21ST CENTURY THREATS The Old Spanish Trail - …...F Tracking a historic 19th Century trade route...

FTracking a historic 19th Century trade route and encountering a proposed solar power plant

An Early Pathway into CaliforniaFrom high above, the Old Spanish Trail (OST) appears as a crease in the skin of the desert soil as it traverses Emigrant Pass east of Tecopa, CA. The trace is a still vivid imprint left by Mexican pack mule caravans that plodded the track between 1829 and 1848. It’s a track that the Tecopa chapter of the Old Spanish Trail Association has painstakingly followed and recorded as it stretches east from the Pass toward Stump Spring, just across the Nevada border (Fig-ure 1, 6). And it’s a track that puts the Old Spanish Trail on a collision course with the Hidden Hills Solar Energy Generating System (HHSEG), a proposed solar plant in eastern Inyo County at the Nevada border. The Old Spanish National Historic Trail (Figure 2) is one of 19 U.S.-government-designated National Historic Trails. Federal agen-cies, including the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land

Management jointly administer the trails, with assistance from chartered trail associations comprised of concerned citizen volun-teers of which the Old Spanish Trail Association (OSTA) is one. The 1829 to 1848 mule caravan trade over the OST fits neatly into the brief period between Mexico’s independence from Spain (1821) and the end of the Mexican-American War (1848). Pack trains of as many as 200 mules carried finished woolen goods more than 1,000 miles from Santa Fe, NM, to Los Angeles, CA. Both pueblos were then remote regional capitals in Mexico’s northern territory. In southern California, the woolen goods were sold. With the proceeds, the New Mexican traders purchased California live-stock, primarily horses and mules. The animals were larger than those available in New Mexico and sold at a high price at the end of the return trip to Santa Fe1. The American period, which began in 1848, spurred two waves of covered wagon traffic that built upon and followed the OST from Utah into southern California. The first wave was a surge of Gold

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21ST CENTURY THREATS

The Old Spanish Trail

BY JACK PRICHETT and SCOTT SMITH

Figure 2. Old Spanish Trail linked Santa Fe and Los Angeles during the 1830s and 40s Old Spanish NHT Segment under study

March 2012 News of the desert from Sierra Club California/Nevada Desert Committee www.desertreport.org

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RENEWABLE POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Transforming The Politics Of Big Solar

BY JANINE BLAELOCH

By now, some readers of the Desert Report are familiar with Solar Done Right, an ad hoc coalition working against the massive in-dustrialization of our deserts by Big Solar, and working for greater knowledge and support of the alternative—distributed generation (DG) in the built environment and on already-degraded lands. Af-ter 18 months of work, we at Solar Done Right have a pretty good grasp of what drives U.S. renewable-energy policy, what keeps it entrenched, and –we hope—what we can do to change it. We started at the bottom, the U.S. Congress, and are now working our way to the top—issuing a Call to Action to our fellow citizens for a better approach to renewable energy. (See page 13.) We began our outreach efforts in September 2010 with a trip to Washington, D.C. to talk with Members of Congress and staff about the impact of Big Solar on public lands and the saner alter-native of distributed generation. Four days of meetings confirmed the hunch that had led us there in the first place: (1) staffers work-ing on energy issues had no inkling of the severe damage these projects would bring to public lands, and (2) staffers working on public land issues had no clue that there are alternatives that can spare desert ecosystems.

The Powers That BeDemocrats were generally sympathetic to concerns about the en-vironmental impacts of Big Solar, but were either resigned to the supposed necessity of Big Solar in the desert or indignant that we would dare oppose any kind of renewable energy development. (To paraphrase, “Just what do you people want from us!?”) Republi-cans essentially wanted more oil and gas development and viewed distributed generation with suspicion. (“You can’t coerce people into putting panels on their roofs!”). That November, the Republicans won back the House and the entire the U.S. Congress settled into profound gridlock. It was clear that the divided and deeply dysfunctional state of Congress had made any kind of grassroots advocacy at that level unproductive. In the ensuing year, it has become downright futile. To make matters worse, the Administration is incorrigibly committed to Big Solar and Big Wind on public land. President Obama, who seemingly has no feeling for public land, has essen-tially handed over our country’s renewable energy policy to the Interior Department--a real-estate manager not known for its envi-ronmental sensitivity, and led by the department’s worst Secretary since James Watt. In the meantime, while Interior hands out 30-year public land

The Old Spanish Trail: 21St Century Threats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Transforming The Politics Of Big Solar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Grazing On Public Lands: Another Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Elden Hughes 1931–2011 The Man And His Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Corralling California Poppies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Black Lava Butte & Flat Top Mesa At Risk From Wind Project . . . . . .

Sierra Club Supports Mandatory Wind Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Conservation Alternative For Ivanpah Valley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Outings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

How To Lie With Maps: A Selective Portfolio Of CA Desert Maps . . . .

Pine Forest Recreation Enhancement Act Introduced . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Many individuals have contributed to Desert Report during the past six

months and their support is both essential and appreciated. These Sponsors

and Donors of Desert Report are:

Tom Budlong Los Angeles, CA Georgette Theotig Tehachapi, CA

Shirley Cooperrider Fairfax, CA Eugene DeMine Yucaipa, CA

Craig Deutsche Los Angeles, CA Lynn DuPratt Lancaster, CA

Drew Foster Lee Vining, CA Kathleen Kalp Santa Barbara, CA

Richard Kangas Clovis, CA D.J. Masker Twentynine Palms, CA

David Melton Rancho Mirage, CA Pam Nelson Warner Springs, CA

Megan Reed El Cajon, CA Dan Sullivan San Francisco, CA

Gretchen Winfrey Mojave, CA David Jesse McChesney Joshua Tree, CA

Susan Sorrells Shoshone, CA

Mojave Group, San Gorgonio Chapter/Sierra Club

Santa Monica Mountains Task Force/Sierra Club

Twentynine Palms Inn Twentynine Palms, CA

In This Issue


DESERT REPORT MARCH 20122

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ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Grazing On Public Lands Editor’s Note: The following was written

as an explanation and comment to the

December 2011 article on grazing by Jim

Caitlin. It highlights the challenges that

the Bureau of Land Management faces in

balancing the concerns of all groups.

My wife and I have been ranching in West Central California since 1982. We have held United States Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grazing allotments for thirty years. We ranch, but we realize that grazing is only one of sev-eral uses. That’s the difficulty for the BLM. It must maintain an even handed approach to all the groups. None of the various groups have more or less valid concerns here. The BLM needs to speak to all the groups’ con-cerns equally. Grazing operations need continuity, consistency, and reliable access. These are at the core of survival for a livestock opera-tion. An example of this appears in a recent article in the Desert Report (p. 4, December, 2011). Mr. Catlin is concerned about under-reporting of permittee cattle numbers on grazing allotments. This is skewing the data as to what is actually happening in the study area. Hard to believe ranchers would will-ingly pay pasture on more cattle than they’re actually running. They are simply planning for uncertainty. If for any reason feed vol-ume or quality doesn’t meet BLM standards, a rancher can get a pretty short-term no-tice to move his cattle off the permitted al-lotment. Putting range cows in a pen and feeding hay is not an economic option on most range operations, and so the rancher would be foolish to put more stock on an allotment than he could support elsewhere if he should be required to move. A similar situation can arise with stock water. When water storage is lost or water is not available in an expected place, cattle

move on looking for other water. Depend-ing on the situation they gang up on the next source they find. If their numbers are too great at this point they could trample a creek or spring or break a trough. One damaged water source has created a sec-ond damaged water source and so on. Ranchers closely maintain their waters to prevent all this. If a rancher can’t get to his waters easily and with the necessary equipment, his only recourse is to spread his cattle numbers thinner over the per-mit. Once again, the number of cattle will

BY ART STEINBECK

Top: Bitter Creek Wildlife Preserve was once private farm and grazing land. As public land today, use for grazing here is regulated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Above: Eld Cattle country south of highway 166. Notice the plowed land just across the fence. Firebreaks of this sort are common as most fires start along roads.

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DESERT REPORT MARCH 2012 3

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1931–2011

Elden HughesThe Man And His Legacy

BY JOAN TAYLOR

Elden led a huge citizen effort in 1993 to support my Desert Protection Act. We will pass the second Desert Protec-tion Act, now pending in committee, in his honor.”– Senator Dianne Feinstein

As I sat beneath the cottonwoods and cliffs of Whitewater Canyon during the celebra-tion of Elden’s life, I discovered there were many sides of Elden Hughes I didn’t know. He was every bit the legend that surrounds him, and more. Friends and relatives recalled Elden as the adventurer, the river runner, and erst-while big game hunter on one hand, but as the loving friend and tender mentor to their children on the other. Elden’s own offspring related the lessons of love, loyalty, resilience, and zest for life he taught them, always by example. Who knew that Elden wrote his granddaughter a letter every day when she was in Africa with the Peace Corps? What devotion, not to speak of energy! Others testified to Elden’s pivotal role in preserving the Tuolumne, Kings, and Mer-ced Rivers, the Santa Monica Mountains, and of course the California desert. We learned how Senator Feinstein, when faced with a new pickle in the desert, would often say “Call Elden!” It would be impossible to give a full sense of the man in one article, so I’ll touch on Elden’s love affair with the California desert by passing on the words of those who worked intimately with Elden over the years.

