State Lauds Mitigation Deal For Ivanpah Solar Project

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (Photo: Craig Dietrich/Flickr/Creative Commons License)

by Chris Clarke
KCET Rewire

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has announced that the finishing touches have been crafted on a deal to preserve 7,000 acres of land in the Mojave Desert as mitigation for the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System near the Mojave National Preserve. But not everyone's happy with that.

The land, whose acquisition and management has cost Ivanpah's owners $11.4 million dollars, was purchased through the state's Advance Mitigation Land Acquisition Program (AMP), started in 2010 by the passage of Senate Bill 34. That program streamlined previous mitigation programs in which developers had to work on their own to acquire parcels of land for protection to "mitigate" the habitat destruction their projects entailed. Under the AMP, CDFW does the legwork of finding suitable mitigation land and developers need only write a check.

A press release on CDFW's website describes the land being preserved to mitigate Ivanpah, though with a significant error:

The lands are comprised of 163 separate parcels in the Chuckwalla Desert Wildlife Management Area (DWMA) in San Bernardino County, and the Fremont-Kramer DWMA and Superior-Cronese DWMA both in Riverside County.

The Chuckwalla DWMA is actually in Riverside County east of the Coachella Valley. The Fremont-Kramer and Superior-Cronise DWMAs are in San Bernardino County; the first is near Boron and the second north of Barstow along the southern edge of the Fort Irwin Army base.

Each individual parcel of the newly acquired lands will be managed either by the Transition Habitat Conservancy, based in Pinon Hills near Hesperia, or the Joshua Tree-based Mojave Desert Land Trust.

The Ivanpah project occupies about 3,500 acres of land, meaning that the ratio of mitigation land to developed land is about 2/1. Ivanpah is owned jointly by developer BrightSource Energy and investors NRG Energy and Google. "Working through the State's Advanced Mitigation Program has proven to be an effective alternative for satisfying the Ivanpah project's mitigation land requirements," said Marc Sydnor, BrightSource's director of environmental affairs, in the CDFW press release. "We've also been able to achieve a project goal of ensuring that the land purchased is used for the highest possible purpose -- to protect our state's natural legacy."

Other observers are less sanguine about the deal. Ileene Anderson, biologist and Public Lands Desert Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, lauded the land being preserved but told ReWire that better development strategy would avoid the need to replace the tortoise habitat at Ivanpah:

While these acquisitions are in important areas for desert tortoise conservation, future solar projects would be best developed on already disturbed lands and rooftops, so that desert tortoise habitat is not impacted and therefore there is no need for mitigation.

Meanwhile, blogger Shaun G. at Mojave Desert Blog, a long-term critic of utility-scale desert solar projects, was even more unsparing about the trade-offs:

[W]hat benefit did we achieve in Ivanpah? Approximately 392 megawatts of solar energy. Companies in the United States installed far more solar panels on already-disturbed lands and rooftops during the Ivanpah Solar project's construction period. And Germany added thousands of megawatts of mostly rooftop solar. All while we watched BrightSource destroy a true natural treasure in the Mojave.

Lawsuit Filed Against Wind Energy Project Near Mojave Preserve

Spirit Mountain from Wee Thump Wilderness. The Searchlight Wind project would fill the middle distance with wind turbines (Chris Clarke photo)

by Chris Clarke
KCET Rewire

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have been sued over the recently-approved Searchlight Wind Project in southern Nevada, with plaintiffs charging that the federal government conducted an inadequate review of the project's likely effects on desert wildlife. The project, which would generate a maximum of 200 megawatts of electrical power, would place 87 turbines on almost 19,000 acres of public lands within view of the Mojave National Preserve and the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

The suit, which also names former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as a defendant, was filed April 10 in the U.S. District Court in Nevada by the groups Basin and Range Watch and Friends of Searchlight Desert and Mountains, along with Searchlight, NV residents Judy Bundorf and Ellen Ross, and the Reverend Ron Van Fleet, an elder in the Fort Mohave tribe.

Plaintiffs charge that the project, to be built by Duke Energy, would (in the words of the suit) "pose significant adverse harm to a wide array of sensitive and protected species ... including desert tortoise, golden eagles, bald eagles, and residential and migratory birds and bats... through direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts" which weren't adequately addressed in the project's final environmental impact statement, nor in FWS's Biological Opinion on the project. The plaintiffs maintain that Secretary Salazar issued a positive Record of Decision for the project based on that inadequate review of the project's ecological impacts, and that mitigation plans for the ecological dmmage the project would cause have not been developed.

The suit also alleges that the project would cause irreparable damage to cultural resources important to local tribes, whose origin stories center on a prominent peak some miles south of the project's footprint.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to set aside Interior's Record of Decision on the project, as well as FWS's Biological Opinion and the BLM's Environmental Impact Statement, and to issue an injunction halting work on the project, which could start construction this year.

Solar Project Could Have Significant Effect on Desert Views

A portion of the area from which the Palen solar project's glowing collectors could be visible, overlain in red. (Google Earth screen capture by KCET ReWire)

by Chris Clarke
KCET Rewire

The proposed Palen Solar Electric Generating System east of Desert Center could be visible from as far away as the Mojave National Preserve, Mount San Jacinto, and the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona, according to preliminary calculations by ReWire. The project, proposed by BrightSource Energy and Abengoa, is currently being evaluated by the California Energy Commission.

