The Newsletter of the Desert Protective Council
Letter From the President
by Nick Ervin
A nother year has passed! It has been an eventful one for our nation and DPC. I am
astonished that an issue scarcely anyone predicted a few years ago dominates the
national conversation about our southwestern deserts: renewable energy production. The
issue divides the conservation community in a way few others have over the years.
The US needs to shift its energy use
from primarily fossil fuel-based sources
to renewable ones; desert lands, moreover,
often provide ideal conditions for such
energy development, with their intense
year round sunshine and frequent winds
for wind turbines to boot. Some conserva-
tionists insist we can meet demand quickly
with roof-top solar photovoltaics (PV) in
urban areas; others declare just as emphati-
cally that PV cannot meet all such demand
in time by itself.
DPC will continue to be a player in the
complex political and technical processes
involved in the siting of solar and wind
energy projects in the deserts of California.
We continue to support energy efficiency,
conservation and distributed (local) genera-
tion as priorities. We recognize that large-
scale energy projects will be developed in
the desert but we will work to keep them off
intact lands with wildlife or cultural value.
Of course DPC, through our vet-
eran conservation staffer Terry Weiner,
In this issue:
3 In Memoriam
4 New Desert Protection Bill,
Conservation Corner
5 Events, Annual Meeting
News, Poetry
6 Profile: Robert C. Stebbins
P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635 (619) 342-5524 www.dpcinc.org www.desertblog.net
Fall-Winter 2009/10 Number 206
is fighting for the best possible manage-
ment scheme feasible for the breathtaking
Desert Cahuilla area adjacent to the eastern
boundary of Anza-Borrego Desert State
Park. We have already held State Parks
OHV Division’s collective feet to the fire on
several issues. And Terry is always involved
in the politics and management (if there is
such a thing) of off-highway vehicle use in
the desert. We are as tenacious and deter- photo by Neal Burstein
mined as anyone, anywhere, in addressing
OHV issues on public lands.
On a positive note, DPC was part of Remembering
the coalition of conservation groups that
helped shape Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s new Harriet Allen
desert bill; this landmark legislation has
its problems from our standpoint and we by Terry Weiner
are intent on improving it. We are also a
plaintiff in a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service for reducing the criti-
cal habitat of the endangered Peninsular
M y reflections as 2009 winds down are
anchored in my gratitude for the life
of, and joy at having known Harriet Allen.
bighorn sheep. “Every place that’s ever been protected by
Near and dear to my heart is the ongo- law as wilderness has a story. And every one
ing education and awareness-building of those stories start with people who care”.
campaign we have sponsored and nurtured Bart Koehler
with the Imperial County school system. Harriet is among those who cared and
Aside from our crucial financial support is one of those responsible for saving large
of the Parks Online for Teachers program, chunks of California. She died peacefully
DPC supports desert hero Pat Flanagan’s on September 30 2009 of complications of
innovative Salton Basin Living Laboratory old age. Harriet Allen was my mentor and
curriculum and teacher training program. according to many other desert conserva-
What a huge success this has been to date! tion activists, she was theirs as well. Our di-
We are changing the face of natural science verse DPC members may not have seen the
education student-by-student and class- obituaries published in California papers,
room-by-classroom in Imperial County. so I will share some of her life history here.
continued on page  continued on page 
Letter from the President…
from page 
And we’ve increased our public profile
with an evolving DPC website and our
Desert Blog, along with a new Facebook
presence. Thus the Desert Protective Coun-
cil moves into the 21st century.
A couple of months ago DPC helped
to support a smashingly successful desert
symposium at the Imperial Valley College
Ocotillo Desert Museum, which we helped
to build with a key grant several years ago.
In addition, the DPC Annual Membership
Meeting in Whitewater Canyon Preserve
was a wonderful and entertaining event
with awards and several noted speakers,
including Biologist Cameron Barrows, des-
ert elder Elden Hughes and recently retired
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park superin-
tendent Mark Jorgensen.
While our small but plucky organiza-
tion is able to fund important programs in
Imperial County, California, through our
Mesquite Fund, we are pretty well strapped
for funds to support or create other worthy
desert projects and to run our day-to-day
organizational operations. Believe me, DPC
is lean and mean as it is, but we cannot
operate on good will alone! I, and all the
other Board members, work for free and
generally cover the out-of-pocket ex-
penses we incur. We need your additional
financial support in these hard times. The
desert needs our protection more than ever.
