Mojave Desert Blog

The Guardian, a UK newspaper, featured a travel article highlighting the wonder of the Mojave Desert: From The Guardian A murder is about to happen. Fifteen metres away from us, beside a bullet-ridden oil can, a coyote sniffs the air. My daughters stop the Indian Runner jog they have recently developed across the acres of unfenced Mojave desert, and watch. The victim-to-be, a clueless jackrabbit, sits between us and the coyote, among a family of quail, who are scrabbling for insects under a scrubby creosote bush. "Stay still," I murmur, grappling in my pocket. I pull out my Swiss Army knife, and open it up. I know that coyotes rarely attack but best to be prepared. "That's the corkscrew bit, Mum," my seven-year-old, Ruby, says. "It's the only one I can do with my nails," I whisper. Luckily for me, the wild dog decides none of us, not even the jackrabbit, is worth bothering about and trots off towards the San Gorgonio mountains 60 miles to

According to research presented at the Desert Tortoise Symposium ,  and reviewed in local press, desert tortoise translocation may not be an effective method of preserving desert tortoise populations.  Solar energy projects proposed for vast tracts of land in the Mojave Desert would involve relocating tortoises from their burrows on proposed sites to conservation land purchased by the solar companies.  The study presented at the Desert Tortoise Symposium, however, indicates that among 158 desert tortoises relocated from Fort Irwin nearly two years ago, 44 percent died and 20 tortoises were not located.  Many of the dead tortoises were killed by coyotes.  Of course, "green energy" firms like BrightSoure Energy and Solar Millennium balk at mitigation costs imposed by the California Energy Commission (CEC) in order to off-set their impact on desert tortoise and other sensitive species.  Perhaps the CEC should take into consideration the failure rate in desert tortoise relocatio

Solar Millenium's proposed Ridgecrest Solar Project considered alternative sites near Boron and California City that may have less overall impact on the Mojave Desert's biological resources since they are closer to industrialized or built-up areas, but determined that the acreage was insufficient or that it could not amass enough acreage due to the company's own arbitrary preference in land acquisition and unspecified guidance from the California Energy Commission (CEC) guidelines.  Data submitted by Solar Millenium indicates that the company's alternative site consideration seems shallow and suggests the company is not serious about smart site location.  Sadly, for reasons previously mentioned on this blog, the CEC seems content to move forward with consideration of the company's proposed site, even though it is home to special status wildlife, instead of devoting more serious investigation to the alternative sites.  Here is the response from Solar Millenium,

Victorville Mayor Rudy Cabriales once again decided to delay Victorville City Council's consideration of supporting or opposing the California Desert Protection Act of 2010, according to the minutes from the 2 March meeting.  The Council will now consider the legislation again during its 16 March meeting.  According to the minutes, Mayor Pro Tem Mike Rothschild and Councilmember McEachron had "comments" on the legislation but the notes did not specify.  For any readers of this blog that were able to attend, feel free to share with us what comments were made by those Coucilmembers.

Kelso Dunes practically materialized out of thin air, but only because wind currents and mountain formations formed a perfect match and dumped find sand adrift in the atmosphere onto the creosote shrub land now awash in sand dunes.  If we continue to constrict the Mojave Desert with subdivisions and industrial development, these phenomenon could cease to exist.

Legislation introduced by Congressman Howard McKeon in December and recently supported by Senator Barbara Boxer would resolve a longstanding dispute between CEMEX and the City of Santa Clarita, which opposed a 1990 contract sponsored by BLM granting CEMEX rights to extract sand and gravel from Soledad Canyon.   In order to resolve the dispute, the legislators propose selling BLM lands--already on the Bureau's "disposal list"--in the vicinity of Victorville and use the proceeds to compensate CEMEX.  The City of Victorville and San Bernardino County would have first rights to purchase the land. Although Soledad Canyon will be spared, the lands on BLM's disposal list amount to approximately 10,500 acres, with the bulk of those lands located just south and east of the Mojave Monkeyflower Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC).  This general area was also targeted by the Victorville City Council for expansion of the City's boundaries (see previous post ).  Vi

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) California Desert District is soliciting nominations for five Southern Californians to serve on its District Advisory Council for the 2010-2012 three-year term, which would begin immediately upon confirmation by the Secretary of Interior. The five positions to be filled include one representative each for renewable resources, environmental protection, elected official, and two representatives for public-at-large. Anyone can nominate qualified persons in any of these categories. Nominations must be submitted by close of business Friday, April 21, 2010, to the California Desert District Manager, Bureau of Land Management, California Desert District Office, 22835 Calle San Juan De Los Lagos, Moreno Valley, CA 92553. Each nomination must include the name of the nominee, work and home addresses and telephone numbers, a biographical sketch including the nominee’s work, applicable outside interests, and public service records. The nominee also must

Reviewing the draft environmental impact report (EIR) for the proposed 1,555 acre " Hacienda at Fairview Valley " residential project (for more info, see my previous post ), a Joshua Tree survey identified at least 3,891 Joshua Trees on the proposed site .  County regulations would require the developer to attempt to avoid impacts to Joshua trees and preserve in-place to the farthest extent possible in order to achieve a “design of excellence.”  If the project progresses toward construction, the developer would have to submit a Joshua Tree plan that identifies specific trees to be transplanted or stockpiled for later transplantation or future adoption.   The survey approximated that 38% of the trees on the site would be "transferable,"  implying that the rest would likely be cut down and discarded.  You can download the full report on the website of San Bernardino County's Land Use Services Department in the list of EIRs.  Scroll down to the Hacienda project