The newsletter of the Desert Protective Council Spring 2016 Number 222

P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635 (619) 342-5524 http://www.protectdeserts.org

continued on page 2

by Terry Weiner

Have you been able to get out to one of our great southwestern deserts yet

this spring? I say ‘yet’ because although the major blooming of the annuals will have come and gone in the low desert areas by the time you read this, the cacti and the agave and the high desert shrubs may still be flowering as the blooming ascends and moves north. The high elevations of Joshua Tree National Park are beginning to bloom as of the first week of April.

The news of the phenomenal bloom in Death Valley National Park, which began in early February, quickly spread beyond this continent.

On Valentine’s Day I caravanned with a few desert-loving buddies from Shoshone, CA to Furnace Creek in Death Valley, and then south on Badwater Road to below sea level. On February 14th we discovered that the lower the elevation, the more widespread the bloom of the early annu-als. The brown-eyed evening primrose and the Geraea canescens (the large-flowering, vanilla-scented desert sunflower) were in profusion. Ecstatic is how I would describe

A Personal Reflection from our President

My husband, my sister visiting from Indiana, and I recently visited

the Borrego desert to enjoy the spring flowers. One of the many pleasures of living in San Diego is the ability to take a day visit to the Anza-Borrego State Park. 

We found Banner Grade well decorated with many ceanothus flowers, most of them of a light blue. As we drove closer to Borrego Springs we began to see flowering ocotillos, surrounded by clusters of red blossoms at the top of their tall branches. 

At the Anza-Borrego State Park Visitors’ Center and during our trip up Montezuma

Grade we were surrounded by flowers and the blooming brittlebushes. Shops and homes along the way were ablaze with color. It was a Flower-full Day. 

Of course, spring flowers are but a part of the myrid attractions vistors and residents enjoy in the desert. There are also migrating birds, the unusual desert cactuses, and varied animal life such as; lizards, snakes, tortoises, rabbits, kit foxes, coyotes, big-horned sheep and deer.  

Thinking of the many plants and animals in the desert reminds me of the camping experiences for children that Desert Protective Council supports with gifts to the Anza-Borrego Camp Borrego Program. At one time, DPC was even involved with

the teaching of desert life in the Imperial Valley school system. We all believe that the education of children to the characteristics of desert life is an important goal. Inspiring children to understand the importance of deserts will hopefully translate into future concerned adults, who will help protect our fragile deserts. Without your donations and gifts, DPC doesn’t have a way to support these wonderful organizations.

This amazing environment has been preserved for us today because people from the past also saw and enjoyed the desert spring. They had the foresight to keep it protected for future generations. Now I see that President Obama has also given Los Angeles residents the pleasure of a desert day visit as well, to the new National Monuments in the Mojave Desert. We all need to continue to work diligently to educate people to the wonders of the desert.

That is why your gifts to the DPC are so greatly appreciated. And when you attract other members to our organization, it increases the opporutnities for us to educate both adults and children to the wonders of desert life and help us to preserve it.

– Dr. Janet A. Anderson

El Paisano, the newsletter of the Desert Protective Council2

our mood in witnessing the very beginning of the 2016 Death Valley bloom! Neither words nor photos (at least not mine!) can capture the dark-yellow painted-looking alluvial fans and bajadas and the acres of desert covered in white from the evening primrose and the gravel ghost. We also were able, with ‘insider’ tips, to discover acres of the lavender and red-colored desert five-spots in buds and bloom as well. The elusive ‘hide and seek’ river, the Ama-rgosa, was flowing and continues to flow above ground throughout its length—an additional treat from the strong fall rains that fell in southwestern Nevada, as well as in Death Valley.

The fabulous Death Valley bloom was caused or at least closely correlated to the unprecedented October rains that began in the north end on October 4th. The torren-tial subsequent downpours caused terrific flooding all the way to the southern end of the Park. For a gripping report on Death Valley’s Wettest October on Record, I highly recommend reading the cover story of the March 2016 Issue of the Sierra Club CA/Nevada Desert Committee’s Desert Report (desertreport.org).

