Critters and wildflowers--Joshua Tree National Park

(Cholla Garden)




(photos, Joshua Tree National Park, March 2008)

Happy Easter

(a blooming yucca; me and a flowering Joshua tree)





(Photos March 2008, Joshua Tree National Park)

Thanks to reader Josh on my last post who helped me identify the tiny fruit-bearing cactus as a California Pincushion.

Out in Joshua Tree National Park where we visited last weekend, and all over the California deserts, the wildflowers are in bloom. This year is a banner year for wildflowers because of the abundance of rain. More posts to come on this amazing season of flowers! A time of new beginnings...

Happy Easter!

The world's tiniest cactus--flower or fruit?--Joshua Tree National Park

Last Saturday while William and I were hiking in Joshua Tree National Park across the road from the White Tank area I came upon this tiny cactus tucked beside an outcropping of rock.

I'm looking through my books and information on wildflowers. I'm thinking the red buds are flowers but they look more like fruit. Any thoughts?

Part II--A perfect day--Desert Poetry Workshop in Deep Canyon

Check out Part I of this post if you missed it...

After lunch, we headed into Deep Canyon for an hour hike. The sky was blue. Clouds filtered over in the late afternoon. Deep Canyon looked like what much of the desert might look like if left in its pristine state. Around us, the canyon rose a few thousand feet. Creosote with their long, spindly branches dotted with red blossoms outlined the rocky slopes.

Barrel cactus covered the hillside, more barrels than I'd seen in one place, some capped with a single yellow flower. Fuzzy teddy bear cholla that escaped the frost shined like gold in the sun. The prickly pears cactus were also blooming with hot pink blossoms.

Layers of sand washed down the canyon after the recent rains were pressed so flat they looked as if they'd been cut. A stream poured over rocks down the canyon's V. On a crag, a palm oasis sprouted from the rocks. So many wonders! The group of us criss-crossed over the stream as we made our way up canyon. I hoped to see a bighorn sheep, an endangered species that lives there. The sheep come down to water, Cassandra said. But not that afternoon.

The hike stretched to more than two hours, all of us caught up in exploring the landscape.The day was so beautiful, it was hard to turn around and hike out. We did though, and, inspired, wrote more poems. Finally, at 4:30, we packed up and drove out. I looked back longingly at Deep Canyon: my idea of a perfect day.

(Photos 2008, Deep Canyon, Palm Desert; Cassandra pointing out a flower)

Part I--A perfect day--Desert Poetry Workshop in Deep Canyon

A few weeks back I was invited by my friend Ruth Nolan, an English professor at College of the Desert, to attend a poetry workshop at Boyd Deep Canyon Research Center in Palm Desert.

Many people think of Palm Desert, with its golf courses, fancy resorts, and El Paseo shopping district as Beverly Hills east. There's more to the city that butts up to the San Jacinto Mountains where Highway 74 winds down from scenic Idyllwild.

Boyd Deep Canyon Research Center is part of the Natural Reserve System (NRS), created by the University of California, one of 36 living laboratories and outdoor classrooms that represent our state's rich ecological diversity. Here, scientists from all over the U.S. conduct research and field study in the canyon's pristine, undisturbed environment. Students in grades K-12 explore the canyon on guided interpretive hikes. Groups of lucky writers are occasionally invited to participate, too!

At 8:00 AM on a Saturday, a small group of writers and I met up in Palm Desert with Ruth and Dr. Cassandra Nunez, Education and Outreach Coordinator for the center. The weather was perfect, a still 70 degrees. We caravaned down a road that wound through Bighorn Country Club, through a series of locked gates, into Deep Canyon, hidden from the highway.

During a brief orientation, Cassandra told us that the center was named after Philip L Boyd, the benefactor who donated the original plot of land that now spreads over 17,00 acres. She pointed out a quail shelter where the birds are being studied. Several miles later, at the end of a dirt road, we arrived at our destination--a series of small bungalows located at the canyon's mouth facing east over the Coachella Valley to the far-off Little San Bernardino Mountains.

We set up camp on picnic tables covered by an overhang, took out our pens and notebooks, and got to work. That morning and afternoon, Ruth gave us prompts and we wrote poems inspired by the desert setting. The other writers and I went around and read what we'd written. In an exercise, I jotted this postcard:

Yellow brittlebush blossoms
bright reflections
a mourning dove in the canyon
the twittering of nameless birds

a hummingbird swaying
on a wisp of palo verde
blackened teddy bear chollas
that perished in the frost

taste the sky like artesian water
hidden wells beneath my feet


(Photos 2008, Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center)

Check out Part II for our hike into Deep Canyon...

La Quinta Arts Festival--March 13-16, 2008

I've never been to this art festival , but I hear great things about it. The festival has been going on for 26 years, and is consistently rated in the Top 10 of art festivals in the country. 250 artists exhibit and sell their work. Attendees are welcome to talk to the artists and learn about their craft and process. Art pieces range in price from $50-$50,000 dollars. (You might want to bring that stash of pennies...)

When: March 13-16, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Where: 78495 Calle Tampico
La Quinta Civic Center
Admission:$10 for adults, $15 for a 3 day pass
children 12 & under admitted free

For more information, call (760) 564-1244 or visit www.lqaf.com

Random desert shot--Joshua tree with sign

What came first--the tree or the sign?

(photo: JTNP, road to Split Rock, December 2007)

Interview with Donna Charpied--Part II: the Charpieds' Fight for Eagle Mountain

Check out Part I of my interview with Donna (February 28, 2008) if you missed it.

