YV Wal-Mart referendum just shy of sufficient valid signatures

A referendum effort to force a revisitation of the approval of the Yucca Valley Wal-Mart Supercenter failed to gather sufficient signatures. Of the 1426 signatures obtained only 906 were verified to be those of registered Yucca Valley voters; 954 would have been required to move the petition forward.

The petition was sponsored in part by MBCA through the Coalition for Environmental Integrity in Yucca Valley. More information to come.


MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: On the WalMart page on the MBCA Website. Previous blog posts: WalMart, Yucca Valley.

Coverage of HD Water District canddidates forum

"Six candidates vying for three seats on the Hi-Desert Water District Board of Directors detailed their qualifications and views at a candidate forum held at the community center Tuesday." Read full coverage of the forum in the Hi-Desert Star.

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: On the Water pages of the MBCA Website. Related blog posts: Water, Yucca Valley, YV water/waste/sewage, Meet the Candidates.

Public meetings confirmed on Marine Corps expansion

The Bureau of Land Managment and the U.S. Marine Corps have announced the details of two public meetings in Twentynine Palms and Victorville to "inform the public about the legislative withdrawal process for consideration of the proposal to expand the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center."

The proposal seeks to withdraw approximately 366,000 acres of federal public land and, if eventually acquired, approximately 72,000 acres of non-federally owned property within the proposed withdrawal area.

In Twentynine Palms two meetings will be held on Thursday, October 23, at the Twentynine Palms Junior High School gym at 5798 Utah Trail. Additional meetings will be held on October 24 in Victorville.

Two meeting times are scheduled at each location from 1 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. (CORRECTION: THERE WILL BE ONLY ONE MEETING IN TWENTYNINE PALMS, AND IT WILL RUN FROM 4 TO 9 P.M. - ED.) to provide the public the broadest opportunities to attend, according to Roxie Trost, BLM Barstow Field Manager.

A notice published Monday, Sept. 15 segregated the public lands involved for two years, making them unavailable for settlement, sale and location of claims under the mining laws. However, the lands remain open to public access and recreation use. A 90-day comment period will closes Dec. 15.The notice, available online at www.blm.gov/ca, also explains the withdrawal process.

Read more in the Desert Trail.


MORE INFO ON THESE ISSUES: On the Land Use/Development and Communities pages of the MBCA Website. Previous blog posts: Johnson Valley, Marine Base, Wonder Valley.

2008 Summit on Practical Advances in Southwest Sustainability

MBCA is a proud sponsor of the 2008 Summit on Practical Advances in Southwest Sustainability (PASS Eco-Summit) to be held on October 10, 11, and 12 at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center.

We encourage you to participate in this desert regional conference and be informed of practical sustainable solutions for the desert Southwest. Check the PASS Website for Event Program (pdf) and Registration Form.

Below is an update from organizers:

The 2008 PASS Eco-Summit is FREE ALL DAY on FRIDAY October 10th. Please read below for more details on the lectures, workshops, and demonstrations throughout the day. Other FREE events include the Eco-Fair on Saturday and the Eco-Home Tours on Sunday. It’s not too late to register for the Full Conference day on Saturday.

The PASS Conference is packed with valuable information and inspiring speakers on various aspects of living and building sustainably in the Southwest. Come here progressive professionals from throughout the Southwest address topics ranging from sustainable city planning to homeowner/upgrade issues.

Download the attached current version of the PASS Eco-Summit Program to view the exciting line-up for the day, and visit the website for more info on our speakers. To reserve a space you can register on-line, mail in the attached form, or call 760-401-2858. Financial assistance and work trade opportunities are still available, but please inquire soon, as these opportunities are filling up.
To save a space for the Green Living Worskhop on Saturday from 2:00-5:30 pm please call or write us soon. If you wish to pay at the door please come 15 minutes early.

MBCA Meets Thursday, October 9

The next regular board meeting of the Morongo Basin Conservation Association is October 9, 2008, at 9:30 a.m. at PFF Bank & Trust in Yucca Valley.

Please join us and add your voice and experience.

Candidates forum for 29 Palms City Council on Oct. 8

All four candidates for the Twentynine Palms City Council will participate in a forum sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, to take place next Wednesday, Oct. 8.

Audience members will participate in the forum by submitting questions which will be posed to candidates in the space between opening and closing statements. Questions will be placed in a box and then drawn and answered one at a time by each candidate. Candidates will have one minute to
answer each question which will then be placed back in the box.

The forum will be videotaped and can be viewed on Time Warner Cable Channel 10 at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 18 and 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 25.

The event will run 6 to 9 p.m. in the community hall at Little Church of the Desert, El Paseo Drive at Ocotillo Avenue.

Read more about the forum and the candidates in the Desert Trail.

Meet Yucca Valley candidates

The public is invited to "meet the candidates for sustainable growth" in Yucca Valley this Friday, Oct. 3.

Present will be Town Council candidates Bill Souder and Wade White, as well as Hi-Desert Water District candidates Rae Packard, Margo Sturgis, and Charles McHenry.

Bluegrass music, food, and drink will be on hand.