Although Anza-Borrego Desert State Park did not receive heavy October or November rains, in early March the sandy areas of the Park around Henderson and Coyote Canyons were covered with brown-eyed evening primrose, Geraea, dune primrose, and various species of phacelia, the very fragrant spectacle pod. The indigo bush produced a spectacular bloom in the low elevations as well.

This spring I believe desert advocates deeply needed what I will call a ‘beauti-ful respite’ from a particularly stressful five years in the desert protection ‘busi-ness’. When I began my first position with

the Desert Protective Council in 2001, I learned from my mentor and DPC Founder Harriet Allen, that taking on the work of a desert advocate, I was taking on a job that I will not be able to complete in my lifetime. I recall Harriet laying a huge monthly plan-ning calendar on the floor on which we recorded public hearings, BLM and other federal and state agency meetings, EIR and other land use plan comments due, new desert projects proposed, various DPC committee meetings and pertinent Sierra Club meetings. I felt overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of keeping on top of these projects, proposals, meetings, and needed letters to agencies. Thus perhaps, as the French say: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Nevertheless, when Harriet and I had our talk 15 years ago, the earth’s human population was still hovering around 6 billion and at this point in time our earthly numbers are closing in on seven and a half billion. I don’t need to elaborate further on the connection between the number of humans on earth and the constant search for resources and materials required to sup-port our lives and the search for places to dispose of our waste.

This spring we have sprouted a new

problem in California, one that was predictable and is laden with bitter irony for those of us who have supported and promoted rooftop solar energy production and fought against scraping our deserts for large-scale energy development—because we knew it was unnecessary. On some days California is producing more solar energy than the grid can handle! And there are insufficient means to store it. Even with the energy use of our luxurious lifestyles of our coastal cities and including the amount needed for the highest energy use in the state-pumping water from one place to another, on certain days we are

producing more renewable energy than we need. The lesson, in my opinion, is to always work to help slow the desert ‘development machine’ until we have sufficient evidence that moving forward with a project will not result in permanent damage for short-term gain.

Thus with your support, the DPC will continue to fight those who will continue to try and destroy our precious desert national natural heritage for profit. Please keep in touch via our DPC web site and our Face-book and Twitter pages. Do call or email me, Terry Weiner the DPC Projects and Con-servation Coordinator, with your ideas or to volunteer to help implement our mission.

–Terry Weiner

terryweiner@sbcglobal.net

Point Happy

— Highway 111 between Indio and Palm Desert —

This is an Indian village site,where Cahuilla dug walk-inwells by hand for hundredsof years down to where thefickle desert river never stoppedflowing. This is where oceanonce slurped at land. Thisis where the fish surgedon high tide into rock traps,where the ancient shoreline holds promises of cool, deepwater. This is now the siteof a fast food restaurant whosebusy drive-thru overflows withcustomers, forever thirsty,stumbling in from the mirage.

By Ruth Nolan

Conservation Corner…

from page 1

ORV “Donuts” around ancient Native

American foot trail.

http://www.protectdeserts.org 3

February 2016, President Obama used the Federal Antiquities Act to issue

proclamations creating three new desert national monuments. This followed nearly a decade of legislative work on the part of Senator Dianne Feinstein, accompanied by years of tireless advocacy on the part of environmental organizations to advance at least two versions of the Senator’s 2010 California Desert Protection Act (CDPA).

The Mojave Trails National Monument (NM), the Sand to Snow National Monument and the Castle Mountains National Monument encompass 1.8 million acres of diverse and beautiful desert lands from high mountain peaks through Joshua Tree savannahs, to low desert washes northwest of Palm Springs.

The new national monuments lie mostly within the Mojave Desert with a small section in the Sonoran Desert (official maps of the proposed boundaries of these new monuments are available online). Which agency manages or co-manages national monuments, and other areas, is key because although all three of our federal land management agencies are woefully under-funded, the BLM is arguably the most strapped for personnel

and resources. The new monuments allow for motorized vehicle use on existing roads, thus these areas will need careful management. Their borders will require buffers.

The failed 2010 CDPA and its subsequent version, the CA Desert Conservation and Recreation Protection Act of 2015, among other provisions, would have created two new national monuments, six new BLM Wilderness areas covering 250,000 acres in the Mojave and in the Sonoran desert, added acreage to Death Valley NP and the Mojave National Preserve and protected 77 miles of waterways as wild and scenic. On the down side, Feinstein’s legislation would also have permanently codified 5 desert National OHV Recreation areas—142,000 acres—and would have allowed for land swaps to encourage the development of renewable energy projects throughout the California desert, and allowed for transmission line upgrades within the national monuments.