Elden and Patty, New York, 2002

Elden, “Up to the neck or ass to the bottom!”

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“The first time Jim and I ran across Elden was on an outing to the top of Hunter Mountain,” recalled Judy Anderson. “We were camping, and when it came time for happy hour Elden pulled out a copy of the Desert Plan! You don’t bring an EIR with you on a camping trip, so that piqued our interest and we started pumping him. Elden had a rich background of people he knew from the desert and deep connections with Native Ameri-cans and people living in the canyons. He had a curiosity for everything.” Regarding Elden’s talent for lobbying, Judy mused: “He reminded me of a cat I owned who had a nose for the most powerful person around, and would go sit in their lap! Elden had an unerring instinct for who the room revolved around, he found them and made friends with them. That first encounter on Hunter Mountain was also a tip off to how Elden worked. He brought his guitar; having fun while you were out there in the desert was most important. ” Judy on the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA) campaign: “We kept in touch using a primitive email system, but it worked. On almost a daily basis, we posted what we were doing: ‘Who’s going to be the next person going to DC, and what for?’ Then one day Elden wrote to say he was going to take the tortoises and drive across the country!”

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I asked Jim Dodson how decisions on the Desert Bill worked. “We respected each other’s opinions,” he said. “There was a lot of discussion, but we never had any seri-ous disagreement over what deserved to be wilderness. There were other players too, a group of people who met at Lyle Gaston’s house at Riverside.” “Elden was a man of many talents and many interests. And a lot of energy,” added Jim. “When Patty showed up with him, she grew on us. She was a cheerleader, a rooter for Elden, and brought people around. I remember a trip with Alan Cranston [U.S. Senator, CA from 1969–93]. We picked up Alan in Las Vegas and drove down to Re-birth Rock near Hole in the Wall. Alan had to climb though, of course.” Cal French recounted his first expe-rience with Elden: “It was a voice I first heard at Fossil Falls in the southern Owens Valley. I forget the date, but not the voice. That night there was singing around the campfire, and Elden entertained with rather raunchy songs, accompanying himself on his 12-string guitar. He could draw people in, entertain them, inspire them, get them com-mitted to preserving wild places.” Senator Dianne Feinstein told the LA Times, “Hughes dedicated his life to the pro-tection and revival of our great Mojave Des-ert and its tortoises. I’ll never forget when he brought a couple of tortoises to a large constituent breakfast and the amazed and glowing faces of youngsters when he told them they live for decades. He will be great-ly missed.” Attorney Johanna Wald, who collabo-rated with Elden on crucial lawsuits to pro-tect the desert, remembers the same event: “I’d already known Elden for about 10 years when I had that first experience at the Senator’s breakfast, but being in that room and seeing how the Senator reacted really brought home to me what a political genius he was! No one else could have come up with that idea and no one else could have executed it with such flair and genuine en-joyment. There was really never anyone else like him and I doubt there ever will be again. Thank goodness he was on our side!” Vicky Hoover told me about a situation involving, not tortoise, but cows: “During the Desert Bill campaign there was a heated discussion over whether we should alert our troops to action on an important issue by sending letters, or whether we should phone them. The debate went on for quite a little while, when finally Elden settled the issue by interjecting ‘No one ever got milk from a cow by writing it a letter!’ … nor did they by

phoning, I suppose, but that didn’t matter, Elden’s words carried the day.” Elden cared nothing for conceit. Dave Bybee, a past cohort in Orange County Sierra Singles, recalled “There came an evening when Elden, Bob Jones, Doug Falrodt and oth-ers ginned up the ‘Hot Springs List’ while soaking in Owen Maloy’s hot tub. It was a spoof on the arduous peak bagger’s list complete with T-shirts, patches and pins.” As a matter of fact, many years later one of Elden’s favorite “Eldenisms” was to proudly pronounce the rule for earning points for visiting a hot springs: “Up to the neck —or ass to the bottom!” As we know, Elden was a past master of the sound bite. But I never knew that Jim Dodson actually introduced to him to the term. Shared Jim, “He’d never heard of it, and it was like a light went on in his head. He loved the idea and he perfected it.” Who else would speak truth to power, and call out BLM as “bastards” for giving re-newable developers free reign to industrialize thousands of pristine acres of desert – des-ert that had been donated to BLM expressly for conservation? Only Elden, and the press loved it! As Frank Wheat wrote, Elden had a reputation for “drawing reporters as a lamp draws moths.” Early on, I asked Elden, did those pithy phrases just pop into his head? He admit-ted to me that he actually did give them some thought. Then, as time went on, I was immensely flattered when Elden would occasionally call me up to try out a sound bite. Naturally, they were always brilliant. As Cal French so beautifully put it: “I’ll never hear that wonderful voice directly again, even on the phone, ‘This is Elden Hughes …’ after which would come the question, the information, the call to action… So long, old friend and mentor. I will hear your voice and its messages in my head until my days end.” I think I speak for all desert activists when I say that Elden was truly our pied piper. Wither Elden went, we gladly followed. Why? Because of his inspiring words, his willingness to take on the power structure (if he couldn’t charm it) but most of all – be it rattling across the desert in his old Chevy Jimmy, exploring a canyon, gearing up for an important field hearing, or singing around a campfire – because Elden made it such a grand adventure for us. As past Club President, Larry Downing said that day at Whitewater when it started spitting rain: “Nature is weeping.” So are we. For more wonderful memories, Eldenisms, and photos of Elden, there is a great web-site created by his son Mark, at EldenHughes.com.

Joan Taylor has been a forty-year grassroots desert activist, working for Sierra Club and several other conservation organizations. Currently, she is Chair of the California/Nevada Desert Energy Committee and also sits on the governing boards of the Coachella Valley Moun-tains Conservancy and Friends of the Desert Mountains.

Elden, Patty, Tortoise (Scotty) charm President Clinton

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TThe year was 1976, during then-Governor Jerry Brown’s first term in office. A group of ecstatic citizens gathered in Los Angeles Coun-ty’s Antelope Valley. They were about to dedicate a wondrous new state park, the fruition of extended efforts to establish a preserve to protect the Antelope Valley’s famed wildflower displays. This stretch of the western Mojave Desert, separated from coastal Los Angeles by high mountains raised along the San Andreas Fault, was relatively undeveloped, providing vast, stunning vistas cov-ered each spring by boundless poppies and other contrastingly col-orful wildflowers. It was a different time and place. A time when Californians wanted their nationally famed state park system to expand, pro-tecting valued heritage, while providing new recreational outlets for their enlarging population. Within this cultural backdrop and sensibility, citizens had called for the creation of a reserve, in which the glorious California Poppy, California’s brilliantly recog-nizable State Flower, could be enjoyed in all of its splendor. While much of California is blessed with patches of its silky brilliance, the undeveloped western Antelope Valley, west of Lancaster and Palm-dale, provided the most consistently stunning and overwhelming displays of poppies in the state. In a state where our school children salute a state flag graced with a tragically extinct species—the California Grizzly, a unique subspecies of the remaining Grizzlies of the Rocky Mountains—it perhaps might be a good investment to preserve the best examples of the grandeur of our state flower. So was born the Wildflower Preservation Committee of the Antelope Valley. This movement, started by dedicated local volunteers, pro-duced a statewide campaign to set aside a suitable reserve in cel-ebration of our magnificent state flower. School children, families,

park users, businesses, and citizens contributed to the fund that, within five years, led to the purchase and establishment of the An-telope Valley California Poppy Reserve. In 1976, Governor Brown’s administration opened the park for public enjoyment. The wildflower displays in and around the Poppy Reserve have become famous, and have helped to brand an identity for the near-by cities of both Lancaster and Palmdale. Each April, these commu-nities throw the Antelope Valley Poppy Festival, attended by thou-sands of locals and tourists. Today, the western Antelope Valley remains a rural community of homeowners, farmers, ranchers, and others who enjoy the rela-tive solitude of their spacious homeland. But all of that is about to change. The western Antelope Valley is on a fast-tracked collision course with the rapid development of much-needed alternative energy sources. As the world demand for oil increases, and prices soar, and governments become increasingly concerned about global warm-ing and climate change, alternative renewable energy sources are becoming one of the most attractive and lucrative prospects upon the energy horizon. Renewable energy resources are widely sup-ported by the California public. The sun and wind available within the California’s Mojave Desert has made this landscape a hotbed of rapidly progressing energy development proposals. Within this sce-nario, the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is on a collision course with an unknown destiny. Antelope Valley resident Dorothy Bolt, an enthusiastic leader of the Wildflower Preservation Committee’s 1970s campaign, who is now 98 years old, has lived to see the unthinkable. All of those efforts to preserve the famed Antelope Valley wildflower display, begun over three decades ago, hang tenuously in the balance. The

IS EITHER/OR THE ONLY OPTION?