In order for us to carry out our mission
we absolutely depend upon our members’
ongoing generous support.
If you make a donation of $100.00 or
more, we will send you a copy of California
Desert Miracle, the wonderful history of
the 1994 California Desert Protection Act
by the late Frank Wheat, a longtime DPC
Advisory Panel member.
We also deeply appreciate members
keeping DPC in mind in your estate plans.
It is quite easy to do, and you can even
save yourself some taxes if you do estate
planning with the guidance of a suitable
tax advisor. And don’t forget to renew
your current membership soon when the
reminder comes in the mail.
So we can all contemplate our place
in eternity together around a warm, cozy
campfire in an alcove around that next
bend of a lovely desert canyon.
 El Paisano, the newsletter of the Desert Protective Council
“Whatever evaluation we finally make of a stretch of land, no matter how
profound or accurate, we will find it inadequate. The land retains an identity
of its own, still deeper and more subtle than we can know. Our obligation
toward it then becomes simple: to approach with an understanding mind, with
an attitude of regard... To preserve some of the mystery within it as a kind of
wisdom to be experienced, not questioned. And to be alert for its openings, for
the moment when something sacred reveals itself within the mundane, and you
know the land knows you are there.”
— Barry Lopez
Harriet Allen… of her life to educating people about the
from page  beauty and importance of the southwest
deserts and led the charge protecting them.
Harriet Allen’s love of the desert goes back She held every position on the Board of
to her childhood when her family used to Directors and edited El Paisano for decades.
take camping trips to the Coachella Valley As DPC Board President Nick Ervin has
of California. She enjoyed camping well said, Harriet was the glue of the DPC for
into her 80s. many years.
Harriet Spencer Reeder was born on In the 1970s, she worked on the passage
December 22 1913 in Pasadena to Mabel of the Federal Lands Policy Management
Crawford Reeder and John Wallace Reeder. Act, which today guides BLM land use
She earned a bachelor’s degree in educa- planning. She worked tirelessly for eight
tion from Occidental College in 1935 and years alongside other desert activists to
achieve passage of the California Desert
Protection Act, signed by President Clinton
“She waged a decades-long battle in 1994, resulting in protection of eight
million acres of southern California desert
to educate everyone that the desert from development. In the Coachella Valley,
matters. The fact that the desert has Harriet worked with Cameron Barrows
sustained itself as well as it has is a and Bill Havert and others to protect palm
tribute to Harriet Allen. She deserves a groves and an important sand source
for the fringe-tailed lizard, and helped
big chunk of the credit.” establish the Coachella Valley Preserve. In
the 1980s, Harriet was a member of the
— Elden Hughes DPC’s Anza-Borrego Committee, which
eventually evolved into the Anza-Borrego
Foundation. Harriet and her aeronautical
design engineer husband Howard, whom
she married in 1949, were also very active
master’s degrees in physical therapy and in the Sierra Club. She served as Chair of
psychology from Wellesley College in Mas- the San Diego Chapter and in 1963, led a
sachusetts. She taught physical education campaign that resulted in the 1970 expan-
at what was then Chaffey Junior College sion of Torrey Pines State Reserve along
in Rancho Cucamonga and was later a San Diego’s coast. She was appointed to the
school counselor in the San Diego Unified California Coastal Commission by Gov-
School District. Harriet was an adventur- ernor Jerry Brown and was reappointed a
ous woman. She learned to fly and got number of times by both Republicans and
her pilot’s license in the late 1930s. She Democrats.
eventually held two pilot licenses as well as
an instructor’s license. As one of the earliest
members of DPC, she dedicated decades continued on page 
Harriet Allen
and the CDPA
by Judy Anderson
I t was October 6, 1994. We had all
been watching CSPAN and knew that
the Senate would be meeting that Satur-
day morning and that we needed that
last vote for passage of the California
Desert Protection Act. It was also the
date that the Desert Protective Council
had set for their Annual Meeting in
Palm Springs. Both Harriet and I were
on the Board at that time and needed to
attend the meeting... a 2 1/2 hour drive
from my home. I waited and waited and
watched the TV for a decision.
Finally, I had to leave. In this era
before cell phones, I was riding with
Bob Cates and got him to stop in Rialto
where in a McDonald’s phone booth I
finally heard that the bill had passed.