In 2005 I met Donna and her husband Laurence at a reception at the Twentynine Palms home of Huell Howser, host of the PBS series, California's Gold. That afternoon, the Joshua Tree National Park Association honored the couple with the 2005 Minerva Hoyt Desert Conservation Award for their work in desert conservation, specifically for leading the fight to prevent the building of the world's largest garbage dump inside a thumb-shaped stretch of desert in the Eagle Mountains on the southeastern border of Joshua Tree National Park.

The Charpieds (LaRonna Jojoba Company) are the world's first Certified Organic jojoba growers and processors. For the last 21 years they have campaigned against the Eagle Mountain dump.

(photo: Joshua Tree National Park, 2000)

Allison: Donna, what have you and your husband Larry done to fight the proposed Eagle Mountain dump?

Donna: In 1992, when the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved the first environmental-impact report, the county admitted that the dump would increase air and water pollution in the Coachella and Chuckwalla Valleys. Larry and I picked up a how-to book on legal challenges and filed a successful lawsuit in pro-per in the Superior Court of California in the County of San Diego, challenging the adequacy of the document and charging the Board of Supervisors with abusing their discretion.

The 1994 court ruling put the project back to square one, and in 1997 the polluters released a "new and improved EIR." We successfully defended our position, then in 1999, the Court of Appeals overturned Judge Judith McConnell's rulings. We took the case to the California Supreme Court, with "friends of the court" letters from a number of environmental organizations, including one filed by then Attorney General, Bill Lockhart. The court denied our petition without providing a reason.

We've gotten groups behind us including the NDRC, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, the National Parks Conservation Association, and many more. The managers at Joshua Tree National Park and regional staff opposed the dump.We've been in and out of court many times to fight the dump.

In September, 2005, the Central District Federal Court in Riverside ruled in our favor. Judge Robert Timlin reversed the land exchange and ruled on a number of National Environmental Quality Act violations. The government and the polluters appealed that decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Allison: What's happening with the case now?

Donna: A panel of three judges heard our case December 6, 2007, and we await their decision. We believe that the 2005 court order will stand.

Allison: Talk about "Give it Back," listed on your website as "A Campaign to Return 29,775 Acres of Land in the Eagle Mountain Range to Joshua Tree National Park and Designate the Defunct Kaiser Mine and Townsite a National Historic Landmark."

Donna: It's a campaign started by the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ), based in Riverside, and the Citizens for Chuckwalla Valley to return that land near the mine to Joshua Tree National Park. Lands under the dominion of the National Park Service are protected in perpetuity whereas land from the Bureau of Land Management can have multiple uses. The land around Eagle Mountain, where Kaiser's defunct mine is, once belonged to Joshua Tree National Monument.

The U.S. Congress reinforced the importance of this area when they added 300,00 acres to Joshua Tree National Monument and elevated Joshua Tree's status to National Park in the 1994 Desert Protection Act. We want them to give it back and make Eagle Mountain a National Historic Landmark. Funny that on one hand Senator Feinstein protected the desert with the 1994 act, except where Eagle Mountain is concerned. There is language that says the act will not interfere with the development of the dump. So she is actually trying to protect the dump from the desert instead of vice-versa. We want them to give the land back and make the Eagle Mountain Mine a National Historic Landmark.

Allison: Tell me about the architecture project.

Donna: Last year we challenged Eric Shamp and Eric Stotts, architects from Redlands, to design a research institute, eco-tourism site, and heritage center, all fueled by renewable energy, for the abandoned Eagle Mountain town site. The team then challenged the Los Angeles chapter of the Emerging Green Builders to adopt the "Vision for Eagle Mountain" as a design competition. The winning entry was submitted by two undergrad students from Cal Poly Pomona who went on to take third place at the Greenbuild International Conference in Chicago. (See www.ccaej.org for more info).

Allison: When will you consider the fight to save Eagle Mountain over?

Donna: When the polluters pack their bags and leave. It would require the U.S. Department of Interior and the Bureau of Land Management to agree to give the land back . Our vision will come to fruition when the 29,775 acres are returned to Joshua Tree National Park and the Eagle Mountain mining area becomes a historical monument. And we begin to look at the area in a sustainable way. The vision for Eagle Mountain will be a showcase to the nation that communities can develop sustainably with a strong economic base.

Allison: What would you like to see for the future?

Donna: We need to manage waste where it is generated and not shift our pollution into another person's backyard. Transporting mega amounts of garbage over 200 miles to deposit into an area that boasts of a Class 1 airshed is not only insane, but will contribute exponentially to global warming.There are alternatives to dumps, but industry has a strong infuence on government officials. (she smiles) However, if the Eagle Mountain dump comes to fruition, civil disobedience will kick in.

Allison: How can readers interested in saving Eagle Mountain or desert conservation help?

Donna: Check out our website at www.ccaej.org. On April 18-19, 2008, we're having a benefit concert at Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown to raise funds for the legal bills. (See also www.rockinforjoshuatree.org).

Although our legal team of Stephan Volker Law Offices are providing their services at a discounted rate due to the public interest nature of the case, the invoices add up. Our attorneys have done a yeoman's job of keeping L.A.'s trash from desert communities and Joshua Tree National Park.

To donate to the legal fund, make a check payable to CCAEJ, earmark it for the dump lawsuit, and send it to: Donna Charpied, P.O. Box 397, Desert Center, CA 92239.

Pappy & Harriet's Palace, touted as the "Best Honky Tonk West of the Mississippi," located in the high desert near Yucca Valley, has featured artists like Robert Plant, Leon Russell, Eric Burdon, and Rickie Lee Jones. The benefit, "Rockin' for Joshua Tree,"will feature artists to be announced soon.

I hope everyone comes out for that... a good way to support the efforts to keep Joshua Tree National Park the national treasure it is.

Coming up soon on this blog is an interview with Curt Sauer, superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park. Curt echoes many of Donna Charpied's concerns.