Corralling California Poppies

Happenstance Over Stewardship And Planning

BY MARK R. FAULL

This page: California Poppy Preserve. Opposite page: Dorothy Bolt, now 98 years old, was instrumental in helping to establish the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve during the 1970s. Dorothy is pictured here in May of 2011 wearing her park docent outfit at the Poppy Reserve.

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scenic and cultural values of the western Antelope Valley have recently become threatened by a horde of eager, short-sighted alternative energy develop-ers looking for the cheapest possible way to establish much-needed renewable energy facilities. It just so happened that, prior to its preservation, this outstanding wildflower landscape sported one major power line corridor leading into the Los Ange-les basin. Normally not disturbingly noticeable, this power line corridor, along with plans for its expan-sion, have provided an impetus for solar and wind turbine energy companies to saturate the land sur-rounding the transmission corridor with nearly 200 square miles of proposed energy projects. Why spend a penny more than is needed to transfer power into the south-ern California electric grid? For a company whose sole concern is profit, with no attendant societal values, this makes perfect sense. The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, which until now has sported long majestic vistas from its rolling hills and trails, highlighting the solitude of the local landscape, is faced with be-ing completely boxed in by highly visible solar panels, and up to 400-foot-tall wind turbines. The once renowned charm and char-acter of the Antelope Valley wildflower display is at a precipice and crossroad. The old character may well vanish, replaced by a visitor experience confined to looking down at the remaining ver-nal island of preserved wildflowers, while trying to avoid seeing an immediately juxtaposed, oppressive, and mechanized vista of alternative energy. The forces playing out upon the plains of the western Antelope Valley are part of a much larger drama unfolding across our entire nation. Once again, corporate profits are pitted against ineffective government planning, guidance and oversight. Ironically, this mod-ern scenario has put many ardent green energy supporters in inner conflict, because of their concomitant passionate concern for pre-serving at least some representative examples of California’s once vast unspoiled natural and cultural heritage. Those who do not accept the false dichotomy of “either/or,” see with concern where large mega-business and people of means appear able to bend government to their will, while small business-es, average citizens, and even harmonious alternative solutions are not afforded similar reasonable consideration or opportunity. Anyone who travels, even casually, through the western Mo-jave Desert, sees that there are vast corridors of open space avail-able. One cannot help but wonder why it is necessary to sacrifice the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve when alternative lands are clearly available—if only government and business would work together on a less confrontational and far more harmonious long-term plan. At what point did our “Planning Departments,” charged with ensuring compatible and harmonious growth, turn into little more than “Departments of Happenstance,” serving the will of citizens with means. California needs a green future. Does this green future have to come at the expense of numerous past commitments and published visions, or can conflicts be avoided by integrating new societal needs into past paradigms in a more holistic and less haphazard fashion? As California continues to grow, the role and foresight of Planning Departments will become increasingly paramount. Such agencies must increase their public effectiveness and community service. They must become far more proactive and far less reac-tive in shaping a balanced, harmonious society. They cannot be perceived as catering haphazardly to the whims of the elite or the

wealthy. Prudent planning flexibility is imperative, but so is a consistency of vision that reduces public disputes through reasonable adherence to past deci-sion-making and published guidelines. In a greater statewide context, California State Parks are under assault. With one out of every four state parks slated for closure come July 1st, the remainder routinely face varying threats similar to those facing the Poppy Reserve. Perhaps Californians should examine more closely the “new society” we are fast creating. Are we sliding slowly into a shapeless paradigm of happenstance? Do we continue to value our heritage, or has the memory of the time when the when local Antelope Valley residents inspired

our citizens to dream of a California Poppy Reserve become a dis-tant luxury? From one perspective, the question in the Antelope Valley is whether Los Angeles County planners and politicians will honor their past commitment to countless Californians who unselfishly contributed towards the dream of creating a Poppy Reserve—a dream fostered by Los Angeles County residents during the 1970s. Or will they allow out-of-state big alternative energy developers to pursue a maximum-profit model at public expense. Alternatively, shouldn’t working together—an apparently un-popular modern concept—prevail? Couldn’t state and county gov-ernment officials work together with community advocates and energy developers to identify areas best suited for development? Has it become too audacious to believe that sound governance can provide us with new green energy projects without sacrificing our prized state parks? At stake is the very essence of the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve visitor experience. Sadly, our current Governor, whose early administration opened the doors of promise at the Poppy Reserve, has failed to continue this leadership and vision by defending the Reserve, or by proposing obvious alternative solu-tions. Like California in general, he appears to be headed down the path of a rather tortuous and conflicted legacy. Ultimately, the future rests with the California citizenry, who collectively determine the course of our community history. Our voice (your voice) may be the prevailing factor. Within that para-digm, the cost of silence becomes very apparent.

A native of northern California, Mark Faull moved to the eastern Kern County region in 1984. For 20 years Mark worked at Red Rock Can-yon State Park before retiring from California State Parks in 2004. His passion for and understanding of park values continues, as well as his study of the fascinating local human history and its connection to the desert environment.

On January 24, 2012 the Los Angeles County Board of Su-pervisors unanimously denied two permits to construct data gathering meteorological towers in the western Antelope Valley, apparently signaling disfavor with proposed wind turbine construction in this area. Left untouched at pres-ent was the issue of the appropriateness of industrial scale solar facilities abutting the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, which one Supervisor’s planning deputy indicated were moving through the county’s planning process swiftly.

Recent Developments

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IImagine you’re just sitting around minding your own business and out of the blue a helicopter starts dropping sections of pipe onto your land. Imagine too that, without as much as a by your leave, the invasion was authorized by the very people who manage the land on your behalf and that your acre-age has been leased at a peppercorn rent to speculators. That’s exactly what happened in July 2011 in bucolic Pipes Canyon, California when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leased Black Lava Butte and Flat Top Mesa to Oregon-based Element Power, and granted a permit for the company to erect a total of four masts to test wind speeds. Their ultimate aim -- to cover these signature buttes, located in southern San Bernardino County near Pioneertown, with 400-foot-tall wind turbines. Cherry Good and Jon Nolte live at the foot of Black Lava Butte and were the first locals to be made aware of what was hap-pening. Cherry immediately rallied residents and what resulted was a grassroots protest group, Save Our Desert, also known as SOD. And, yes, a pun, perhaps best appreciated by British nationals, was absolutely intended. (Cherry is British and in the U.K. “sod” can describe both the earth and also a cranky individual who won’t back down.) Not that the Element Power project is an isolated incident. The desert is about to

be covered with ill-considered alternative energy projects, many of which make use of the generous federal subsidies (and dollar-per-acre-per-year leases) that have been made available where public land is used. But for local residents it was a particularly bitter blow after barely recovering from the battle to prevent the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power’s (LADWP) Green Path North project from running transmission lines across the same terrain. That cam-paign culminated in March 2010 with the withdrawal of LADWP’s application and a col-lective sigh of relief in this part of the Mojave Desert. Many locals believed the end of Green Path North meant that no further threats to the area would be contemplated. Unfortunately, however, the Obama administration’s fixa-tion on covering the desert with solar and wind projects had ramped up in the meantime. While it would be no exaggeration to say that the community was caught unaware by this latest attempt to destroy pristine habitat, the community is united and prepared to take on what may be a very tough fight. And that fight has drawn generous support not only from Pipes Canyon residents but also the Homestead Valley communities that line Highway 247 as far as Lucerne Valley, areas that will be impacted by the Element project and, as was recently revealed, a mammoth solar project proposed by BrightSource Energy for Johnson Valley. Right now Element only has permission to test the wind speeds on top of the buttes. That permit expires in September 2013. However, Element could apply for a permit to implement a full-scale project at any time. The company will then be required to conduct an environmental impact study that has to be much more comprehensive than the one

SAVING OUR DESERT, ONE BUTTE AT A TIME

Black Lava Butte And Flat Top Mesa At Risk From Wind Energy Project

BY MICHELLE MYERS

Black Lava Butte and Flat Top Mesa

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The met towers were landed by helicopter as there are no roads.