The project, which would include two solar receiver steam generators (SRSGs) each surrounded by 80,000 mirrored heliostats, would be built just north of Interstate 10 near the Corn Springs Road exit east of Desert Center. The SRSGs, each 130 feet tall, would sit atop 620-foot pedestals, so that the top of each SRSG would be approximately 750 feet above the ground.

The location of the Palen site in the eastern Chuckwalla Valley has one of the most expansive viewsheds in the western United States, even at ground level. Atop a 750-foot tower, line-of-sight distances to the horizon are even longer. And if one can see a spot on the horizon from Palen's SRSGs, it's safe to assume that an observer on that spot on the horizon would be able to see the SRSG.

ReWire used a publicly available web-based line-of-sight generator to calculate the viewshed from each of Palen's SRSGs, and the results are rather surprising. Given a clear day, Palen's SRSGs could well have uninterrupted lines-of-sight to high peaks in the Mojave National Preserve including Table Top, the Providence Mountains, and perhaps even the highest peaks in the New York Mountains, 110 miles north of the Palen site. Wide swaths of the Trigo Mountains, 45 miles distant in Arizona just across the Colorado River from Blythe, and even some western slopes in Arizona's Kofa Mountains 70 miles from Palen, could view Palen's SRSGs. And surprisingly, even a spot in the southern reaches of Mount San Jacinto, about 80 miles from Palen, might well enjoy a direct view of the SRSG atop Palen Unit 1's power tower.

Visibility of the SRSGs at such great distances would depend on a number of factors, including air quality. Though the SRSGs are intensely bright, the perceived intensity of light drops dramatically with increasing distance, following a mathematical relationship called the "inverse square law": if you increase the distance between you and a bright light, the apparent intensity of that light will diminish by an amount proportional to the square of the increase in distance.

Or perhaps more simply: if the Palen Unit 1 SRSG is indeed visible from the eastern slopes of Pine Mountain in the San Jacintos near Idylwilld, it would appear one one-hundredth as bright from that vantage point 80 miles distant as it would from the eastern outskirts of Desert Center, eight miles from the plant.

From 80 or a hundred miles away, on a clear day with no wind-driven dust, even a brightly lit SRSG may well appear only as a glint on the horizon, roughly as bright as a sunglint on a distant window. The noticeability of an SRSG at significant distance will depend in large part on contrast: if the light source is backed by bright midday sky, it may be only marginally visible at best, while the same unit might be clearly visible at the same distance from a vantage point where the SRSG is backdropped by a dark desert mountain range.

Of much greater importance (at least to those of us for whom unspoiled desert vistas are not our primary concern) is the effect of those brightly illuminated SRSGs on observers closer at hand.

Palen's power tower design would be substantially similar to that of BrightSource's now-mothballed project at Hidden Hills in Inyo County. In the Final Staff Assessment for that earlier project, California Energy Commission staff noted that glare from Hidden Hills' SRSGs "would produce a distinct visual distraction effect and be significant in perceived brightness and discomfort/disruption glare effects for a nominal viewing distance of 8.5 miles."

Assuming that Palen's power towers put out the same amount of light -- which seems a sound assumption -- that means drivers on I-10 would be subject to that level of glare discomfort and distraction along a stretch of a bit more than 17 miles between Desert Center and Wiley's Well Road, that distraction accentuated by the towers' placement less than two miles from the highway. For a considerable distance in that stretch, the power towers would be nearly impossible for drivers to exclude from their fields of vision without impeding their view of the highway.

By way of comparison for readers who've driven the section of Interstate 15 that runs past BrightSource's Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System just south of Primm, NV and may have the mental image of those nearly 460-foot towers in mind, Palen's power towers will be nearly 300 feet taller.

At 8.5 miles distance, based on the CEC's Hidden Hills assessment, the SRSGs would appear to be a third the width of the sun. At 2.8 miles, each SRSG would appear to equal the sun in width. Unit 2 is approximately one mile from the Interstate, and Unit 1 about 2 miles. The potential for visual interference with safe driving on this high-speed desert highway seems considerable.

Also potentially considerable: the plant's effect on the visual resources of wilderness areas of Joshua Tree National Park. Though the more trammelled parts of the park are shielded from the plant by the Eagle Mountains and other ranges, park visitors who stray well off the pavement in the park's eastern section may well get a good view of the facility from the valley floor in the Pinto Basin just south of Clarks Pass along Highway 62. Wilderness areas in the Coxcomb and Eagle Mountains that happen to face east and south may well be afforded an unobstructed view of the facility as well.

If you have a copy of Google Earth and you'd like to explore the Palen project's possible viewshed, we've created two .kmz files that detail the viewshed from a somewhat arbitrarily chosen point a bit more than a third of the way from the top of each of the SRSGs. The files are here for Unit 1 and here for Unit 2. It's important to note that our calculations are preliminary; though the line-of-sight calculating app we used -- "Hey, What's That -- relies on reasonably accurate data from both Google Maps and the U.S. Geological Survey, the USGS digital elevation models used to calculate these viewsheds are accurate only to 100 feet. A 50-foot hill in the real world that's not accounted for in the digital elevation models might well turn out to obstruct a line of sight charted here.