Another hour or so and I was walking
up to a picnic table where Harriet and
Howard were sitting. They’d come the
night before in their camper.
I asked Harriet if she’d heard the
news. “No, we had to leave last night.
What happened?” “They did it! It
passed!” Whereupon we both burst into
tears and hugged and hugged. She said,
“I’d almost given up hope of seeing it in
my lifetime.”
All of California, as Jerry Dunphy
used to say “From the Mountains to the
Sea, to All of Southern California,” has
benefitted from the sustained commit-
ment of this determined woman. The
current National Parks program on PBS
is featuring many individuals who in-
fluenced the parks decisions. Harriet is
among those responsible for saving big
chunks of California. I salute her, and
will remember her for the standards she
set and for being one of my most valued
mentors.
Judy Anderson is a long-time DPC
member and winner of the 1999 John
Muir Award — the Sierra Club’s highest
award for volunteers.
www.dpcinc.org | www.desertblog.net
In memoriam
Helen Dykema Dengler,
Sept. 3, 1914 - May 7, 2009
A woman of wide interests and enthusi-
asms, Helen Dengler did not at first count
the Mojave Desert among her wisest. “I
wonder,” she wrote in her autobiography
about her first experience there in 1946,
“are we mad?
“Investing in a patch of desert sand,
located in a place named Rancho Mirage?
Driving down the long slope from Banning
Pass to Palm Springs was like descending
into a hot oven...”
Yet these memories, at the time of her
death at 94 earlier this year in Del Rio, Tex-
as, were among those she deeply treasured:
“My initial distrust of this desert land
gradually gave way to the seductive charms
of purple mountains, flaming sunsets, and
moonlight rides over the sand dunes,” she
wrote. “I simply fell in love with the desert.”
Together with her husband John C.
“Jack” Dengler, Helen established Rancho
Mirage’s popular destination the White Sun
Guest Ranch. White Sun became a mecca
for actors, artists, writers and musicians.
Helen’s dedication to the desert motivat-
ed her involvement in the DPC, the Sierra
Club, the Palm Springs Clean Air Fund;
Desert Beautiful, Living Desert Associa-
tion, San Jacinto Mt. Conservation League,
Riverside County Parks Advisory Com-
mission, and the Rancho Mirage Woman’s
Club among others.
Her husband Jack died in 1998. Helen is
survived by her six children, five grandchil-
dren, and four great-grandchildren.
Harriet Allen…
from page 
I spent many hours in the early 2000s
with Harriet in her Ford Explorer on our
way to desert meetings. During our long
drives, she told me stories about various
campaigns and laid the groundwork of my
understanding of what it takes to protect
the desert. She had deep knowledge and ex-
perience of the politics of land use manage-
ment and protection and patiently shared
it with me. She was feisty and witty but
Jay C. von Werlhof,
Sept. 13, 1923–Dec. 10, 2009
Renowned anthropologist Jay C. von
Werlhof, 86, of Ocotillo, who documented
more than 10,000 archaeological sites in
Imperial County, died December 10 after a
long illness.
A veteran of World War II and a UC
Berkeley graduate, Jay moved to the San
Diego-Imperial area in the early 1970s after
teaching at various colleges throughout
the state. While serving as an instructor in
archaeology, history, and Indian studies at
San Diego State University and Imperial
Valley College, Jay worked with local Native
Californians to document and preserve
their cultural history. Jay established the
Imperial Valley College Desert Museum
and served as president of the Society for
California Archaeology.
At his memorial service in December,
his friends and colleagues recalled his lust
for life and his extraordinary curiosity
about everything. DPC has funded a grant
to Archaeologist Russ Kaldenberg to tran-
scribe Jay’s Imperial County notebooks and
scan Jay’s photographs and documents for
incorporation for publication.
In October, the Imperial Valley College
Desert Museum Society, ASM Affilates and
DPC co-sponsored a symposium to honor
Jay and his nearly 40 years of anthropologi-
cal contributions in California’s deserts.
DPC was honored to count Jay as a long-
time supporter and friend. Jay’s family sug-
gests that donations in Jay’s name be made
to the Imperial Valley Humane Society,
1575 Pico Street, El Centro, CA 92243, and
to The Jay von Werlhof Research Fund for
the Study of Earthen Art, 2034 Corte Del
Nogal, Carlsbad, CA 92011.
very careful with her words and extremely
patient with the democratic process.