Footnote and Update: Always a careful legislator and politician, on the heels of the declaration of the three new monuments on February 23rd Senator Feinstein re-introduced her CA Desert Conservation,

Off Road Recreation, and Renewable Energy Act (S 2568) changing the name of the bill, but retaining the main elements of the 2015 version. In this legislation reincarnation she appears to be attempting to appease the energy industry as well as the off-road vehicle lobby. Senator Feinstein stated, “Off-roaders deserve certainty about their future use of the land...” In an April 4th letter to the Friends of the Desert Mountains, the Senator stated she intends to “pass the entire bill and not just parts of it.” The Desert Protective Council cannot support this quid pro quo legislation that singles out areas for protection and simultaneously throws open hundreds of thousands of acres of other precious desert acres for permanent destruction.

New Monuments and Proposed Legislation

On a blustery Sunday in early March, a good DPC friend and I conducted

a site visit to the Ocotillo Wind Project. Although my travels to and from Imperial County require that I pass the wind project as I head east toward El Centro on Interstate 8, I admit that otherwise I have avoided the area since the wind project began operation. I have noted on my excursions past the project that generally only a few turbines of the 112 are turning. Most of the year Ocotillo is not a windy place, a fact documented by the local residents, day by day, for many months. This information was conveyed to the project developer, Pattern Energy and to the BLM and Imperial County.

On the Sunday of my visit, the blades of all but one of the 112 turbines were rotating. The wind was blowing a steady 15-20 mph that afternoon. The turbines

are not fenced so one can stroll around the site and the turbines. I was stunned by the indescribable loud whooshing sound from each turn of the blades accompanied by a low howling and the electrical buzz from each turbine’s generators. Despite promoted mythology, wind is not a quiet source of energy, nor is it predictable. March is the only windy month in Ocotillo.

As we sadly predicted, the Ocotillo Wind Energy Project has failed to generate anywhere near the capacity promised. A wind project is considered successful when it produces 35% of potential capacity—that which would be produced if the wind blew day and night.

The 2015 Capacity Factor for the Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility was a dismal 23.06%, far from the 34% promised by Pattern Energy to the permitting agencies. The total generation for 2015 was 537.5

Gigawatts (GW) of energy, far less than the 891 GW referred to in the early stages of the approval process. In other words the project was 323.5 GW short—40% short of their prediction!

The habitat has been badly damaged, wildlife corridors disrupted, the Native American cultural landscape destroyed, the view-shed has been permanently ruined for many miles around.

The residents of Ocotillo continue to suffer from the noise, the occasional dust storms from the site, and the nightly blinking of hundreds of intensely bright red lights, which can be seen from as far away as ten miles.

Perhaps the taxpayers are due a partial refund from the 232 million dollars subsidy to Pattern Energy through the North American Development Bank and the 1603 Federal Grant Program?  

Ocotillo Wind Update by Terry Weiner

El Paisano, the newsletter of the Desert Protective Council4

Each February at Francis Parker Upper School in San Diego, one week of the

month is set aside for what is referred to as interim week. During this week students choose from a wide range of weeklong teacher-developed courses.  

This year I decided to take a group of nine students to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and hike to Torote Bowl. I wanted them to see the rare elephant tree (Bursera microphylla) in one of its few north-of-the-border homes. They would create a documentary of the hike, the vistas, the elephant trees, and some of the common desert plants found in the park.

My course “The Natural World Knows No Borders” was designed so students could learn about and experience the beautiful, vast desert wilderness of the

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, an area roughly an hour and a half from the San Diego metropolitan area. I hoped they would approach the course with open minds and see the desert for the special place it is. I also wanted to raise awareness of the importance of preserving desert wilderness and perhaps inspire the students to look differently at the border, or lack there of, in regards to the natural world.

On the first day, after my brief presentation about the elephant tree, the students met a variety of interesting and passionate speakers, including Terry Weiner from the Desert Protective Council. The presenters discussed many of the common plants and animals found in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. They shared amazing photos, talked about why

they love the desert, and what makes it such a special place.