Still, due to the facility's proposed location and the immense height of the power towers (more than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty) it seems certain that Palen will be clearly visible over hundreds of square miles of desert, and from surprising distances. It's worth noting that BrightSource is asking the CEC to grant an amendment to a previously approved project that lacked the power towers, which would certainly not have been visible from outside the Chuckwalla Valley. As previously designed by the now-bankrupt Solar Millennium, Palen would have used horizontal parabolic trough mirrors to heat a transfer fluid, and the mirror arrays would have reached no more than 30 feet or so above the ground. A difference in impact that large would seem to merit restarting the permitting process from square one.

Few flowers, but Joshua trees blooming

Joshua Tree blossoms. (James Cornett,
Special to The Desert Sun)

Written by James Cornett
Special to The Desert Sun

It is one of our worst springs and one of our best.

If you are looking for wildflowers this spring you’re in trouble. We are in the second year of a two-year winter drought and wildflowers are very few and very far between. Around my house this is one of the worst springs ever for wildflowers.

On the other hand this is one of the best years for Joshua trees in bloom. This past week, while traveling between my Joshua tree study sites scattered across the Mojave Desert, Joshua trees everywhere were blooming in profusion. From Joshua Tree National Park to Red Rock Canyon State Park in the western Mojave Desert and from Walker Pass just east of Lake Isabella to Utah and Arizona, Joshua trees were in bloom. On Cima Dome, in the Mojave National Preserve, it is the best Joshua tree bloom in 25 years.

How can this be? We’re in the second year of drought yet Joshua trees seem oblivious to the current conditions. When water is in short supply most desert plants become dormant, either by remaining as seed or dropping their leaves. Producing anything, particularly flowers, is out of the question in times of drought. Yet Joshua trees are having a banner year with some large trees producing more than two dozen inflorescences in less than two months.

At first I thought that areas where there were a profusion of Joshua trees in bloom might possibly reflect the occurrence of an intense but localized shower. The extra water that became available to the Joshua trees stimulated them to bloom the following spring. But this year Joshua trees are blooming everywhere. The bloom is so pervasive that it almost seems like they have communicated this year’s blooming plan to all Joshuas in the Southwest.

The next step in our Joshua tree research will be to see if there is any correlation, even a negative one, between broad rainfall patterns and Joshua tree blooming. The data is being tabulated. For now just enjoy the blooming trees.

I started off this column by talking about our disappointing wildflower season. However, this past week I encountered three areas where there are sufficient patches of blossoms to warrant getting your camera out. Be prepared for a drive. The first is along Highway 190 as it descends down into Death Valley National Park. I saw hundreds of notch-leafed phacelia, dozens of the white-flowered parachute plants and numerous rock nettles. The highway between Death Valley and Pahrump, Nevada, has many miles of dense concentrations of desert sunflowers.

Closer to home are the brown-eyed primroses, lupines and several other species in fair abundance along North Amboy Road as it descends to the town of Amboy.

For all of these locations there will be good blooming for about one more week.

James Cornett is a desert ecologist living in Palm Springs.

Cadiz project bad policy, bad for economy

Opinion

By Dave Oeshner
San Bernardino Sun

There continues to be a lot of misinformation about the economic benefits and environmental impacts of the proposed Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project; and it's time to set the record straight.

As a concerned citizen of the small desert town of Amboy - with a population of 5 - and plant manager for the National Chloride Co. of America's Bristol Dry Lake operation, I am confident the Cadiz Project will kill jobs including my own, and stands to create a wide range of threats to our economy, air quality and natural resources.

I call on San Bernardino County citizens and our elected officials including the newly elected Rep. Paul Cook and our 1st District supervisor to take a strong stance in protecting our jobs and our communities by preventing this proposal from moving forward.

National Chloride Co. of America has produced liquid calcium chloride brine in its evaporative ponds on Bristol Dry Lake since the 1950s, but our roots go back to the 1930s. Our operations depend on a constant downhill flow of brine water from Fenner Gap and across Cadiz Inc. property and Bristol Dry Lake. This brine water picks up sodium and calcium minerals, essential to our production processes via our collection ditches and evaporative ponds. Products created are food-grade calcium chloride for canning, beer and cheese as well as industrial brines for construction materials, oil and gas production. Through our process sodium chloride is also produced for cattle feed, chicken feed and tanning cattle hides and road deicing.

Cadiz Inc. claims that the recharge rate of the Bristol and Fenner watersheds is 32,500 acre feet per year; but I've observed local weather patterns for almost 50 years and want to assure the public that's not the case. Last spring, we had zero rain; which was not unusual for the California desert. It doesn't take a mathematician to know that zero rain, while pumping 50,000 acre feet on average per year, puts the aquifers in the red, and stands to negatively impact our mining operation.

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, increased irrigation on the Cadiz Farm for citrus and grapes lowered some nearby wells by 10 feet and they have never recovered. This small example is big evidence of how even limited pumping impacts this region's groundwater resources.

Cadiz also claims that draining Bristol and Cadiz dry lakes won't harm air quality. Bristol Dry Lake has a hard crust which can break up and create dust. When winter winds kick up higher than 15 miles per hour, it creates considerable dust storms. I've seen dust storms on Bristol Dry Lake diminish visibility to 10 feet. In my mind, the situation is similar to Owens Lake, which became the largest source of lung-harming pm10 pollutants in the entire United States. Deprived of water, Bristol Dry Lake will create more dust and also harm air quality.

For more than 50 years, National Chloride Co. of America has employed people, created significant revenue, provided a great tax base for San Bernardino County, and supplied a natural product that helps the economy. Our business is already stressed by paying increased governmental maintenance fees for our mining claims and this expense has increased from $17,000 to over $135,000 in just a few years. Now we stand to be ruined by the Cadiz pumping, with negative impacts to companies who purchase from us, and consumers who purchase cheese, beer, feed and construction materials.

