Juniper Woodland Management In Nevada • California Desert By The Numbers • Salton Sea – Preserving A Tomorrow • Salton Sea – Earth, Air, And… Politics • Flowers Return To The Desert • The Mojave Desert Land Trust – Consolidating Public Lands One Piece At […]
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. […]