On the second day, the students learned how to create a movie using the iMovie application on school-supplied iPads, and planned out their documentaries in preparation for their trip to Torote Bowl.

The next morning, as we left San Diego, there was only one rule—no cellphones. I hoped the students would watch their surroundings change as we left San Diego proper and climbed in elevation, then eventually descended into the desert.

After passing some of the most beautiful landscapes in San Diego County, we made the turn into Ocotillo and all eyes were locked on the wind turbines. “Those are the turbines that Mrs. Weiner spoke about,” I stated. As we passed the last group of turbines, one of the kids said, “Okay guys, we are officially in the middle of nowhere.” Then I heard, “Cholla!,” and “Look, an ocotillo.”

We made our way to the Mountain Palm Springs Campground in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, while students filmed the journey with their iPads from the window of the van. From here, it would be a short hike to the Southwest Grove and the trail to Torote Bowl, to see what one of the students referred to as “the sacred elephant trees.”

The students jumped out of the van, ready to go. The entire way to Southwest Grove, they named the different plants we had learned about. When I pointed out a pair of phainopepla, one of the students struggled to get footage of the two birds as the birds quickly made their way to their next perch. They even called out markers along the hike, something one of the presenters spoke about. When I asked, “Pretty cool place huh?” Collectively they all responded, “really cool.”

We arrived at Southwest Native Palm Grove and took a break in the shade of palms before ascending to Torote Bowl. The hike was not very long, or very steep, but the views were amazing. All of the students stopped multiple times to appreciate the landscape, and get footage for their documentaries.

When we arrived at Torote Bowl, many students scrambled over rocks to get a

The Natural World Knows No Borders by Chris Theobald

The ‘Sacred’ Elephant Tree

http://www.protectdeserts.org 5

On March 19th, in Washington D.C. in celebration of the National Park

Service Centennial, the Environmental Film Festival honored David Vassar of Back-country Pictures with a retrospective of his films. A Walk In The Park With David Vassar, filled the 300 seat Warner Broth-ers Theater at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History and recognized David’s work and lifetime of environmental filmmaking. 

The program showcased clips from David’s films on Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Death Valley National Parks and included the preview clip of the documentary Conspiracy of Extremes, which Backcountry Pictures is currently producing about deserts. The Desert Protective Council is excited by the prospect of this event’s potential to raise awareness of the film and the issues illuminated, as well as attract people and funders to the project.

As most of you know from our previous updates on the Desert Documentary’s progress, Conspiracy of Extremes, as

described by its creator David Vassar, “is a love song for one of the most forlorn and misunderstood regions in the world. Dispelling the myth of the desert as a worthless and barren ‘wasteland,’ the documentary will capture the desert as a true wonderland teeming with life...” and worthy of passing on to future generations. The film clips in David’s presentation at the Smithsonian Institution was shown on a 35-ft. screen, which underscored the technical quality of their accomplishments. The retrospective was very well received and the Conspiracy of Extremes clip received sustained applause. David came away saying, “We can talk about what we want the film to be until we’re blue in the face but being in the room with an enthusiastic audience of 300 gave us confidence that we are producing something special that people will want to see.”

The Desert Protective Council, Backcountry Pictures and a number of generous desert-loving individuals have had good success in getting the ball rolling on the film and gaining some major support,

but now is the time to widen our circle of supporters. Please identify friends and colleagues and business associates who love the desert and have the financial means to help, and contact them! Since viewing the preview clip on a larger screen is proving the best way to ignite audiences, David and Sally invite you to arrange for an in-person meeting with them to view the preview clip, discuss the issues and learn more about the goals of the documentary.

The latest round of publicity on remote, large-scale renewable energy projects attempts to dazzle people with the technology and magnitude of these projects. More scraping of our deserts is imminent. Now is the time to step up and help get this film completed so people can be educated and demand solar on rooftops and over parking lots—not in the desert!

To learn more about the new desert documentary contact the filmmakers athttp://bcpfilms.com/conspiracy-of-extremes/

Conspiracy of Extremes Desert Documentary Update

closer look at the elephant trees. Others sat in the shade one of the larger trees provided. We spent quite some time relaxing, enjoying the serenity and vastness of the desert. The students experienced nature, with their friends—connected. One last rule for the day was to use their cellphones and take a “selfie” with an elephant tree.