Cadiz seems eerily reminiscent of the Old West when ranchers upstream deprived those downstream of water critical for their herds. Fast forward to present day; it's the Cadiz Valley Water Conservation, Recovery and Storage Project that stands to block water from our long-standing mining operation and run us out of business. We've been here over the long haul. The Cadiz project, on the other hand, is a newcomer that jeopardizes our investment and contribution to the economy. It should not move forward.

Dave Oeshner is plant manager of the National Chloride Co. of America.

Off-roaders, military wage a dirty battle

Some are up in arms after the Marine Corps says it wants to take a stretch of wilderness for training.

Marines train with an Abrams tank at the Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms in February. The Marines are seeking to claim 103,600 acres of the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle recreation area in Lucerne Valley. (CPL. SARAH DIETZ, U.S. MARINE CORPS)

By SUSAN CARPENTER
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Wayne Raimey sped over a sandy wash, leaving plumes of dust in his wake, as his family and friends idled on their ATVs. For the better part of a Saturday, the six had roamed the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle area north of Big Bear, enjoying unencumbered landscape that stretched to the horizon as they rode machines that climb rocks and skid through the sand with ease.

Raimey, who lives in Santa Ana, used to quad closer to home, but he started visiting Johnson Valley because "It's just so much easier going," he said. "You can ride for a while without seeing anybody. It's more open. It's more free."

But that is likely to change.

Spanning 188,000 acres, Johnson Valley is the country's largest off-highway vehicle area. Under a plan the Secretary of the Navy announced in February, however, 103,600 of its acres would be absorbed by the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms for live-ammunition training; 43,000 acres would be shared by the Marines and the off-road community; and the remaining 41,400 acres would be designated as a Johnson Valley National Recreation Area.

The plan, which needs Congressional approval to take effect, has inspired a rare coalition among ordinarily disparate off-road groups, who have hired a Washington, D.C., lobbyist to fight on their behalf.

"We're not opposed to the Marines being able to meet their training objectives," said Jeff Knoll, co-founder of the annual King of the Hammers off-road race in Johnson Valley and member of the California Motorized Recreational Council.

The coalition of eight off-road groups collected 28,303 signatures in 30 days and sent them to the White House to protest the base expansion one day before the Secretary of the Navy published its Record of Decision to take over the majority of Johnson Valley.

"We're asking them to use this area under a permit like any other event would. Just don't absorb it into the base," said Knoll, who estimates the Johnson Valley OHV area draws between 300,000 and 1 million visitors each year.

The Marines' plan would reduce the amount of such land in California by about half, Knoll said.

The proposed land division, known as Alternative Six, was one of a half dozen proposals the Marines considered to expand the 935-square-mile Combat Center at Twentynine Palms. Despite being the largest Marine Corps base in the country, just 40 percent of the property is available for training due to terrain and wildlife issues, said Twentynine Palms spokesman Capt. Nicholas Mannweiler.

He said the Johnson Valley land is needed to conduct training operations involving tens of thousands of Marines using aircraft, tanks and heavy weapons, such as laser-guided bombs, missiles and artillery that can travel as far 14 miles.

Some have questioned the need for such training when the Iraq War ended in 2009 and combat operations in Afghanistan will be terminated next year. According to Mannweiler, the training that will take place in Johnson Valley has nothing to do with either war. The training is preparation for future conflicts that are likely to include assaults on land and water and may involve the global supply of oil, half of which is shipped "through strategic choke points that a hostile country could block off," he said.

"This land expansion is needed to support the men and women asked to go into harm's way to handle situations that could have very severe effects on our nation, our well being and our way of life if not handled appropriately," Mannweiler said. "The best way to support those Marines is to provide them with tough, realistic training."

The battle for Johnson Valley began in August 2008, when the Marines first filed an application with the Bureau of Land Management to add the OHV area to the Twentynine Palms base. That application has its roots in a 2004 U.S. Navy study that reported none of the country's military bases was spacious enough to support large-scale live ammunition training.

The Marines are legally obligated by the National Environmental Protection Act to look at adjacent lands when expanding.

"If you go to the west toward Johnson Valley, you've got open terrain, no major infrastructure obstacles," Mannweiler said.

The largest military base in the country, Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert, was suggested as an option by the off-road community, but it wasn't available for expansion for multiple reasons. Logistically, it would have required shutting down a portion of I-10 and I-40 for two months annually so the Marines could move 15,000 troops and 8,000 vehicles.

Under the plan now pending Congressional approval, the northern and western areas of the Johnson Valley OHV area would be permanently closed to the public due to the weaponry involved in the training, much of which contain fuses that could potentially malfunction and injure or kill civilians if accidentally run over with off-road vehicles, Mannweiler said.

The smaller Shared Use Area would be open to off-roaders 10 months out of the year and closed during the two months the Marines use the land to shoot machine guns and rifles that don't have fuses and can be cleaned up when the exercises are complete, Mannweiler added.

The Shared Use Area was created in response to 20,000 comments the Marines received from the public.

It is now up to Congress to pass legislation authorizing the land transfer, which could take place as early as next year, with live-ammunition training in the former off-road area taking place in 2015.