that was carried out to get the test permit. The preliminary study Element conducted concluded there was nothing of any significance on top of the buttes that would be im-pacted by the presence of 400-foot-high wind turbines. SOD be-lieves that study was deeply flawed by virtue of its superficiality and contends that the buttes are home to desert tortoises, golden eagles – and most significantly, perhaps, a substantial number of Native American archaeological sites. SOD is currently engaged in identify-ing and recording those sites, with the help of volunteer archaeolo-gists. Flora and fauna experts are helping to identify habitat. SOD is also trying to raise consciousness. We know many peo-ple think that wind is natural and clean and so it must be good. The reality is that wind is a wasteful way to generate energy. Prox-imity to the turbines themselves makes people sick. Birds and bats are killed in huge numbers. We also dismiss the argument that most of the downside to industrial scale wind projects can be mitigated. Moving tortoises and killing them in the process is not mitigation. Although the immediate task at hand is the defeat of the Ele-ment project, SOD’s mission statement reflects our long-term con-sciousness raising goals. Namely, we must discourage utility-scale energy projects on unspoiled desert land and ensure that alterna-tive energy sources are appropriately placed, preferably on resi-dential and commercial rooftops. To that end, SOD volunteers run a stall at the Joshua Tree farmers market every Saturday. Passersby are engaged in discus-sion about the Element project and are asked to sign protest pe-titions and letters. (Our volunteers must be pretty persuasive as thousands of protest letters have gone out to everyone from Presi-dent Obama to local supervisor Neil Derry.) While Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s recent declaration that the Department of the Interior is the new Department of Energy is dismaying, SOD does see glimmers of hope for the future. One of those, perhaps, may be BLM’s proposal that federal lands should not go to any qualified entity that makes an application and that instead a competitive bidding process should be instituted that would generate fair market value for the land (and thereby hope-fully encourage a more responsible and much less speculative ap-proach by developers.) Another potential positive is that before competitive leasing for wind project sites can begin, the agency intends to designate wind development zones, something that could force the kind of clear-headed thinking about the siting of wind projects that, to date, SOD believes has been sorely lacking. In that regard, one of the issues SOD feels particularly strongly about is the use of unspoiled land for projects that may be more than a little experi-mental and thus run a substantial risk of abandonment. In the end, SOD hopes to contribute to the development of a coherent energy policy through education and outreach. We hope to persuade people of the problems inherent in siting industrial-scale projects in the desert -- namely that the ecosystem is so deli-cate that much of the damage caused by blasting and clearing of the land is permanent. Our mission statement makes it clear that our purpose is to preserve this land for future generations. And the incontrovertible fact is there are simply better ways to promote clean energy than by destroying our desert heritage.

Pipes Canyon resident Michelle Myers is also British and thus by definition another difficult sod. She serves as Secretary to Save Our Desert.

Grazing On Public Lands

Continued FRoM page 3

be less than the number permitted. I hope this example shows how something as basic as stocking rates on a grazing allotment can elicit three different perceptions among BLM, Sierra Club, and the Permittee. All seem valid to me, and when you consider the concerns of the users of Public Lands [i.e.; mining, logging, recreation, etc.] things get more complicated. In the face of all this complexity the BLM’s guiding principal should remain simple. Keep Public Lands Public. All the users have

concerns that impose on some of the other groups. It’s up to BLM to negotiate towards a balance among them. All the users have advo-cacy groups that want to be their voice. Some of the advocates want to maximize their influence, not optimize it for the public. It’s up to the BLM to weigh all of this and arrive at a balance. The various users of Public Lands are not equal in their ability to articulate, promote or defend their concerns about usage. It’s up to BLM to take up all the concerns. They are all equal partners. No group, including the BLM, should be bullied or litigated to the point that the balance is lost.

Art Steinbeck has managed cattle on his own land, on what is now the Bitter Creek Wildlife Preserve and also on Carrizo Plains Na-tional Monument. Although he grew up in Los Angeles, he learned livestock as an employee of several ranches and then went on to run his own business. He lives west of Maricopa, CA, near the allotments which he uses.

Part of the ranch used by Art Steinbeck. The brand “A lazy S” is on the gate with the approach road and sheds in the distance.

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The various users of Public Lands are not equal in their ability to articulate, promote

or defend their concerns about usage.


L

A LETTER FROM MICHAEL BRUNE

Sierra Club Supports Mandatory Wind Guidelines For Wildlife Avoidance,

Minimization, And Mitigation Last year, Sierra Club signed comments with several other environ-mental organizations supporting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) proposed voluntary guidelines for avoiding, minimizing and mitigating wildlife impacts from wind energy projects (see Desert Report September 2011 article for description of draft guidelines). The rationale was that given the limited resources and authority of FWS at this time, working with the wind industry through vol-untary guidelines offered a chance to actually extend protection to endangered and threatened species in the near term. However, some Club activists were properly concerned that voluntary guide-lines were inadequate to address the serious impacts of wind en-

BY BARBARA BOYLE

ergy on birds and bats. Desert Energy Subcommittee Chair Joan Taylor brought this to the attention of Beyond Coal staff and volun-teer leader Dick Fiddler, and the Club’s Vice President Dave Scott. After a review, a decision was made to add to and clarify our posi-tion on these guidelines. A letter signed by Michael Brune was then sent to Interior Secretary Salazar making it clear that ultimately the protective guidelines must be mandatory and that the resources and authority given to FWS must be enhanced so that they have the tools to do this important job. The following is the text of the letter.– Barbara Boyle, Sr. Western Representative, Beyond Coal Campaign


leases to Big Solar and Wind, the Environmental Protection Agency has identified 15 million acres of previously developed, degraded, and contaminated lands potentially suitable for solar energy devel-opment across the country. Yet this much-maligned agency cannot get the support it needs to advance a better strategy on those lands. Behind the scenes, but in full control, are the same entities that have controlled the “Fossil Fuel Era”—BP, Chevron, Morgan Stanley, Goldman-Sachs. With entrenched corporate influences steering our national policy toward industrial-scale renewables, as opposed to small-scale, local, distributed renewable energy, it is virtually impossible to counter them at the policy level. Finally, bringing up the rear are the national environmental or-ganizations such as The Wilderness Society and Natural Resources Defense Council, who have bought into the model of desert renew-ables industrialization and ask only for a little tweaking here and some trimming there. Funded by the very foundations and corpora-tions that thrive on the status quo, their job is to create the illusion of change for the better, while ensuring that things stay essentially the same.

The Power That Must BeDaunting as this all sounds, there is one sure way to work around the entrenched political and corporate power arrayed on the side of Big Solar: go to the people. Citizens don’t serve the monopolistic utilities or make decisions based on what’s best for big investment firms--and by and large, they instantly understand how small, local renewables better serve their interests and the environment. Tell them about the havoc now being wrought upon desert ecosystems and they know it is wrong. Tell them they can have panels on their roofs and feed power into a community grid, and they’re all for it. The distributed generation (DG) approach is an angst-free answer that makes sense to virtually everyone. It serves taxpayers, rate-payers, job-seekers, and desert tortoises. In that light, Solar Done Right is now focusing on public edu-cation and engagement as the most effective way to end desert de-struction and bring DG to the forefront. We must generate a grass-roots upwelling of demand for localized, democratic, distributed generation in the built environment as the far superior alternative to massive solar and wind facilities on public lands and in fragile

environments. The vehicle is our Call to Action for Energy Democracy, which outlines the negative consequences of the current industrial-scale, public land-focused approach to renewable energy development and demands a swift change over to the better alternative of DG in the built environment and on degraded land. We are now spreading the Call to Action far and wide to citizen and community groups of all types throughout the country to bring them on as signatories. So far, we have dozens of groups signed on, from Public Citizen in Washington, D.C. to the Utility Consumers Action Network in San Diego. As we build our list, word will spread. With the strength of civic passion behind it, the Call to Action will be delivered to multiple levels of government, where better decisions can and must be made.

Janine Blaeloch is Director of the Western Lands Project, which moni-tors federal land sales and exchanges across the West and beyond, and which works to protect public and from privatization. She is also a co-founder of Solar Done Right.


Transforming The Politics Of Big Solar

BrightSource industrializing the Ivanpah Valley

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If you are affiliated with any organization, whether issue-oriented, religious, political, civic, or business, please take the Call to Action to your group(s) for sign-on. And for infor-mation to support your effort, visit solardoneright.org and partake freely of the resources offered there.

We Need Your Help

DESERT COMMITTEE MEETING

The spring meeting will be held May 19–20, 2012 at the Black Canyon Group Camp at the Mojave National Pre-serve (across from Hole-in-the-Wall campground). David Lamfrom will chair. The summer meeting will be August 18–19, 2012 in the White Mountains. John Moody will chair.