Two days later, their films were completed and we watched them together, along with other students and faculty members. Their responses were all great. However, it was how the students reacted to, and reflected upon their trip to the desert that made me most proud.

Among the variety of comments, the students shared two thoughts: first, they want to go back to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and second, that the desert is not just rocks and dirt. It is a beautiful place that is home to many different amazing plants and animals.

The course was a huge success. Watching the students show a genuine

interest and excitement for what the presenters shared with them, seeing them enjoy their time in the desert, and hearing their reflections at the end of the week were all beyond what I expected, and even more profound than I had hoped.

Chris Theobald has been teaching for thirteen years. This is his first year as a high school Spanish teacher at Francis Parker Upper School in Linda Vista, San Diego. He enjoys spending time with his wife and 5-month old daughter. He also enjoys surfing, hiking, camping and learning about and experiencing the outdoors.

The Natural World Knows No Borders… from page 4

El Paisano, the newsletter of the Desert Protective Council6

This spring marked the 12th season of Camp Borrego, Anza-Borrego Founda-

tion’s 5th Grade Environmental Education Program located in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Support from Desert Protec-

tive Council helped to provide this 3-day, 2-night learning experience to three groups in Imperial County.

Camp Borrego is a unique experience for students, enabling them to interact with

the desert in an in-depth way. Not only are they learning about geology, paleontology, archaeology, botany, and the animals that live here, but also about the different opportunities to engage with

Large-scale solar continues to push the edges of technology, but also the

definition of what green energy truly is. And perhaps most importantly how energy projects funded in part by the public and built on public land, are transparently reviewed and monitored.

The 110 megawatt concentrating solar power tower generating facility on 2,250 acres—the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project—is nearing completion and in the testing phase as of March 2016. It is unique in that the facility will have molten salt as the primary heat transfer and storage medium. It will be the first of its kind in the United States and the tallest molten salt tower in the world, located 14 miles northwest of Tonopah, Nevada, on remote desert land leased from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The project includes 17,500 heliostats (mirror assemblies) that collect and focus the sun’s thermal energy to heat molten salt flowing through a 640-foot tall solar power tower. The high temperature molten salt circulates from the tower to a storage tank, where it is then used to produce steam and generate electricity. But this concentrated sunlight also creates an intensely hot solar flux, reaching a thousand

feet or so outward from the tower and can singe and kill birds and bats flying into it.

During a test in January 2015, approximately 130 birds were witnessed and filmed vaporizing in the heat of the solar flux.

This caused a controversy, and Basin and Range Watch requested more information regarding the bird mortality event from BLM. Since the project was built entirely on public land and received a $737 million guaranteed loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, we felt that full public monitoring of the project was justified so that mitigation measures could be accurately developed, and future avian deaths avoided. BLM hesitated to disclose information, however, and Solar Reserve (the company constructing the project) said that disclosing data on bird deaths would reveal too much information that was “proprietary” and protected by trade secrets act protection.

So we submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to BLM asking for public disclosure of bird mortality and mitigation data,

Although BLM released some documents nearly ten months after Basin and Range Watch’s initial FOIA request, it withheld documents that described how BLM will insure that the project’s owner will prevent similar bird kills in the future. Although Solar Reserve claims to have solved the bird mortality problem, BLM continued to withhold important information about how the agency is carrying out its role in overseeing the project on public land. Documents were partly redacted with blacked-out lines so that text was not visible.

Because of these redactions, in February Basin and Range Watch filed suit under

FOIA to obtain full documents that the BLM had refused to disclose about bird mortality.

This brings up the important point about government transparency about all energy on public lands. We support renewable energy, but we also seek transparency in government and open public dialog about solar project impacts on public land that receive public funds.

“This is an issue of transparency and public accountability,” said Dave Becker, a Portland, Oregon-based attorney who represents Basin and Range Watch. “FOIA requires full and prompt disclosure of information about how BLM is making sure that projects built on public land with public funding do not do serious damage to public resources.”