Utah national parks say they can absorb cuts

Shadows encroach on Chesler Park in Canyonlands National Park. (Courtesy, Shane Farver)

By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune

Washington • Despite warnings by the heads of the Interior Department and the National Park Service of dangerous impacts of automatic budget cuts set to go into effect Friday, officials on the ground at Utah’s five national parks say visitors may not see many changes.

"We’re hoping we can absorb all the cuts by the things we’ve already done," says Zion National Park spokeswoman Alyssa Baltrus, noting that there may not be the same number of rangers patrolling or medical personnel on site if the cuts continue.

Baltrus says the park is on the "wait, see and hope" approach right now that Congress can halt the automatic cuts.

But Zion has been cutting back already in anticipation of the sequester and doesn’t expect an immediate change to operating hours.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar warned that Americans could encounter closed campsites and hiking trails, a loss of programs and the potential for a fewer emergency responders and firefighters if the cuts aren’t halted.

"Should Congress fail to act, the public should be prepared for reduced hours and services, not only in national parks but across all of the facilities that are managed by the Department of Interior," Salazar told reporters this week.

"These impacts are real," added National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis. "We’re not making them up. We have to figure out how to handle a five-percent cut."

Unless Congress acts, the sequester kicks in on Friday and will force the government to slash $85 billion in the next six months.

The Obama administration has used its bully pulpit this week to warn of the dire consequences of the cuts. But on-site park officials say they’re ready to take the brunt of the hit without apparent impacts — at least in the short term.

"We’re in a somewhat positive situation if there is such a thing," says Paul Henderson, assistant superintendent of the Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

Woman Speaks Out on Ranching Empire

SNWA owns seven rustic ranches in Spring Valley

By George Knapp and Matt Adams
8 News NOW

SPRING VALLEY, Nev. -- The Southern Nevada Water Authority has spent huge sums of public money to gobble up a string of rural ranches because of the water underneath them. SNWA claims the ranches are operating in the black, but a whistleblower has come forward to tell a much different story.

The I-Team has reported previously about how much was spent to acquire the ranches, and it's quite a pile of money, but until now, no one on the inside was willing to talk about the operations of the ranches.

Debra Rivero worked for the water district for many years and was a valued employee but when she started working as office assistant at the ranches, she realized she had entered a world unto itself, one that we co-owners never get to see.

The SNWA owns seven rustic ranches in Spring Valley. The public may not know it, but they are in the ranching business because of a SNWA spending spree. The authority has spent nearly $80 million to buy a string of ranches, tens of thousands of acres, plus cows, sheep and farm equipment.

As the I-Team first reported, SNWA paid many times the market value for the ranches. El Tejon ranch, valued at $1.1 million went for $32 million. The Harbecke ranch, now headquarters for SNWA's empire, with a market value of a $250,000 fetched close to $5 million from the water agency.

"I did everything, from paying the bills to weighing the trucks, every penny that came in, and every penny that came out, I was responsible for," said Debra Rivero, a former SNWA employee.

She worked for the water district in Las Vegas for 17 years before moving north to run the office for the ranches. From the beginning, she said, she was struck by how little oversight there was by SNWA.

"The whole operation is very secretive. They don't encourage anybody to come up and take a look and tour the place. It's just all very secretive."

How secretive? Rivero says the first ranch manager, who took the job after his ranch was purchased for six times its market value, was given a year's salary when he left, with the condition that he keep quiet.

Outspoken critic Hank Vogler who owns one of the few area ranches still in private hands, was offered a consulting contract if he would button his lip. Former White Pine District Attorney Richard Sears landed the best deal of all. He agreed to drop his planned opposition to the water grab in exchange for a brand new well on his ranch, plus irrigation equipment, plus nearly 400 acre feet of water per year, with a value of more than $1.5 million dollars.

"It's all in the contract," Rivero said. "Just so he'd be quiet and withdraw the protest. I think the worst thing was the payoffs for people to be quiet, to stop protesting. It was the most horrendous thing I've seen."

The ranch operations bled money for a few years but now, according to SNWA's accounting, they are in the black, earning $260,000 last year from sales of hay and beef. Neighboring ranchers scoff at the math, saying SNWA's deep pockets mean this ranching operation doesn't face the same challenges as an actual ranch, standing on its own.

What other rancher has nine committee meetings to pick a design for a brand, for instance or has a government sugar daddy to repair equipment or buy new trucks? Although the ranches supposedly made a profit, the costs to the public keep going up.

The operating budget was $500,000 a year in 2007, it went to $750,000 in 2008 and was bumped to $850,000 last year. Expenses that would count against a real rancher's bottom line are not included, Rivero said. For example, SNWA reported it sold $1 million worth of hay.

"That doesn't include the fertilizer, the irrigation equipment, the employees time, everything else," Rivero said.

She adds, she was told by the current manager and others about suspected widespread theft by employees. Cows, sheep, equipment, even saddles disappeared but didn't show up on any ledger.

"I kept bringing it up. 'Hey there is unethical stuff going on up here' and the Vegas office didn't seem to want to hear it. They didn't want to talk to me about it. They didn't want to say anything."

Veteran rancher Dean Baker, an opponent of the water grab, says all of the public money being plowed into the ranches will be wasted once the pumping begins because Spring Valley will be sucked dry.

"It will kill the ranches when they pump it. If they don't know that, they are way stupider than I think they are," Baker said.

