Update on Project Bobcat

Project Bobcat supporters from the Morongo Basin traveled to Sacramento last week to show support for AB 1213, the bill proposing a statewide ban on bobcat trapping.  The bill has been amended to limit trapping ban to a 2-mile radius around Joshua National Park while the Department of Fish and Wildlife would be directed to develop a bobcat management plan.  It’s not ideal, but better than nothing, and a start toward statewide restrictions. 

Here’s the Hi Desert Star article about AB 1213 presented on the Project Bobcat website: http://projectbobcat.org/bobcat-bill-gains-momentum-law-narrowed-to-joshua-tree-zone/

For more information, visit Project Bobcat.

Desert Wise Landscape Tour a Success!

Dear MBCA Members and Supporters:

The Desert Wise Landscape Tour was absolutely spectacular!  The weather was perfect. Our volunteer docents were eager, helpful, and dedicated to the success of the event.  The garden site hosts were knowledgeable and generous.  And, it appears that the tour-goers were enthusiastic and appreciative!

We will alert you soon to some photos of the Tour on the MBCA website.  We are so grateful to our docent volunteers and garden site hosts.   We learned that many of the hosts spent lots of extra hours in their gardens recently to bring them into prime viewing condition – Thank You!   Docents’ roles were varied, as greeters, parking attendants, and check-in gurus, and some also assisted with garden tours – it couldn’t have happened without them.  Deepest thanks to our Site Hosts and Docents!

Docents

(alphabetical by first name)

Al Willcut	Danny Sall	Kathryn (Kay) Taylor
Almut Fleck	Esther Shaw	Ken Lair
Ann Murdy	Gayla Blanton	Marina West
Bonnie Brady	Ida Foreman	Meg Foley
Carol Damon	Janet Tucker	Pat Freter
Cynthia Anderson	Judy Corl-Lorono	Steve Rieman
Dan Grieser	Kathleen Lowndes	Sylvia LaBonte

Site Hosts

(in order of site number)

1 - Robin Kobaly & Doug Thompson	11 - Melva & Don Matthews
2 - Kat & Bill La Haye	12 - Phillip Mayberry & Scott Walker
3 - Nancy & George Huntington	13 - Mike Lipsitz & Phu Do
4 - Cathy & Stan Zarakov	14 - Rich Gerston
5 - Phyllis & Richard Schwartz	15 - Cheryl Montell & Brian Leatart
6 - Nora Lousignont & John Lauretig	16 - James Berg & Frederick Fulmer
7 - Bobette & Tony Milici	17 - Miriam Seger
8 - Ron Cousino & Sean Mylett	18 - Cathy Sheehe & Mark Butler
9 - Ruth & Steve Rieman	19 - Joan Robey & Steve Stajich
10 - Shelly & Dale Fredenburg	20 - Josh Hoines (Joshua Tree National Park)

Additional thanks are extended to Dave Miller for the beautiful and useful design of the Tour Guidebook, to Mike Lipsitz and Greg Gilbert for editing, and to Judy Litowitz for providing registration services at WindWalkers on Tour Day.  And finally, thanks to the Committee members who put in many hours to make the Tour successful: Sarah Kennington, Ann Murdy, Ruth Rieman, Cathy Sheehe, and Cathy Zarakov, under the stellar leadership of MBCA’s Events Director Claudia Sall.  Thank you all!

Third Annual MBCA Desert-Wise Landscape Tour this Saturday, April 27th

Dear MBCA Members and Supporters:

It’s only a week away!  The Third Annual MBCA Desert-Wise Landscape Tour is Saturday, April 27. 

If you’ve been on a previous Tour, you know how enjoyable and educational it is.  If you haven’t made it yet, please consider it this year.  The owners of twenty Morongo Basin homes are showing off their water-wise garden achievements, including long-time fully mature desert gardens, art-and-sculpture filled gardens, small all-native gardens, and everything in between. The program descriptions will help you choose which sites would be of most interest to you.  We encourage you to register now.