CALL TO ACTION FOR ENERGY DEMOCRACY

Whereas, We must take rapid, effective, innovative action to change the ways we generate and use energy; Renewable energy is ubiquitous, offering a new model of energy generation that is local, democratic, and free from the abuses of a centralized monopoly; The US government’s current renewable-energy policy and the policies of most US states push industrial solar and wind development onto public lands; This industrial development is proposed for hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of acres of our pub-lic lands—much of that acreage consisting of intact ecosystems which provide habitat for rare and endangered plants and animals, sequester carbon, and offer the chance for ecosystem adaptation to climate change; The utility-scale solar and wind generating plants now proposed, most with footprints of several thousand acres, would transform these ecologically-rich, multiple-use lands to single use industrial facilities, in effect priva-tizing vast areas of public lands; Once developed, those lands cannot be returned to their previous state after the life of a project–conversion is total and permanent, even though most such projects will generate power for only 15 to 30 years; The thousands of miles of new transmission infrastructure necessary to carry power from remote solar and wind electric generating plants to urban demand centers drastically inflates the cost of renewable energy, while imposing its own serious environmental impacts; The federal government has provided tens of billions of taxpayer dollars in cash grants, loans and loan guaran-tees for remote industrial-scale solar and wind development to many of the same corporations that have domi-nated the Fossil Fuel Era, created the problems renewable energy is designed to rectify, and helped hasten the recession, while states and local governments have incurred substantial costs to expedite these for-profit projects; Efficiency upgrades and “distributed generation”—point-of-use energy generation on rooftops, in parking lots and highway medians, brownfields, and throughout the built environment—are cost-effective, efficient, clean, and democratic strategies that are quick to implement, and would serve communities, ratepayers, and taxpayers by improving local economies and adding to home values, and creating millions of local jobs; Efficiency and distributed generation further have far less environmental impact than industrial-scale solar or wind power on intact ecosystems, while making our electrical power grid far less prone to catastrophic failure; Feed-In Tariffs (FITs) and true net metering programs, in which utilities purchase democratically produced, decentralized renewable energy at a fair price, have been proven a cost-effective way of stimulating rapid deploy-ment of local solar and other distributed generation, while providing economic stimulus to communities rather than multinational corporations, even in cloudy countries like Germany; The Environmental Protection Agency’s “Re-Powering America’s Lands” program has identified 15 million acres of degraded or contaminated land potentially suitable for renewable energy development, and is committed to working with renewable energy developers to remediate these lands for use as utility-scale renewable energy generation sites where large projects may be desirable.

Therefore, we demand: That the Federal and state governments abandon their current path of industrialization and destruction of our public lands; That any large-scale solar or wind installations be restricted to degraded, contaminated, or already-developed lands, including those identified by the EPA; That Federal, state, and local governments facilitate a massive deployment of efficiency upgrades and point-of-use solar power; That no new large, long-distance electrical transmission projects be approved to serve remote solar or wind projects until distributed power generation and energy efficiency are maximized; That the Federal Housing Finance Agency immediately lift its de facto freeze on property assessed clean en-ergy (PACE) loans, which provide critical low-risk financing for efficiency upgrades and home energy retrofits; That Federal and state funding and other incentives be made available to help states establish and expand generous Feed in Tariffs (FITs) modeled after successful programs like Germany’s, and improve net metering poli-cies, and that Congress work to establish the proven solutions of German-style FITs and less-restrictive net meter-ing at a national scale.

www.solardoneright.org


FFor most people Ivanpah Valley is just a view from the windshield along Interstate 15. Many are not aware that the sweeping alluvial fans and spectacular desert peaks that they see support a unique and rare diver-sity of Mojave Desert flora and fauna along with a rich cultural history. A major highway now runs through the center of Ivanpah Valley and serves as an artery between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Transmission lines, a rare earth mine, a golf course, a prison, 4,000 acres of so-lar energy farms, and casinos now define the human use of this landscape. Pending development pressures include a 6,500 acre Clark County major airport on Roach Lake, a rare Earth mine on the Nevada side, and a high speed railroad. Some of the remaining best desert habitat lies in the path of two pending federally “priori-tized” solar energy projects, both of which are under environmen-tal scoping by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at this time. First Solar has applied for two major Right of Way grants in Cali-fornia and Nevada to build these large-scale photovoltaic projects spanning about 15,000 acres. One of these, the Stateline project, is adjacent to the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, now being built on high quality desert tortoise habitat. The proposed Silver State Project lies in an essential desert tortoise connectivity zone identified by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. One Chemehuevi interpretation of the word Ivanpah is “sweet water.” The Ivanpah Valley’s geographic boundaries span over 300 square miles and cross over the boundary of California and Ne-vada. It is defined by the Clark Mountains, the Castle Peaks, the McCullough Mountains and the Spring Mountains. Bighorn sheep, burrowing owls, Gila monsters, kit foxes and badgers are among the wildlife that call Ivanpah home. The Ivanpah Valley is home to a healthy and robust popula-tion of desert tortoises which has been determined to be one of the most genetically unique among the species. Part of this popula-tion is already preserved in California in an Area of Critical Envi-ronmental Concern. This tortoise population is also important for maintaining a genetic linkage with populations to the north and east in Nevada. The Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended that a 3 mile wide corridor remain open so connectivity can be maintained for the future survival of these populations. These re-gions were originally proposed for inclusion in the Piute-El Dorado Area of Critical Environmental Concern, one of the original desert tortoise Critical Habitats. It seems ironic that this same habitat is now being considered for several square miles of solar panels. The number of desert tortoises that have been displaced by Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is alarming. The devel-

oper, BrightSource Energy, originally predicted that only 25 tortoises would be displaced by the 3,600 acre project. We now know that up to 530 could be relo-cated and over 3,000 will be cumulatively impacted. Many juvenile tortoises have been found on the site, and juveniles are predicted to suffer a 90 percent mor-tality on the site. The Mojave Desert is recognized by scientists for its pristine quality among deserts and is one of the world’s last intact ecosystems. The Ivanpah Val-

ley within it has been described by botanists as a biological core area of the East Mojave Desert. The diversity of plants is greater than found in the coastal redwood forests of the Pacific Northwest. Ivanpah Valley provides habitat for numerous rare plants such as Mojave Milkweed, White-margined Penstemon, and Desert Pin-cushion. Many species have peripheral populations here, and the area is important for the long-term conservation of genetic diversity and evolutionary potential of these species, particularly within the context of uncertain climatic changes to their habitat. The benefit of preserving intact habitat and connectivity with surrounding areas is well documented in conservation science literature. The alluvial fans of Ivanpah Valley have high cultural value for present Tribes. Chemehuevi, Mohave and Paiute elders say the flats and fans were much used in their tradition, and still are today. Every shrub had a use, whether medicinal, for baskets, fiber, or food. The Wolfberry (Lycium) thickets were highly valued for sea-

ANOTHER SOLAR ENERGY FARM OR AN ACEC?

A Conservation Alternative

For Ivanpah Valley

BY KEVIN EMMERICH

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sonal berry-picking. Every lizard species, as well as tortoises, were hunted for food. Ancient trails crossed the fans (and some can still be seen today) linking springs, agave roasting pits, cave habita-tions, geoglyphs, prayer spots, and deer/bighorn hunting areas on Clark Mountain. There is an extensive body of knowledge about Ivanpah Valley’s cultural uses and geography, and it is important to preserve this cultural landscape intact for future generations. While the visual resources of Ivanpah Valley have been al-ready impacted by existing development, it is important to re-member that the size of proposed energy projects have the abil-ity to further impact the visual resources of the valley along with designated conservation areas such as the Stateline Wilderness Area, the McCullough Mountains Wilderness Area, and Mojave National Preserve. Development pressures are threatening the remaining re-sources of Ivanpah Valley. Basin and Range Watch has nominated about 200,000 acres of this habitat to be preserved as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern with the BLM, about 50,000 acres in California and 150,000 in Nevada. We are asking that this be considered as a conservation alternative to the two major pending solar applications that would remove habitat and block connectiv-ity. This nomination is supported by the Desert Tortoise Council and the Desert Protective Council. Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) are part of a conservation ecology program in the western United States, managed by the Bureau of Land Management. This program was conceived in the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). FLPMA directs the BLM to protect important riparian corridors, threatened and endangered species habitats, cultural and archeological resources, and unique scenic landscapes that the agency assesses as in need of special management attention. The BLM defines an Area of Critical Environmental Concern as a designation that “highlights areas where special management attention is needed to protect, and prevent irreparable damage to important historical, cultural, and scenic values, fish, or wildlife resources, or other natural systems or processes; or to protect hu-man life and safety from natural hazards.” Any individual or organization can nominate a region for an ACEC designation during the development of a specific land use plan. In the case of Ivanpah Valley, Basin and Range Watch sub-mitted the nomination during a supplemental scoping period for the Las Vegas Resource Management Plan Environmental Impact Statement. Because Ivanpah Valley spans two states, nominations for both Nevada and California were submitted. The Bureau of Land Management and other agencies are reviewing the footprint of solar energy development impacts in California through the Des-ert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan and nationally through the Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. Solar developers have submitted their own conservation plan for future development in Ivanpah Valley, but their plan grandfathers in sev-eral thousand acres of pending solar energy farms. Basin and Range Watch requested the following specific guidelines to be included in the designation: (1) All multiple use categories in the new ACEC are to be designated as Limited. (2) Renewable energy projects are to be minimized or completely ex-cluded. (3) All lands within the expanded ACEC boundary are to be withdrawn from mineral entry. (4) Private lands are to be ac-quired from willing sellers and vehicle routes are to be designated. (5) Botanical surveys for special status plants are to be conducted and conservation measures for the plants and their habitat should

be incorporated where new occurrences are identified.(6) Pertinent protection measures identified in the Northern and Eastern Mojave Desert Coordinated Management Plan are to be adopted as neces-sary to protect sensitive biological and cultural resources. In a recent meeting with BLM State Directors in Reno, Nevada, we were pleased to learn that our ACEC alternative will be consid-ered in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Stateline Solar Farm project. Existing highways and transmission make Ivanpah Valley one of the most vulnerable parts of the Mojave Desert. Large utility scale solar energy development has now shifted to predominantly photovoltaic designs (solar panels). Smart alternatives to the recent boom of prioritized large scale energy applications are needed. Pub-lic lands management needs to include language that implements long term conservation measures to insure that biological and cul-tural resources can endure for the future. Public lands agencies also need to examine alternatives that site solar energy in the built en-vironment and on degraded lands or brownfields. Distributed gen-eration and private lands alternatives would help avoid situations that are forcing us to choose between clean energy and preserving treasured, irreplaceable habitats. We do not need to choose. We can have both if we take the time to site clean energy in the appropriate locations. A conservation alternative to the current rush for devel-opment is appropriate.