Scott Huntley, the chief public information officer for SNWA issued the following statement:

"The Southern Nevada Water Authority is committed to operating and maintaining its Spring Valley holdings in a responsible manner to protect both employees and equipment. As a not-for-profit public agency, the SNWA adheres to strict policies and procedures focused on preventing harassment, workplace violence and drug use. Senior officials from the agency are actively involved in managing the properties. Our Environmental Health and Safety and Corporate Security Department makes regular site visits along with our Fleet division, Finance and Facilities to conduct inspections and verify appropriate business practices. We maintain strict business practice and inventory controls and have had no verifiable reports of theft on the ranch properties."

Rivero told the I-Team a lot more about the operation of the ranches, and I-Team reporter George Knapp will report that information in the days ahead.

Rivero left the ranch operation because of what she said was a hostile work environment and has filed a complaint with federal authorities. Future I-Team reports will have explosive details about what happened to her, and what she saw.

Bills keep pushing federal land transfer

BLM Geologist Doug Powell makes his way through a rock garden of "Hoodoo's in the Escalante Grandstaircase National Monument east of Kanab. (Hartmann/photo)

By Brian Maffly
The Salt Lake Tribune

A Senate panel on Monday advanced a joint resolution that presses the Utah governor and congressional delegation "to exert their utmost abilities" to convince the federal government to hand over 30 million acres of public lands to the state.

SJR13 seeks to speed the implementation of last year’s Transfer of Public Lands Act, which envisions the state acquiring most of the federal land within its borders by the end of next year. But even its backers concede this might take a legal battle, but one they say is worth fighting, especially if other Western states join the struggle to "take back" public lands.

"This action, if taken by the federal government, will allow Utah to provide for the education of its children, grow its economy and job opportunities, and provide for responsible management of the state’s abundant natural resources while preserving the important historic and cultural contributions that Utah’s public lands provide the citizens of Utah, the nation, and the world," the resolution claims.

The federal act that enabled Utah’s statehood in 1896 "promised" public lands would be disposed of but the feds have reneged on the deal, according to sponsor Sen. Aaron Osmond, R-South Jordan, who addressed the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee Monday. The panel passed the bill onto the full Senate on a 3-0 vote.

The panel’s lone Democrat, Sen. Jim Dabakis, of Salt Lake City, volunteered to work with Osmond to reword his resolution to make it less confrontational and critical of the federal government.

"The approach we tried [with the Public Lands Transfer Act] and you are trying to reinforce isn’t working. I wonder it it’s time to put some of the arrows aside and go back to Washington with a new attitude," Dabakis said. "Let’s see if we can roll up our sleeves and create some peace here."

For months, conservationists have been panning the proposed transfer as an unconstitutional land grab that would cost Utah taxpayers dearly, both in terms of litigation and administering the land itself. Their biggest concern is the land would be sold off, but backers say the intention is to keep the land public and do a better job managing it than the feds have done.

"This is something Utah has been asking for nicely for decades. It’s time to demand. Other states are standing with us," said Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan,addressing another land-transfer bill on Friday.

Awaiting action on the House floor is HB142, which would authorize the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office to further study how best to accomplish the transfer. This effort will cost up to $450,000, according to a fiscal note.

Aging gracefully: Desert plants live long past century mark

Joshua tree.

By Jimmy Biggerstaff
Hi-Desert Star

A saber-toothed tiger might have stepped on it. A mastodon shaking its behemoth body might have splashed water onto its leaves. And it still grows today.

The creosote clonal ring in Johnson Valley known as King Clone was one of the stars of the show when natural-history writer Chris Clark showed a slideshow of trees and plants that range from very old to ancient.

A full hall of desert aficionados assembled at the Black Rock Visitor Center Feb. 16 to hear Clark’s lecture on old growth.

Clark described the creosote’s clonal ring as “A single, living thing that has fallen into pieces.” Estimating the plant grows outward from the original plant’s germination point at one foot per 300 years, experts say King Clone sprouted 11,400 years ago.

This creosote may be the monarch of ancient life, but the desert is bursting with aged marvels, Clark told the audience.

He showed slides of buckwheat clumps that can live for 700 years. Iodine brush — more than 1,000 years. Clarke projected a photo of a particularly large and robust pencil cholla estimated to have sprouted up to 1,500 years ago.

Clark discussed some of the ways scientists determine a plant’s age and how slowly it grows. During a study in the Mojave Preserve’s Clark Mountain, botanists meticulously cataloged every plant in a plot of land, then returned 15 years later to observe changes.

By this method, they estimated life spans, but in some cases they could set no outward parameter because none of the plants of a specific species died, including buckhorn cholla and ephedra, or Mormon tea.

Not all ancients are plants. Clarke explained the centuries-long process that produces the varnish on desert pavement.

“In some aquifers,” Clarke said, “when you turn on the tap, that water hasn’t seen light since ground sloths roamed.”

Clarke’s first slide was from a favorite camping spot of his east of Cima Dome, a panorama of nearby granite, distant mountains and a Joshua tree forest. Clarke said Joshua trees generally have twice the lifespan of humans.

His next two slides showed the same tree photographed about 60 years apart. In the black and white version, Twentynine Palms pioneer photographer Burton Frasher had captured a particularly distinct-looking Joshua tree (aren’t they all?) growing in the desert northeast of Los Angeles.

The modern-day image of the same plant was the album cover for the band U2’s 1987 album “The Joshua Tree.” As Clarke flipped back and forth between the two images, it was apparent the plant hadn’t grown much in six decades.