Harriet’s beloved husband of 60 years,
Howard Allen, lived only six weeks longer
without her and died in early November
2009. He had just turned 95. I celebrated
his birthday with him on October 27.
Harriet’s sons Doug and Jeff have asked
that donations in her name be given to the
Desert Protective Council. Make out your
check to the DPC with a notation for the
Harriet Allen Memorial Fund.

California Desert Protection Act of 2010
O n December 21 US Senator Dianne
Feinstein introduced the long-awaited
California Desert Protection Act of 2010,
which would create two new national
monuments in the California desert, while
enlarging Death Valley and Joshua Tree
National Parks and the Mojave National
Preserve.
DPC has signed on in support of Sena-
tor Feinstein’s introduction of the CDPA
2010. The bill, S 2921, adds protective
status for large swaths of the California
deserts and we applaud the Senator for
crafting legislation to preserve our beloved
California desert. There are, however, some
troubling elements of the bill in the energy
development and off-road vehicle recre-
ation sections that DPC and others worked
to change during the eight months leading
up to the bill’s introduction. We will work
to improve the language of these sections as
the bill makes its way through the legisla-
tive process.
Conservation
Corner
by Terry Weiner
Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area
In 2007 DPC and the Anza-Borrego Foun-
dation hired SCS Engineers to conduct
aerial reconnaissance of the Desert Cahuilla
Prehistoric Area, 4,000 acres of which were
acquired by the California Department
of Parks and Recreation (DPR) in 2006.
We wanted to document off-road vehicle
(ORV) routes and ORV damage to ancient
desert pavement, to prehistoric foot paths
and other Native cultural resources.
SCS Engineers conducted a second
overflight of the area in March 2009 to
collect photos to compare with those from
2007. We focused on the northern half of
the area because new damage would show
up more easily there than in the heavily
scarred southern area in closer proximity
to the Ocotillo Wells SVRA. In December
SCS released a report showing that ORV
damage is increasing in the northern sec-
tion of the property and that DPR’s interim
management strategy is not working.
 El Paisano, the newsletter of the Desert Protective Council
The bill would establish the 941,413-
acre Mojave Trails National Monument
along historic route 66 and the southern
boundary of the Mojave National Preserve,
and the 133,524-acre Sand to Snow Nation-
al Monument between Joshua Tree NP and
the San Gorgonio Wilderness.
The CDPA 2010 would add 40,740 acres
of land along Death Valley NP’s south
end—the “Bowling Alley”—to the Park,
enlarge Mojave National Preserve by 29,246
acres (most in the Castle Peaks area), and
add 2,904 acres along the north edge of
Joshua Tree National Park to that Park.
Among the Act’s many other provisions,
the CDPA would add 173,861 acres of des-
ert to the National Wilderness Preservation
System, enlarge four existing wilderness ar-
eas by 172,247 acres, establish a 75,575-acre
Vinagre Wash Special Management Area in
Imperial County, add over 70 miles (22,400
acres) to the National Wild and Scenic Riv-
ers System along the Amargosa River, Deep
On December 14 DPC called for sus-
pension of ORV use in the area until DPR
has conducted surveys of cultural, and
natural resources and crafted an appropri-
ate management plan for the area.
What you can do: write a letter to DPR’s
Director Ruth Coleman at Department
of Parks and Recreation, 1416 Ninth St.,
Sacramento CA, 95814. Tell her that you
are concerned about ongoing vehicu-
lar damage to the Desert Cahuilla State
Parks land. Request interim suspension of
vehicular travel in the area until State Parks
creates an appropriate management plan.
In your letter, talk about the importance
of State Parks to you and your family. Tell
Coleman you support California’s State
Parks mission and mandate to protect our
natural and cultural resources for present
and future generations. Please send a copy
of your letter to Mike Chrisman, Secretary
of Natural Resources, Natural Resources
Agency 1416 Ninth St. Suite 1311 Sacra-
mento, CA 95814.
Wind Zero
The Wind Zero Project, also known as
Coyote Wells Race Resort, is slated for
private land east of Ocotillo in western
Creek, Surprise Canyon and the Whitewa-
ter River, ban new mining claims on land
held as sacred by the Quechan Tribe and
protect a nearby cultural trail along the
Colorado River, protect aquifers in and
near the Mojave National Preserve, and
transfer 994 acres of BLM land to Anza-
Borrego Desert State Park for management
as wilderness.