A donation of $10 per person is requested to register for the Tour.  There are two ways to sign up:

1)        Pay in Person on April 20 or April 27.

Just come to the locations during the times listed below to register, and get all the necessary items (Program, Map, and wristband).

Saturday, April 20, 2013

MBCA Table at Yucca Valley Earth Day Celebration     9AM – 12NOON

Joshua Tree Farmers’ Market                                   9AM – 12NOON

Saturday, April 27, 2013 – Day of the Tour

WindWalkers in Joshua Tree                                    9AM – 12NOON

2)        Pay Online via Paypal at http://www.mbconservation.org/tour2013.html

Those who sign up through PayPal will receive an email receipt and then a follow-up email with a link to a PDF version of the Program & Map to print at home and bring to the Tour.  You can get your wristband at the first site you visit by showing your receipt.  Or, you can visit one of the locations above at the listed times and show your printed receipt to pick up your Program, Map, and wristband.

Please join the Morongo Basin movement to save water and energy by developing a fabulous water-wise garden.  You will be inspired and informed by this tour.

See you on the Tour!

Important hearing on the DRECP next Tuesday, April 16th

Dear MBCA members and supporters:

MBCA has partnered with the National Parks Conservation Association on many issues, and we hope you will consider the following request for support from our local NPCA Field Representative Seth Shteir.   Your appearance at the San Bernardino County Supervisors’ DRECP hearing next Tuesday afternoon would be incredibly helpful if possible.  See details below.

NPCA will also be presenting at this Thursday’s California Desert Coalition (CDC) program about DRECP, at 6:30 PM at the Yucca Valley Community Center.  Hope to see you there.

Thank you,

Board of Directors, MBCA

Dear Friends,

I hope you are enjoying this fantastic spring weather and what one national park biologist has called the best Joshua tree bloom in 25 years!

Perhaps no other issue in the California desert is as important as the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP), which seeks to identify the best locations for wind, solar and geothermal renewable energy on 22.5 million acres in seven California counties.  This plan has the potential to profoundly alter our desert landscape and our desert communities.  I’m writing you today to urge your attendance at a critical Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan San Bernardino County Board of Supervisor’s Hearing on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 1:00 PM in San Bernardino. 

Our County Supervisors are influential decision makers in the DRECP plan and they need to hear from you about the value of protecting our desert national parks, public lands, communities and recreational tourism economy.  We are currently organizing people from the Morongo Basin to attend this meeting via vans and carpools.  Please RSVP as soon as possible to sshteir@npca.org.  Once you’ve RSVP’d, I’ll provide information on rides, as well as some key talking points that can help you craft your public comment for the meeting.  Please plan on leaving the Morongo Basin at approximately 10:30am and returning by dinner.  A bag lunch, snacks and a drink are encouraged!

 

Respectfully,

Seth Shteir

Seth Shteir

California Desert Field Representative

National Parks Conservation Association

61325 Twentynine Palms Highway, Suite B

Joshua Tree, CA 92252

760-366-7785- Office

760-332-9776- Cell

WANTED: 1000 Morongo Basin Voices

WANTED

1000 Morongo Basin Voices

It’s time for us to be heard.

Come find out what WE all need to do to make the

DESERT RENEWABLE ENERGY CONSERVATION PLAN

The one we want and that will protect our communities

from outside exploitation.

When: 6:30PM, Thursday, April 11, 2013

Where: Yucca Valley Community Center

Early versions of the DRECP will not achieve the protection in the Morongo Basin that its goals set.

A letter will be available for you to sign that asks for a better plan. We need to be heard NOW.

This meeting is hosted by the

California Desert Coalition

info@cadesertca.org

Anza-Borrego's tough eradication project: Cutting the mustard

The invasion of Sahara mustard in Anza Borrego State Park is seriously threatening the wildflowers that grace the area each spring and draw visitors that are essential to the local economy. Details can be found in a recent article in the LA Times.