Alas, that tree has since fallen over after a long and well-photographed life. Clarke said 300-year-old Joshua trees exist but are a rarity. They are relatively short-lived compared to other plants he mentioned in the lecture.

As the slide show continued, a Google Earth image showed a small, blurry blob Clarke identified as a 13-foot-wide clump of yucca northeast of the Mojave National Preserve. That ancient is no longer there, replaced by an array of solar panels.

Banning, Beaumont Assemblyman Wants Salton Sea Restored

"There was a time when the Salton Sea attracted more visitors per year than Yosemite," Nestande said. "I want to empower the Salton Sea Authority so they can return the area to the recreation and destination site it once was."

North Shore Yacht Club, Salton Sea. (Photo: Renee Schiavone)

By Renee Schiavone
Banning-Beaumont Patch

Palm Desert's assemblyman has proposed legislation this week to spur action on restoring the shrinking Salton Sea by allocating $50 million for projects overseen by the Salton Sea Authority.

Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, introduced Assembly Bill 709 ahead of a hearing Friday in Mecca, during which representatives from government and private organizations will address the sea's needs.

"The issues surrounding the restoration of the Salton Sea have been going on for far too long," Nestande said. "State and federal inaction has stymied restoration progress. We need to return control to the Salton Sea Authority as the lead agency so they can move forward."

AB 709 would require that $50 million in Proposition 84 bond revenue be earmarked for sea improvements and would direct the California Wildlife Conservation Board to apply for matching federal funds in support of restoration.

The Salton Sea Authority would take charge of all projects under Nestande's bill. Currently, the SSA -- composed of officials from Riverside and Imperial counties -- acts primarily in an advisory capacity.

"There was a time when the Salton Sea attracted more visitors per year than Yosemite," Nestande said. "I want to empower the Salton Sea Authority so they can return the area to the recreation and destination site it once was."

According to the assemblyman, the SSA would have to develop a concrete restoration plan that passes muster with the state Legislative Analyst's Office, after which funds would be made available.

Nestande's bill follows several proposals introduced last month by Assemblyman Manuel Perez, D-Coachella, that address funding for a restoration feasibility study and mitigation measures necessary to prevent environmental damage that might result from changes to the sea.

The 365-square-mile body of water -- the largest part of which lies in Imperial County, with the north portion stretching to within a few miles of Thermal -- has been plagued with increasing salinity over the last 40 years, to the point that some of the sea's deeper places are saltier than the ocean.

According to studies, nutrient compounds from agricultural runoff have created a "eutrophic" condition where high levels of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia kill fish and produce gagging odors.

Water reclamation plans by local agencies and Mexico, as well as a reduction of Colorado River supplies, will shrink the sea in the coming years, according to the Salton Sea Authority.

Assemblyman Nestande serves the communities of Banning, Beaumont, Cabazon, Calimesa, Cherry Valley, Hemet, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, San Jacinto, White Water, 29 Palms, Joshua Tree, Landers, Morongo Valley, Pioneer Town, Yucaipa, and Yucca Valley.

Opposition Grows To Wind Development Near Mojave Preserve

Avikwame seen from Wee Thump, January 2010. This view would be filled with wind turbines in the distance | Photo: Chris Clarke

Commentary
by Chris Clarke
KCET

To those tracking proposed wind turbine developments in the Mojave Desert, it's become clear that developers are increasingly eyeing the area just north and east of the Mojave National Preserve. There are active wind proposals in the Silurian Valley north of Baker. Element Power has a permit to test for wind resources in Mountain Pass, on a site almost completely surrounded by the Preserve. Oak Creek Energy Systems has a similar testing permit at the northern end of the New York Mountains, just inside the Nevada line, in land that would certainly be part of the Preserve were it not for that state line.

But the application that's farthest along is Duke Energy's Searchlight Wind Energy Project, which would place from 87 to 96 turbines, each 427 feet tall, on almost 19,000 acres surrounding three sides of the little Nevada town from which it takes its name. The turbines would be just east of the Mojave National Preserve, as close as a mile and a half to the boundary of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and in an area of supreme cultural significance to Native people across the desert.

The BLM issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Searchlight Wind Energy Project in December, and as the project has the backing of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- a local, at least on paper -- a Record Of Decision (ROD) from the Interior Department in favor of Searchlight Wind is almost certainly a done deal.

That's angered a number of locals, as well as frequent visitors who appreciate the views across the Southern Nevada desert. Those views are more than just scenery to some. From much of the area of the Preserve, including the Wee Thump Wilderness Area northwest of Searchlight, the turbines would intrude on the view of Spirit Mountain. Also known as Avikwame, that mountain -- a striking white massif rising above the desert -- is the center of the origin myth for a number of desert Native people from the local Mohave to the Quechan farther south, as well as the Yavapai, Hualapai, and Havasupai of Northern Arizona.

What Federal land planners somewhat prosaically call "visual resources" are of supreme importance to the tribes along the Colorado River: being able to see and describe the surrounding mountain peaks is an important part of Native ritual, as for example in the Chemehuevi's Salt Songs. As Avikwame is traditionally considered the home of Mastamho, the son of the Creator, Spirit Mountain plays about the role in local religion that the Vatican or Mecca play in certain other faiths.

Judy Bundorf of the grassroots group Friends of Searchlight Desert and Mountains related to me two weeks ago how the BLM had answered her queries about the impact of the Searchlight Wind project on native practices. "They told us that the sightlines between Spirit Mountain and the Native people wouldn't be affected, because the turbines would all be north of the mountain, and the reservation is in the other direction."