Less favorably, the bill withdraws
protection from 33,571 acres of the Soda
Mountains Wilderness Study Area and at
least 5,500 acres of the Cady Mountains
Wilderness Study Area and proposes to
grant permanent designation of four off-
road vehicle areas, requiring the Secretary
of the Interior to study the possibility of
expanding them.
DPC will be actively engaged in work-
ing with our representatives and with the
appropriate committees to strengthen the
bill and increase protections of our fragile,
irreplaceable and unique desert lands. Stay
tuned to DesertBlog for updates.
Imperial County. The DPC opposes Wind
Zero, which would create a training center
for law enforcement and the military with
shooting ranges and a helicopter landing
pad, as well as a grand prix-style race course
and resort hotel – totally inappropriate
next to residential development. Wind
Zero is close to Anza-Borrego Desert State
Park, two BLM wilderness areas, and the
BLM Yuha Area of Critical Environmental
Concern. The development would increase
demand on the local aquifer and would
add to the serious particulate pollution of
western Imperial County, which is occa-
sionally plagued with dust storms bad
enough to close Interstate 8.
The much-delayed draft Environmental
Impact Report for this project is scheduled
to be released by Imperial County as we
go to press, with a 60-day public comment
period. DPC will be commenting on the
draft EIR.
Salton Basin Living Laboratory
Field Trip Curriculum
On October 9 , 15 Imperial Valley grade 4-6
teachers attended the second teacher train-
ing workshop on the Salton Basin Living
continued on page 
Events Ridgewalk
Desert bloom by Julie S. Paegle
Feb. 6: Algodones Service Hike In late November and early December the (High Desert, Santa Ana River Valley,
This is the cooler season to visit the south- California desert received significant rain- 2007 Fire Season)
ern deserts. Our project will be on the east fall. The timing of the rain bodes well for The panoramas
side of the North Algodones Dunes Wilder- 2010’s spring wildflower bloom. Ocotillos gather all their evidence
ness east of Brawley, where we will rebuild were already beginning to flower in favored tonight:
facilities at the Watchable Wildlife Site. spots in December as far north as Indio. There, one whole hillside
Saturday evening is a carcamp with potluck Beginning in March, the Theodore Payne has split and slid from itself —
dinner. Sunday we will hike at our work site Foundation’s Wildlower Hotline at (818) so cont-
or in the nearby Indian Pass Wilderness. 768-3533 is a great source for information tiguous hills could
For info contact Craig Deutsche, craig. on what’s blooming where in the desert slide. While there, the sun sets in a
deutsche@gmail.com, (310) 477-6670. and throughout California. sliver
quaking light on the
river braiding several
muddy
middles inside a
wash wider—a wash so wide
fences,
horses, houses, all
live on it inside boulder-
caught
borders rough-piled from
Ponderosa pines. As thin
rivers
remember their last
load of timbered mud, so the
banks blanched
span expects their next
flood. And here, the ridge shivers
between
September’s paling
green and Manzanitas burned
black and
ash, fall decked out in
its own fading. The usual
trail turns
rare, banking between
extremes remembered and their
warnings:
Listen: Winter quick-
ens: on the other side of
fire, o-
ver high desert, air
is changing: soon some tenth
drought-
shot Sept-
2009 Annual Meeting embers will be raining raining
The 2009 DPC Annual Membership Meeting, held in November 2009 at the Whitewater raining.
Canyon Preserve, proved informative and collegial for those attending. Above left Mark
Jorgensen, retired superintendent of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, addresses the Julie Sophia Paegle’s poetry collection,
crowd after receiving the DPC’s Award of Merit. Above right, wildlife biologist Cameron torch song tango choir, is forthcoming from
Barrows offers a fascinating presentation on the effects of climate change on Joshua University of Arizona Press (August 2010). She
Tree National Park’s reptile fauna. Bottom, naturalist Pat Flanagan displays educational teaches in the graduate program at CSU San
materials from the Salton Basin Living Laboratory Field Trip curriculum. Top right Bernardino and lives in the San Bernardino
photo © 2009 Phillip Roullard. Others courtesy Michelle Simmons. mountains with her husband and sons.

www.dpcinc.org | www.desertblog.net 
DPC Advisory Panel Profile:
Robert C. Stebbins
by Chris Clarke
L ast year marked an important mile-
stone in the history of California desert
protection: it was the year DPC Advi-
sory Panel member Robert Cyril Stebbins
retired, moving from his lifelong Bay Area
home to Oregon, near his son.