Is the Morongo Basin next? Please learn to identify and remove this plant from your property (you can find photos and facts at the MBCA website) and join us next Saturday, March 30th for a mustard pull in Joshua Tree National Park. The weed pull is from 8AM-1PM and volunteers meet at the Oasis Visitor center in 29 Palms to carpool to work sites.

RSVP for details and so we can anticipate equipment needs:
Kipp Callahan, 760-367-5575
Kipp_Callahan@partner.nps.gov

Our native flora and fauna thank you!

It's time to "Hold the Mustard"

Many thanks to Josh Hoines of Joshua Tree National Park for his informative and entertaining lecture on February 12, and to the Hi Desert Nature Museum for hosting the lecture.  Invasive species threaten native vegetation and provide fire fuel.  Learning to recognize and destroy them – early – was perhaps the most important lesson from the lecture. On that note----

Mustard Pulls

Joshua Tree National Park has partnered with MBCA for several years in the “Hold the Mustard” campaign. We received recent coverage in the Riverside Press Enterprise for this effort and YOU can be part of the solution!

There are mustard pulls in the Park every Saturday in March.  There is still time to join us on March 23rd and 30th.  This a great way to enjoy the recent warm weather in the company of kindred spirits, and eradiction of this invasive plant helps to preserve our glorious spring wildflower displays and to prevent fires. Find more details at:  MBCA Sahara mustard.

And don’t forget the closer-to-home MBCA Clean Team efforts to keep both mustard and trash from our assigned area on Twentynine Palms Highway in Joshua Tree.  Find out more via Deb Bollinger at stopinvasives@live.com or 760.819.9939.

Bobcat trapping

Upon discovery of a trap on his private property, Joshua Tree resident Tom O’Key researched the regulations and found, to the surprise of many, that the Asian market for furs has increased the presence of trappers in the Basin.   And, of course, trapping on private land is illegal.  A local group is forming to investigate changing bobcat hunting regulations in the Basin, especially around the Park and other conserved lands.  We will provide more information about their work in future emails.

Here is the link to the Hi Desert Star article on the topic.

Coronus solar proposal in Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree residents near the border with Yucca Valley learned recently that a Canadian company, Coronus Solar, plans to use sizable acreage to construct three 1.5 megawatt installations on the corner of Alta Loma and Olympic Roads.  This is very close to homes and to newly-conserved lands purchased by the Mojave Desert Land Trust. For more details check out a recent KCDZ story on the project. Note that the story concludes with this statement: 

Speaking at the Morongo Basin Conservation Association annual meeting, renewable energy blogger and JT resident Chris Clark, who has written extensively about several much larger energy projects, said, "The 20-to-50 acre installations may well be the worse threat, in the long term."

Also check out the short article (and many community comments) in the Hi Desert Star. 

Weeds, aliens, and exotic plants

Please join MBCA next Tuesday evening at a timely free lecture about the threat of invasive plants (coming soon to your neighborhood), given by entertaining speaker Josh Hoines of Joshua Tree National Park.  It will be held at the Hi Desert Nature Museum in Yucca Valley, Tuesday, February 12, at 6:30 p.m.  Hot cider will be served! 

FLOWERS VERSUS WEEDS – A RACE FOR RESOURCES

Want to know the difference between a weed, an alien plant, an exotic plant and an invasive?  Want to know the current threats to wildflowers at Joshua Tree National Park?  Join Josh Hoines, who will address invasive species and their threat to biodiversity, the economy, and the direct threats to the park.  Invasive species are considered the largest threat to biodiversity, second only to habitat loss.  Invasive species and their consequences are estimated to cost the American public an estimated $138 billion each year.

Josh is a vegetation ecologist with 12+ years of experience working with local, state, and federal partners to protect and preserve habitats and open space.  Currently, he manages the vegetation programs at Joshua Tree National Park including an active botany, restoration, invasive plant, native plant nursery, and recreation management.  Previously, Josh coordinated interagency habitat restoration across federal boundaries in southern Nevada.