Without the full disclosure to the public of the documents, BLM and the project developer are effectively managing the project’s right-of-way over public lands in secret. What will prevent future dirty fossil fuel developers from using these BLM renewable energy decisions made in secrecy to their own ends? Precedents are being set on public lands with utility-scale renewable energy that will lead to less public transparency on right-of-ways to allow more fracking, oil pipelines, or coal and uranium mining.

Full public participation should be retained in the environmental review process, including monitoring and mitigation, of all energy projects. These are our lands, not lands to be given to corporations in streamlined, shortened processes that cut the public out. Agencies should be kept accountable. We are setting the path to the future now.

by Laura Cunningham, Basin and Range Watch

Crescent Dunes Solar: Transparency in Energy Projects

Overcoming the Fear of the Outdoors: The 12th Year of Camp Borrego

by Ashley Kvitek, Education Coordinator at Anza-Borrego Foundation

http://www.protectdeserts.org 7

this landscape that looks so similar to their own backyards.

I was able to spend two days with students from Ben Hulse Elementary School and follow the program through their eyes, participating in the activities and lessons right along with the students. During my time spent learning and hiking up Borrego Palm Canyon, I spent a fair amount of time with one small group of students. During the day-long hike to the oasis, one boy mentioned that his mother was a little nervous about him attending Camp Borrego all on his own. Of course, I asked him, “Why?”

His answer was what many expect when working with students and families that don’t get the opportunity to engage with nature on a regular basis, “Because we don’t know what’s out here.” When this young man could finally see the oasis,

his excitement and enthusiasm just kept growing with every step. There was just one mishap—he fell in the water during one of our first crossings, and it understandably shook his confidence a little. But he got right up with the encouragement of his fellow trail group members. When we reached the oasis, I couldn’t help but ask him how he felt. His answer was one I wasn’t expecting, “I think I overcame my fear of hiking.”

That moment right there is why we put so much effort into the fundraising, planning, and execution of Camp Borrego. With the help of Desert Protective Council we were able to update the curriculum this year, aligning lessons and experiences with the California State Next Generation Science Standards. That’s an important part of what we do; provide a quality education program for students. But we also find

value in the experience each individual student has with the landscape. It is that experience that will create a steward of our public spaces for tomorrow.

2016 brought five sessions of Camp Borrego, which means 150 students had the opportunity to learn about the outdoors and have the experience of a lifetime with their fellow students. Thank you, Desert Protective Council, for helping us make that happen.

Ashley Kvitek is the Education Coordinator for Anza-Borrego Foundation. Her work involves coordinating and supporting the day-to-day operations of Camp Borrego and working with the other educational and outreach programs Anza-Borrego Foundation has to offer for visitors to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Desert Protective Council New and Renewal Membership Form

Enclosed is my remittance of $_______ New Membership Gift Membership Renewal

Name_________________________________________Address_______________________________________City, State, Zip________________________________Phone_________________________________________Email_________________________________________Please make checks payable to: DPCMail to P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635Dues and all donations are tax-deductible.

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS (please check) Life $300.00 one time Sustaining Membership $50.00 annually Regular Membership $25.00 annually Joint Membership $35.00 annually Senior/Student/Retired $15.00 annually Additional Gift of $_________

Desert Protective Council

Website: http://protectdeserts.org Twitter: @protectdeserts Facebook: facebook.com/ DesertProtectiveCouncilJanet Anderson, PresidentPauline Jimenez, SecretaryLarry Klaasen, TreasurerTerry Weiner

Imperial Projects & Conservation terryweiner@sbcglobal.net (619) 342-5524

Indy Quillen Communications Coordinator indy@dpcinc.org

For donations of $50.00 or more, we will send you a copy of California Desert Miracle by Frank Wheat.If you would like to receive our newsletter electronically,rather than in the mail, please send an e-mail message stating “subscribe electronically” to: indy@dpcinc.org.

Overcoming the Fear of the Outdoors…

from page 6

Desert Protective CouncilSince 1954protectdeserts.org

P.O. Box 3635San Diego, CA92163-1635

The newsletter of the Desert Protective Council

El Paisano #222 Spring 2016

California’s State Reptile, The Threatened Desert Tortoise (Gopherus Agassizii) by Tom Budlong

Favorite Desert Reptiles