Kevin Emmerich is a former park ranger and field biologist. He has lived in the Mojave Desert for 25 years and recently co-founded the renewable energy watch group, Basin and Range Watch. He now lives on a Nature Reserve in Nevada near Death Valley National Park.

Basin and Range Watch Ivanpah Valley ACEC nominationhttp://basinandrangewatch.org/Ivanpah-ACEC.html

Sign the Petition to support the Ivanpah Valley ACEChttp://www.desertbiodiversity.org/ivanpah_acec

The Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan http://www.drecp.org/

For More Information

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The Old Spanish Trail – 21st Century Threats

Rush pioneers, prompted by the 1848 discovery of gold in northern California; some of these caravans of gold-seekers chose to reach the Golden State by following the OST’s desert segment, rather than crossing the Sierras. The second wave resulted from Brigham Young’s 1851 decision to establish a Mormon colony in California. After 1851, Mormon wagon trains followed the Utah, Nevada, and California portions of the Old Spanish Trail southwestward to San Bernardino, CA, and other newly founded Mormon outposts. In some areas, the wagon trains followed the OST mule path; in other places, steep hills and narrow gullies forced the wagons to take alternate routes2. Over the years, the wagon trails branched and multiplied as parties discovered short cuts such as the “Kings-ton Cutoff,” which avoided the climb over Emigrant Pass and cut miles off the mule route. The dual-track trails left by the wagons became known variously as The Salt Lake Road, the Mormon Road, and the California Road, among other names that appear on 19th century maps.

OSTA’s Tecopa Chapter Records the Mule Trace OSTA’s Tecopa chapter began tracking, GPS-recording, and photographing the mule trace in 2007. The goal is to record completely the route of the trace between two known points on the OST: Resting Springs, CA, and Stump Springs, NV3. Currently, OSTA has recorded more than 11 continuous kilometers of mule trace leading east from Emigrant Pass toward the Nevada state line. OSTA’s field survey work took as its starting point the summit of Emigrant Pass, a widely acknowledged spot on the Old Spanish Trail mule trace. This is because virtually all trail scholars agree that the caravan trace is visible there4. In addition, numerous his-torical maps show the trail and the “Mormon road” crossing Emigrant Pass. Since the trace at Emigrant Pass is widely recognized as part of the 1829-1848 cara-van route, and since the OSTA team has documented the trace without a break from that known point, we are confident that the 11+ kilometers we have recorded comprise an unbroken segment of that route. Through its detailed recording and field observations,

the team has made several key findings relat-ing to the mule trace. • This segment of the trace has been subject to little modern disturbance, except where it crosses modern roads. In 11 km, we have found fewer than a dozen modern artifacts (e.g. soda and beer bottles and cans, plas-tic debris, or tire tracks (Figure 3). The team has found no Mexican-period artifacts, but these would be rare, since much of the pack-ers’ gear and mule tack was of cloth, leather, or wood. Rather, most artifacts (primarily bottles and lead-soldered tin cans) date to the late 19th century. This suggests use by post-Mexican period single riders, perhaps scouts for wagon trains or government sur-vey parties.• There is strong evidence that the trace did indeed result from a single-file procession of pack animals going from east to west. Mules in Mexican pack trains fell in line behind a “bell mare,” which led the string of animals5. Where the trace crosses arroyos on the des-ert floor, the U-shaped grooves cut into the lips of the gully are always deeper and wider on the west lip. This is consistent with heav-ily loaded animals “clawing” their way up a steep bank.

Figure 1. Old Spanish Trail area between Death Valley National Park and the California/Nevada border.

Figure 3. The well defined mule trace passes through nearly pristine desert territory.

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• The trace follows a “bee-line” course for target destinations, such as Emigrant Pass. This is consistent with findings by other trail researchers6. It is also consistent with fol-lowing the most efficient route, where flat terrain permits, between water sources. In the research area, mule caravans watered at springs along today’s Nevada state line, then headed west in a near straight-line course for Emigrant Pass. Once at the Pass, they descended to Resting Springs, the next wa-ter source.

Archival evidence for the route Historical documents and maps help flesh out details about the route of the Old Spanish Trail and its use near the Nevada border. We know that the Old Spanish Trail route proceeded west from Las Vegas and crossed the Spring Mountains, with a well-known stop at what today is Blue Diamond, NV7. Many historical maps show the trail leading out of the Spring Mountains and to Stump Spring near the Nevada border. Historical accounts by travelers make it clear, however, that the mule caravans and, later, wagon trains almost certainly relied on more than one spring in the area of Stump Spring. In some years, Stump Spring was dry or provided inadequate forage for pack animals or oxen8. On such occasions, mule caravans or wagon trains would proceed northwest to find water and grass at Hidden Hills spring, “Le rocher qui pleu” (roughly translated as “rock that weeps), ”Brown’s Spring, or Mound Springs. These nearby springs lie in a line along an escarpment at the foot of the Spring Mountains, just inside the Nevada state line. (Figure 4). For example, Addison Pratt, who trav-eled over the Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe in 1848 received a log with the follow-ing instructions from Ben Choteau, a trap-per who had just returned from California. Choteau told Pratt that, traveling eastward, he had stopped at Archiletta Spring (today called Resting Spring). He wrote, “Road bad to Archiletta Spring, large bagus grain grass. Water good, but warm. From this one comes to Escarbada [Stump Spring]. If water is not found at the “Parage” about 5 m. N.W. of it [probably Hidden Spring], we will find it a Le Rocher qui pleu [spelling is Choteau’s]”9. Similarly, Steiner cites the diary of Hen-ry Bigler, who traveled with a wagon train from Utah to Los Angeles in 1849. On No-

vember 25, the party camped at Mountain Springs in the Spring Mountains. The next day, according to Bigler the party went 27 miles downhill, “where we struck the first water (Stump Spring), 3 or 4 clusters of willow trees growing nearby. We thought of Camping here but what little feed there had been was eat off. We turned to the right [i.e., north-west] about 4 m. and found plenty of bunch [grass] in a deep bed of a Creek, but no water, and camped.” The next day the party found water “about a mile and a half down the creek” [Hidden Spring? Rocher que pleu?]10. Taken together, then, historical maps and archival documents make clear that the Old Spanish Trail and later wagon trails stopped at Stump Spring and other springs near today’s state line. This area surrounding the Nevada springs is precisely the area in which mule trace and wagon trails approach and intersect the project site for the Hidden Hills solar power plant (see Figure 4). From these watering spots, the trail proceeded west-ward, crossed over Emigrant Pass, and descended to Resting Springs.

Hidden Hills Solar Plant and the Old Spanish Trail HHSEGS will cover 3200 acres of desert near Charleston View, CA. It will include two 750-foot high solar concentrator towers surrounded by 85,000 reflectors. The roughly triangular project site is less than three miles from four of the Nevada springs just de-scribed. The southern boundary of the Hidden Hills project is the two-lane Old Spanish Trail Highway (referred to on Nevada maps as Tecopa Road). This southern boundary of the project is less than a mile or so north of the Old Spanish Trail as reported by Fremont (1845) and Steiner (1999:158). The solar project is also just north of the OST corridor as defined by the National Park Service11. This corridor appears to be based on Fremont’s description of his 1843-

Figure 4. Northern excursions from Stump Springs to other water sources created branches of the trail near the HHSEGS project area. Some of the branches, such as those leading from Hidden Spring and Le Rocher qui pleu, likely crossed the project area. The westward extension of the trail from Stump Spring passed just to the south of today’s Old Spanish Trail Highway, as chronicled in Fremont’s 1845 report.


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These trips are not rated. If you have not previously par-

ticipated in an outing of the type you are considering, call

the leader and ask about the suitability of the trip given

your conditioning and experience. Distance and elevation

gain can give an indication of the difficulty of a hike, but

the condition of the trail, or lack of a trail can change the

level. An eight mile, 900’ elevation gain hike on a good

trail would be easy to moderate, a similar hike up a brush-

filled canyon could be strenuous.