This isn’t the first time Dr. Stebbins has
retired: in 1978, he changed his title at UC
Berkeley from “professor “ to “professor
emeritus.” Technically, this means he’s been
retired since before many desert protection
activists were born. But he’s been anything
but idle in his three decades as professor
emeritus. A skilled researcher, talented paint-
er and passionate desert protection activist,
Bob was born in Chino in October 1915.
Son of Berkeley agronomist Cyril Stebbins
and Louise Beck, Bob inherited his first love,
ornithology, from his father, with whom he
would co-write two bird field guides.
Growing up in LA and hiking the then-
undeveloped foothills, Bob also became in-
terested in the amphibian fauna of South-
ern California. He joined UC Berkeley’s
faculty in the wake of the Second World
War, becoming the Museum of Vertebrate
Zoology’s Curator of Herpetology in 1948.
Conservation Corner…
from page 
Laboratory Curriculum. We attracted eight
new teachers; seven who took an earlier
workshop returned for a refresher. We’ll
conduct a training field trip for the new
teachers in January. In 2008, DPC contract-
ed with naturalist educator Pat Flanagan
to develop a natural history and desert
ecology curriculum focusing on the natural
and cultural resources of Imperial County.
Pat has completed volumes describing the
geological forces shaping the land and a
history of early explorers, and is now devel-
oping content on the plants and animals of
Imperial County.
Imperial County Clean Air Initiative
I represent DPC on the Steering Commit-
tee of the Imperial County Clean Air
Initiative (CAI), a coalition of non-profit
groups educating the public about air
 El Paisano, the newsletter of the Desert Protective Council
Lesser goldfinch, illustration by Robert C.
Stebbins from Birds of the Campus (UCLA),
UC Press 1947
At the Museum, Bob worked with some
of the leading lights of California life sci-
ence history, including ornithologist Alden
Miller, with whom Bob co-wrote The Lives
of Desert Animals in Joshua Tree National
Monument, published in 1964 after 15 years
of fieldwork. Bob has authored an entire
shelf of natural history tomes, his Peterson
Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians likely the
most popular.
Through his career, like many scientists
who study the natural world, Bob grew
quality in Imperial County funded by the
American Lung Association of San Diego
and Imperial Counties. CAI’s membership
grew in 2009. Among the organizations
represented at our monthly meetings are
the environmental justice group Comite
Civico del Valle, the Calexico New River
Committee, the Asthma Coalition, and the
Imperial County branch of International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. This
year, CAI promoted the workshop on the
recently released Border Asthma Study
(BASTA) and has worked with the Imperial
Valley Office of Education to promote the
Flag Program in local schools, designed to
alert parents and students of bad air quality
days. CAI member Miguel Figueroa of the
Calexico New River Committee worked
with Assembly member Manual Perez to
procure matching funding for $4.8 million
secured in 2005 to clean up the New River
from Calexico to the Salton Sea. In Febru-
ary 2009 Comite Civico del Valle organized
increasingly concerned over the loss of
habitat for the organisms he studied. He
became an early advocate of limiting off-
road vehicle use in the desert, due to his
extensive documentation of the damage
ORVs inflict on desert landscapes and their
inhabitants. (This issue’s accompanying
Educational Bulletin contains testimony on
ORV impact on the desert he gave to a Sen-
ate subcommittee during hearings on the
California Desert Protection Act of 1987.)
Bob is well known as a thoroughly
generous and kind-hearted advocate for the
living world. I first spoke with him in the
wake of the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire, when
local residents were advocating misguided
clear-cutting of moist coastal scrubland
as a fire-prevention measure. He devoted
significant energy to working with a writer
covering the issue for the environmental
magazine I edited, and later gave blanket
permission for the publication to use any
of his artwork for any reason without ask-
ing first. This was not an uncharacteristic
gesture on his part.
In the course of his career, Bob Stebbins
has trained and inspired generations of
desert wildlife biologists and activists. The
DPC wishes him well in retirement, though
it’s a little hard to imagine him not working
on something.
the Environmental Leaders Health Summit
in Brawley. Comite has worked with the
Imperial County Air Pollution Control
District to address regulations for agricul-
tural burning, a big source of particulate
pollution in the county.