Friday, October 3, 6-8 p.m., at 51845 Saddle Lane, Pioneertown (east of Pioneertown Road, westerly end of Pipes Canyon). Pipes Canyon Road, North on Eastline, Left on Saddle Lane. "Watch for the balloons."

Alert! Native Plant Protection - Joint Yucca Valley Town Council/Planning Commission Study Session

Native Plant Protection will be the only item on the agenda for the joint Yucca Valley Town Council/Planning Commission Study Session on Thursday, October 2, 2008, 6:00 pm, at the Yucca Valley Community Center.

The stated purpose of this meeting is two-fold:

1. Compare and contrast the existing and draft [Native] Plant Protection & Management Ordinances.
2. Based upon Town Council direction, to further define [Native Plant] Design and Development Standards to be included in Section 89.0130 of the Draft Ordinance.
   

Please attend this meeting and make known your views on Native Plant Protection. Without public concern and enforceable ordinances, the wholesale destruction of native plants and wildlife habitat will continue.

MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See Grading/Clear-Cutting and Land Use/Development pages on MBCA Website. Additional posts: Yucca Valley, Grading/Clear-Cutting.

POWER! comes to the desert!

In the latest edition of El Paisano, the newsletter of the Desert Protective Council (DPC), Conservation Coordinator and indefatigable desert defender Terry Weiner writes about the movement to site large-scale industrial "renewable" energy projects in the Southern California Deserts. She lays out some of the issues, gives the position of the DPC, and chronicles the formation of a new coalition of small desert groups with the Mission to "support sustainable local energy that contributes to social, economic and ecological health.”

A common misconception about industrial-scale renewable development, especially solar power, is that it is benign to the immediate surroundings. For instance, some believe that a solar farm’s main impact is that it shades the plants and animals living underneath the solar collectors. In truth, solar farms usually scrape the entire project site to provide level terrain. Renewable development in the desert will destroy all of the natural, cultural and visual resources within the project area. In some cases, these impacts extend well beyond the project’s “footprint,” particularly if it would require building hundreds of miles of transmission lines to transport the energy produced.

Unfortunately large segments of the American urban population – who have not had the opportunity to learn about or to experience the wild beauty, the fascinating array of plants and animals, the awesome quiet and dark skies of the desert – imagine that the desert is an empty expanse that would provide a perfect place to meet the nation’s renewable energy needs. The media have promoted this idea of the desert as wasteland and some articles have tried to distill the burgeoning outcry against these large-scale projects down to a case of simple NIMBY-ism.

Many desert residents and activists have been deliberating how to respond to the threats and the public perception I have described above. We decided there is an urgent need to develop a grassroots voice for the desert from a desert communities’ perspective. I am happy to report that, as a first step toward this goal, a dozen or so small non-profit desert-oriented conservation group representatives, environmental justice groups, desert residents, and property owners met over the Labor Day weekend in the Coachella Valley and began our conversation about how to address this major threat to the integrity of our deserts.

Over the course of a long day, we aired our individual groups’ concerns and actions to date and developed goals and a mission statement. We began developing a group strategy to inform the public, the media and decision makers of our intention to protect our desert from gigantic solar and wind farms and to promote local, point-of-use, low-carbon energy development as a more economical, less damaging alternative that can meet California’s aggressive renewable energy goals equally well.

The name of the new group, chosen by vote, is POWER! – “People Only Wanting Energy Responsibility.”

MBCA is a proud member of the new coalition, and, as Terry writes, "We will be joining our voice and actions to the voices of people throughout the California desert and backcountry areas where the threat of industrial energy infrastructure also looms."

Read the rest of Terry's column on pp. 2-3 in the Fall 2008 El Paisano (pdf), along with more educational and empowering desert information from the venerable Desert Protective Council. And be sure to check out their blog!


MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: On the Energy page of the MBCA Website. Previous posts: Energy.

BLM acquires lands to southwest side of JT Park

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced the purchase of 621 acres to the southwest of Joshua Tree National Park that had formerly been considered for a large-scale residential and commercial development. The land, considered crucial to protection of the sand dunes ecosystem, will be added to the Coachella Valley Preserve.

In addition to protecting the only known habitat for fringe-toed lizards, the acquisitions also provide a linkage for bobcats, kit foxes and desert bighorn sheep to move between the national park and the Coachella Valley Preserve.

BLM Desert District Manager Steve Borchard explained, “We were able to take advantage of federal legislation that allows us to use funds from sales of unneeded public lands to purchase lands like these adjacent to specially designated areas.”

Borchard explained the BLM purchase was just part of a total acquisition of about 14 square miles near Palm Springs, made possible through the partnership of a number of organizations.

“In particular, it was through the efforts and generosity of the nonprofit Friends of the Desert Mountains,” said Borchard, “that BLM was able to purchase the final 621 acres for the Coachella Valley Preserve at a considerable discount.”

Read more in the Hi-Desert Star.


FOR MORE INFO ON THIS TOPIC: See the Wildlife and Land Use/Development pages on the MBCA Website. Previous blog posts: Wildlife, National Park.