For questions concerning an outing, or to sign up,

please contact the leader listed in the write-up. For ques-

tions about Desert Committee outings in general, or to re-

ceive the outings list by e-mail, please contact Kate Allen

at [email protected] or 661-944-4056.

The Sierra Club requires participants to sign a

standard liability waiver at the beginning of each

trip. If you would like to read the Liability Waiver be-

fore you choose to participate, please go to http://

www.sierraclub.org/outings/chapter/forms/, or con-

tact the Outings Department at 415-977-5528 for a

printed version.

For an updated listing, visit the Desert Report website

at www.desert report.org and click on Outings.

The Sierra Club California Seller of Travel number is CST

2087766-40. (Registration as a seller of travel does not

constitute approval by the State of California.)

WHIPPLE MTS DESERT SERVICEMarch 16-18, Friday-SundayJoin CA/NV wilderness committee and Mojave Group’s annual service trip with the Needles office of BLM; for this patrician greening of the desert, we’ll return to the Whipple Mts, home of elusive saguaro cactus. Actual work project details still a secret, to be revealed to those who sign up with leader Vicky Hoover, 415-977-5527, or [email protected]. Central

commissary. CNRCC Wilderness Committee

MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE CAR CAMP AND HIKINGApril 7-8, Saturday-SundaySaturday morning we will meet at Teutonia Peak trailhead on Cima Road for a hike to Teutonia Peak and out onto Cima Dome and then camp at Sunrise Rocks, which is primitive camping.

Sunday we will hike from Midhills to Hole-in-the-Wall. This is an 8-mile, downhill hike and if the timing is right could have wonderful windflowers. For those wanting to arrive on Friday we can go out to the Rock Springs Loop Trail. For those want-ing to stay over night on Sunday we can primitive camp near the Kelso Dunes and hike the dunes on Monday morning. For reservations, contact Carol Wiley at [email protected] or 760-245-8734. CNRCC Desert Committee

BIRDS, FLOWERS, AND FENCES IN THE CARRIZO SERVICE TRIPApril 14-15, Saturday-SundayThis is an opportunity to visit and to assist in the Carrizo Plain National Monument. On Saturday, we will assist monument staff in the removal and/or modification of fences to allow

pronghorn antelope freer access to the range. Sunday is reserved for sightseeing or hiking as the group decides. The views from the Caliente Mountains are spectacular; spring flowers may be blooming; and the monument is known for the number and variety of raptors pres-ent. Contact leader for information and sign-up: Craig Deutsche, 310-477-6670, or [email protected].

CNRCC Desert Committee

OWENS PEAK WILDERNESS SERVICE TRIPApril 20-22, Friday-SundayWe will work with the Student Conservation Association crew, a group of college age interns who have been doing resto-ration work in this wilderness area for several months. We will meet at 8:30 in Ridgecrest and car caravan to the work area. Work project has not yet been determined, but will most likely be either building fences or camouflaging illegal roads. Work Friday and Saturday. Pot luck Saturday night with the SCA crew. On Sunday, the crew will lead us on a hike of the area. Leader: Kate Allen, [email protected], 661-944-4056. CNRCC Desert Committee/Antelope Valley Group of the Sierra Club.

ESCALANTE RIVER CANYON SERVICE TRIP/BACKPACK April 29-May 5, Sunday-SaturdayWe will work with National Park Service Ranger Bill Wolverton on this ongoing Russian olive eradication program. 42 miles of the Escalante River have been cleared. This project will clear more, using loppers, small handsaws, and herbicide. Meet in Escalante Sunday morning, caravan to the trailhead and hike in about 7 miles. Expect knee to thigh deep river crossings, and some bushwhacking. We work 4 days, dayhike 1 day and hike out Saturday morning. Participants must follow work-clothing requirements, provide their own food and gear on the trail, and

California/Nevada Regional Conservation Committee Desert Committee

Outings


Old Spanish Trail


travel expenses to the trailhead. For more information contact leader, Paul Plathe at 209-476-1498. Delta-Sierra Group/Moth-er Lode Chapter

The following activity is not sponsored by the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club makes no representations or warranties about the quality, safety, supervision, or management of this activity. It is published only because it may be of interest to the readers of this publication.

MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE SERVICE PROJECTMarch 10, SaturdaySpend the day in the Mojave National Preserve with a group of volunteers cleaning up private land recently donated to the National Party Service and now legally part of the Preserve. Starting at 9 am and working through the afternoon, we will collect and remove junk, garbage, and other solid waste from a site in the Lanfair Valley on the eastern side of the park. Bring water, sunscreen, a hat, and lunch. Layers of clothing are best as temperatures can be unpredictable. Gloves, garbage bags, and tools will be provided. The Hole-In-The-Wall and Mid-Hills campgrounds (with water and vault toilets) are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Sturdy tents with strong stakes are advisable in case of high winds. The Mojave National Pre-serve Conservancy is pleased to partner with the Park Service on this service project. Contact Sid Silliman for details and to RSVP ([email protected]).

44 route12 and on Steiner’s plotting in his Map 2313. According to the Park Service, the width of this representational corridor is not precisely defined. As a rule of thumb, such representational corridors are frequently considered to extend one-quarter mile to either side of the center line, but will be defined in specific localities depending on local topography and local management priorities. Determination of the actual corridor width at any given location awaits completion of a comprehensive management plan for the Old Spanish National Historic Trail. That plan is currently in preparation.

The Hidden Hills Solar Plant’s Impacts Cultural Resources. The Hidden Hills project will negatively impact the Old Spanish Trail travel corridor, which consists of branches of the 1829-1848 Mexican mule caravan route and of wagon trails from the American period. OSTA’s field recording of the mule trace had just reached Charleston View when the application for the Hidden Hills solar plant was filed with the California Energy Commission in 2011. Thus, the field survey is incomplete in the project area. In addi-tion, the ground in the Charleston View area is disturbed, both by a graded street grid and by construction and dwellings. Neverthe-

less, an analysis of the existing field survey data, geophysical data, and historical sources clearly establishes that some parties following the trail to California went to Hidden Springs or Rocher qui Pleu in search of water and grass. These parties--whether mule caravans or wagon trains--must have created branch trails that cut across the proj-ect site on their way toward Emigrant Pass (Figure 4). OSTA has found indications on the ground that this is the case. For one thing, we have located “stubs” of the trace on the north side of OST Highway, leading toward the northern springs. One of these stubs, for example, is consistent with a branch trace leading south from Mound Springs. Moreover, in 1964 as part of the Nevada Centennial, OST trail markers were placed near Brown Springs and on Hidden Hills Ranch, near Hidden Springs. OSTA has not yet found documentary evidence indicating why Sherwin “Scoop” Garsides elected to place markers in these two locations, but it is clear that Garsides and the Centennial commission believed that Brown and Hidden springs were on the Old Spanish Trail. OSTA plans archival research of the Garside Collection, housed at UNLV’s Library, Special Collections Department, to substan-tiate Garsides’ reasons for placing monuments at these springs. Visual Impacts The towers--each three-quarters the height of the Empire State Building--will introduce a major visual impact to the Old Spanish Trail travel corridor. Surrounded at the top with a bright halo produced by the intensity of the reflected sunlight, they will impose unavoidably in the field of vision of drivers on the OST Highway. Moreover, in terms of the visual resources criteria specified by the National Register of Historic Places and the BLM’s newly-issued management standards for the National Landscape Conservation System, the towers will neg-atively impact the ability of passersby to “vicariously experience” the Old Spanish Trail corridor. Today, a vicarious experience is possible from the vicinity of Stump Spring, Hidden Springs and many other observation points; in the future, it may not be.

The Old Spanish Trail Corridor The route leading from springs just east of the Nevada state line to Resting Springs, in California, is an ancient route for Native American trade. Portions of the Old Spanish Trail used these same routes, following well-developed native footpaths leading from water hole to water hole across the desert. In turn, Mormon wagon trails followed the mule caravan tracks and used the same watering holes. The 20th century saw the building of a modern highway through the same corridor. Taken together these historical routes comprise a significant cul-tural resource that reflects the rich heritage of commerce and emi-gration in California, Nevada, and the Southwestern U.S. Given the impacts of the Hidden Hills solar plant to the Old Spanish Trail, OSTA is likely to seek mitigation measures to counter adverse effects to cul-tural and visual resources in the area.

A bibliography and references for this article can be found online in the Notes section of www.desertreport.org.

Jack Prichett is president and Scott Smith is secretary of the Old Span-ish Trail Association’s Tecopa chapter. Prichett is a former historical archeologist.