Salton Sea Photographic Exhibit
The DPC is funding UK photographer
Christina Lange’s Salton Sea Educational
Photographic Exhibit at the La Quinta
Museum in the Coachella Valley in January.
This exhibit will explore the beauty and
biodiversity of the Salton Sea, and promote
its protection. The exhibit features Salton
Sea restoration efforts such as the Torres-
Martinez Wetland Pilot Project and the
New River Wetlands Restoration Project.
Christina’s photographs and accompanying
text highlight the importance of the Sea’s
wetlands and wildlife refuges to habitat
and water quality. The photos emphasize
continued on page 
Conservation Corner…
from page 
beauty, diversity and uniqueness of the
landscape. Johanna Wickman, La Quinta
Museum Manager, plans an opening for
the exhibit on January 15. Please check our
Web site under “events” for details.
Victory for Joshua Tree NP
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has
blocked what would have been the world’s
largest dump adjacent to Joshua Tree
National Park. Kaiser’s landfill project
would have transformed 4,654 acres of
canyons south and west of Joshua Tree
to help federal land managers curb the
increasing damage to public and private
lands and deal with the escalating conflicts
between ORV users, other recreationists
and private property owners. Our letter
requests national ORV legislation incorpo-
rating some of the solutions we proposed.
You can read the letter at dpcinc.org.
In fall, we sent a letter to BLM Director
Bob Abbey requesting that he work with us
and local BLM managers to finalize route
designations and implement other tools
for enforcement of federal rules protecting
resources from ORV damage. We will be
following up with Senator Bingaman’s and
Support DPC by Joining, Renewing
or Making A Special Donation
Membership in the DPC is the best way
to support our desert conservation and
education goals. Just fill out the form below
and mail it in with your check, whether
it’s for a new membership, a renewal, or a
special donation. Your support ensures that
DPC will remain a strong voice for conser-
vation in all of our deserts.
Much of our current activity is based
on projects in Imperial County, as required
by the settlement of the Mesquite lawsuit.
But these funds cannot be used for many
general operating expenses or for our

!
National Park into the world’s largest Director Abbey’s staffs. many projects and issues in other parts of
landfill, receiving 20,000 tons of garbage the desert. That’s why your support is so
per day. The thousands of acres of undis- important!
turbed canyons that would have been filled
with trash are habitat for desert tortoise
and bighorn sheep, and provide a spectacu-
lar visual backdrop for those hiking and
camping in Joshua Tree National Park’s Desert Protective Council
remote wilderness areas.
The DPC expresses deep gratitude to New and Renewal Membership Form
Donna and Larry Charpied for nearly two
decades of heroic work fighting this dump, Enclosed is my remittance of $_______
at times without support of the environ- New Membership Gift Membership Renewal
mental community.

ORV Issues Name_________________________________________

In December, the Sierra Club Desert
Committee ORV Issues Task Force (of
which I am Chair), with Public Employ-
ees for Environmental Responsibility and
representatives of Alliance for Responsible
Recreation, sent a letter to Senator Jeff
Bingaman of New Mexico requesting his
follow-up on his 2008 Senate hearing on
ORV recreation on the public lands. We
enumerated in the letter the suggestions
and solutions proposed at his hearing
Desert Protective Council
Nick Ervin, President
Geoffrey Smith, Vice President/­
Secretary
Larry Klaasen, Treasurer
Mike McColm, Fifth Officer
Terry Weiner, Imperial Projects &
Conservation Coordinator
Shirley Harshenin, Webmistress
– www.nutheadproductions.com
Chris Clarke, Communications
Consultant
Address_______________________________________
City, State, Zip________________________________
Phone_________________________________________
Email_________________________________________
Please make checks payable to: DPC
Mail to P.O. Box 3635, San Diego, CA 92163-1635
Dues 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
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www.dpcinc.org | www.desertblog.net 
 El Paisano #206 Fall-Winter 2009/10

Inside:

1 Note from
the President,
Remembering
Harriet Allen
Desert Protective
3 In
Council Memoriam
Since 1954
www.dpcinc.org
4 New Desert
P.O. Box 3635 Protection Bill,
San Diego, CA Conservation
92163-1635 Corner

5 Events,
Annual Meeting,
Poetry

6 Profile:
Robert C. Stebbins

The California Desert Protection Act of 2010 would add the Castle Peaks to the Mojave National Preserve.
Photo by Chris Clarke

The newsletter of the Desert Protective Council