HOW TO LIE WITH MAPS

Points Of View

A Selective Portfolio Of California Desert Maps

BY PAT FLANAGAN

“A single map is but one of an indefinitely large number of maps that might be produced for the same situation or from the same idea.” How to Lie with Maps – Mark Monmonier

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCC)–Dept. of Interior (DOI) Secretarial Order No. 3208 (Sept. 2009) Point of view – Maps the 22 LCC areas. Note: The LCC is a network of public-private partnerships that provide shared science to ensure the sustainability of America’s land, water, wildlife and cultural resources to protect our quality of life and economy. LCCs are in their planning infancy.

BLM Solar Development Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (SDPEIS) 2011 Ad-ministrated Lands in California Available for Solar Energy ROW Authorization. Point of view – Shows that all BLM lands, except wilderness, are up for solar development under different alternatives – ‘No Action’ Alternative, Modified Program Alternative, and Modified Solar Energy Zone (SEZ) Alternative.Note: There are no ‘exclusion’ lands shown on this map.

Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) Preliminary Conservation Strategy Point of view – Shows areas of low and moderate to high biological values, the renewable energy study areas and condor study area.

BLM SDPEIS 2011 Desert Tortoise Conservation Areas and Proposed Connectivity Areas Point of view – Maps desert tortoise conservation and connectivity areas showing overlap with variance lands (pink and blue) and Solar Energy Zones (SEZ). Note: Desert tortoise conservation areas are not in agreement with maps 5 and 6.

DRECP – High Value Desert Tortoise Habitat Point of view – Shows high value desert tortoise habitat in the planning area. Also online: A. Renewable Energy Action Team Starting PointB. Composite of Moderate to High Biological Value AreasC. Bighorn Sheep Critical Linkage, Mountain habitat and Intermountain Habitat


“The California deserts collectively represent perhaps the largest intact functioning ecosystem left in North America. And the California des-erts remain one of the floristic frontiers in the United States with an estimated 6-10% of the plant species undescribed. Over the past 50 years we have been discovering 25-30 new species each decade, and projected forward, we will add up to 200 additional species this century”.- James M. Andre, Director, Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center & Sacramento Mountains Reserve

A list of resources related to this article can be found online in the Notes section of www.desertreport.org.

US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) – Recommended Desert Tortoise Linkages Between Critical Habitat/Desert Wildlife Management Area (DWMA) UnitsPoint of view – FWS recommends that BLM exclude areas to provide for desert tortoise linkages between Critical Habitat/DWMA units. Shows desert tortoise critical habitat. Note: There are significant differences between this map and map #4 above.

Linkage Design for Joshua Tree – Twentynine Palms Connection Point of view – Shows the Least Cost Union with Species OverlayThe desert tortoise linkage is the reddish-brown linkage in the eastern basin.Note: This report was completed in 2008 but not referenced by BLM Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DPEIS) nor incorporated into the BLM Conservation and Connectivity Areas map for desert tortoise.

California Desert Connectivity Linkage Planning Areas (in process – map has been available since 2009)Point of view – Shows the 23 science-based desert linkages. The completed Joshua Tree-Twentynine Palms linkage design is shown in yellow. Note: These linkage areas not referenced in BLM DPEIS.

Morongo Basin Wildlife Linkage Designs & BLM Preliminary Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) Jan 2012Point of view – This map was constructed to show the overlay of the BLM variance lands (map 1, pink and blue shaded areas) on the linkage design (map 7) and local communities.

The Nature Conservancy – Conservation Value of the Mojave DesertPoint of view – Shows the ecological core lands needing a high level of protection; the eco-logically intact lands needing protection that allows areas to continue to support ecological processes and connectivity; and the moderately disturbed and highly converted lands.

The Nature Conservancy – Anthropogenic Disturbance of the Mojave DesertPoint of view – Scores human disturbance on the landscape using color with dark blue being very low disturbance, and orange being very high disturbance.

The Nature Conservancy – Conservation Landscape of the Sonoran DesertPoint of view – Scores conservation categories in 6 landscape units.


OOn November 2, 2011, the entire Nevada Congressional delegation introduced the Pine Forest Recreation Enhancement Act which designates 26,000 acres of wilder-ness within the Blue Lakes and Alder Creek Wilderness Study Areas (WSA). This bill rep-resents the culmination of a decades long effort to protect this area which is located northwest of Winnemucca, Nevada, near the Oregon border. The Pine Forest Range may be the best-watered of any Bureau of Land Management (BLM) areas in Nevada, and, as such, is home to the Lahontan Cut-throat Trout and a large herd of mule deer, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn. Thick for-ests of white-bark pine and aspen provide habitat for many species of birds and small mammals. Thirty years ago, the BLM closed the primitive road leading into Blue Lake be-cause of resource damage to the shores caused by unwise off-road vehicle use. This closure proved to be very successful in re-storing the shores of the lake and has been applauded by all interests, including fisher-men. This action set the stage for the pres-ent two-year effort to gain protection as wil-derness for this beautiful and unique wild area. Coordinating this effort has been Jim Jeffress of Trout Unlimited who has brought together a group of environmentalists (es-pecially staff of Friends of Nevada Wilder-ness), sportsmen, ranchers, off-road vehicle enthusiasts, and Humboldt County busi-nessmen to look at the areas on the ground and to come to agreement as to where the wilderness boundaries should be placed. Only 1,500 acres of the existing WSA lands are released, and the BLM is directed to ex-change federal lands surrounding nearby ranches for private parcels within the exist-ing WSA’s which would then be managed as wilderness.

The Humboldt County Commission unanimously approved this bill after it was pre-sented and explained at a County Commission meeting. Senator Reid of Nevada has point-ed out what a local process involving the whole community can do in protecting important federal lands. He and Senator Heller expect to have hearings on the bill as early as this March. It is hoped that Representative Amodei will be able to schedule hearings in the House as soon as possible. With bi-partisan support, the bill should be approved and sent to the President for signature this year. Although this area is not known to many outdoor enthusiasts because of its remote location, the Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club has led several trips over the years into this wonderful place, and in 1996 the CA/NV Wilderness Committee visited the area over Memorial Day where several participants climbed Duffer Peak, at 9,400 ft the Pine Forest Range’s high point. We who love the Pine Forest Range hope that you readers are inspired to visit this magnificent oasis in the Great Basin Desert.

Marge Sill is the Wilderness Chair for the Toiyabe Chapter and the Nevada Coordinator for the CA/NV Wilderness Committee.

EFFORTS UNDERWAY TO PROTECT NEVADA WILDERNESS

Pine Forest Recreation Enhancement

Act Introduced

BY MARGE SILL

Alder Creek Wilderness Study Area

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EDITORIAL STAFF MANAGING EDITOR Stacy [email protected](408-248-8206)

CO-EDITORSCraig Deutsche [email protected]

Nate Krumm [email protected]

Amelia [email protected]

Ingrid [email protected]

CIRCULATIONKate [email protected](661-944-4056)

OUTINGS EDITORKate [email protected](661-944-4056)

GRAPHIC DESIGNJason [email protected] (626-487-3791)

OFFICERSCHAIRTerry [email protected](805-966-3754)

VICE CHAIRJoan Taylor(760-778-1101)

OUTINGS CHAIRKate [email protected](661-944-4056)

Funding for Desert Report is made possible, in part, by the generous, ongoing support of the following:

Sierra Club California www.sierraclub.org/ca

Desert Protective Council www.dpcinc.org

Desert Tortoise Council www.deserttortoise.org

Toiyabe Chapter, Sierra Club www.nevada.sierraclub.org

EarthShare California www.earthshareca.org

The Wildlands Conservancywww.wildlandsconservancy.org

The Desert Legacy Fund at The Community Foundation Serving Riverside and San Bernardino Countieswww.thecommunityfoundation.net

Anonymous

COORDINATORSCALIFORNIA WILDERNESS DESIGNATION AND PROTECTIONVicky [email protected]

NEVADA WILDERNESS DESIGNATION AND PROTECTIONMarge [email protected]

DESERT WILDERNESS DESIGNATION AND PROTECTIONTerry [email protected]

IMPERIAL COUNTYTerry [email protected]

EASTERN SAN DIEGO COUNTYDonna [email protected]

EASTERN RIVERSIDE COUNTYDonna [email protected]

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARKGeorge [email protected]

CARRIZO NATIONAL MONUMENTCraig [email protected]

PANAMINT/INYO MOUNTAINSTom [email protected]

COACHELLA VALLEYJeff [email protected]

ENERGY ISSUESJoan Taylor (California)760-778-1101

Laura Cunningham (Nevada)[email protected]

OFF-ROAD VEHICLE ISSUESTerry [email protected]

George Barnes (public lands)[email protected]

Phil Klasky (private lands)[email protected]

MINING ISSUESStan Haye760-375-8973

NEVADA WATER ISSUESJohn [email protected]

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21ST CENTURY THREATS The Old Spanish Trail - …...F Tracking a historic 19th Century trade route...

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Transcript of 21ST CENTURY THREATS The Old Spanish Trail - …...F Tracking a historic 19th Century trade route...