I ran into Bundorf at an event in Ward Valley commemorating the 15th anniversary of the defeat of the nuclear waste dump once proposed for that site. Also in attendance was my friend Rev. Ronald Van Fleet, an elder in the Fort Mohave Indian Tribe. I asked Ron whether the view of Avikwame from the reservation to the south was the only one that mattered to the Mohave. He just laughed.

Added to the cultural impacts of the project are the likely effects on large birds, especially eagles. The Searchlight Wind project would place turbines on either side of the pass leading down to the Colorado River along Cottonwood Cove Road, a potentially important migration corridor for birds and bats heading between the Eldorado and Newberry Mountains to travel between the river and the vicinity of the Mojave Preserve. Both Duke Energy and the BLM state that raptor populations in the area are relatively low, with only three golden eagle sightings recorded in the vicinity of the project site since 2007. (I lived in the area for much of 2008 and saw that many golden eagles in a week, although admittedly not directly on the project site.) The project area, largely composed of Joshua tree forest, is also habitat for desert tortoise, with 122 torts found in the project area during a 2011 survey. Eleven species of cactus grow in the area, and I've had personal communications from locals citing individual Gila monsters seen along roadsides in the area.

Though a green-light from Interior is near-certain given Reid's backing, Friends of Searchlight Desert and Mountains hasn't given up on its opposition: it's organizing a demonstration in Searchlight on Saturday, February 23 to urge the BLM to go back to the drawing board with the EIS. The group wants a wider range of alternatives considered in the document, including distributed generation, siting on private lands moving the project away from private property and valuable habitat.

It would also be sensible for the BLM to pay closer attention to potential cumulative impacts of the Searchlight site combined with those proposed for the Castle-New York Mountains, Mountain Pass, and the Silurian Valley. Fringing the northern edge of the Mojave Preserve with 200-foot turbine blades just seems on the face of it to be something we could think through a bit more carefully.

Water for Desert Wildlife comes at an expense

Jim Niemiec
Western Outdoor News

Mother Nature has blessed the high desert with more than a normal amount of rain thus far this year, in addition to laying down some snow at higher elevations and freezing pockets of water in the crags of lava and granite rock. After last year's rather dismal inches of rain in the desert regions across California, Arizona and even up into northeastern Nevada, upland game bird hunters had to work hard at even finding small coveys of native chukar at higher elevations. Bird hunters that headed out after quail did a little better finding coveys of birds but they were small coveys and not near the number that a scatter gunner would hope for.

GUZZLER IN NEED OF REPAIR — This high desert guzzler is need of attention to provide desert wildlife with fresh water.

Down in Baja California and over to Baja Norte there was better rain that produced a good crop of California Valley quail for the San Telmo Valley and other arroyos south of Ensenada. Mexicali enjoyed good gunning for native pheasant and all three species of dove, but quail numbers were down. Clear down in Los Mochis there was excellent dove hunting for mourning and white-winged dove, blue pigeons and lots of ducks. One reason that Mexico seems to offer up good numbers of birds is all the farming that takes place, which brings along fresh water to irrigate and vast marshes flushed with seeds carried on to the wetlands by way of canals.

One outstanding organization that is working countless hours to bring life back to the high desert in general, the Mohave National Preserve and Bureau of Land Management holdings is the Water for Wildlife Project.

There were a total of 6 projects in 2012 starting with one in Goffs. During the course of the year Water for Wildlife volunteers completely restored 10 wildlife drinkers/guzzlers, rehabbed 3 others, Blue Maxed and patched 5 underground tanks, changed the oil in 3 windmills, buried 100 ft. of plastic pipe to prevent the public from removing a water source, installed a 100 gallon plastic tank inside an old windmill, dug out three springs and got the water flowing, built and installed two ramps for the wildlife to access the water, plus hauling over 4,000 gallons of water to the drinkers!

Cliff McDonald heads up Water for Wildlife and gathers many volunteers and supporters together and also coordinates the collection and transportation of products, material, and food that is used to bring a sustainable water supply in the desert for wildlife.

VOLUNTEERS WORKING ON A GUZZLER — These volunteers are active in Water for Wildlife and donate many man-hours to bring fresh water to the normally dry and vast desert.

Water for Wildlife has scheduled 5 more projects for 2013 and they are: Feb. Mojave National Preserve, Mar. BLM near Essex, April BLM near Essex or Mojave National Preserve, May Mojave National Preserve and June the Mojave National Preserve.

To give a person a perspective on how much material is required to repair guzzlers for the use of wildlife in the desert McDonald totaled up products and costs for 2012 projects: Concrete surfacing material cost $4,000, Merlex cost $400, Concrete ran $400, Tank cost $100,
Hydro-seal was $200, Misc. supplies and tools totaled $200 and there was another $1,000 spent on food to feed the many volunteers bringing the total expenditures for Water for Wildlife projects to $6,350, and this does not include the donated man hours, vehicle use, gas and the many other support items donated by members of this conservation group.

There were over 2000 man hours donated to Water for Wildlife projects last year, some behind the scene work and including financial donations which helped bring it all together.

Western Outdoor News thought it would be a good idea to report on one of the projects completed by Water for Wildlife in June of last year. The following is a recap of the events that took place on the Blair Ranch, which might give readers a good feeling of the valuable work being done by this organization.

June 2012 Review - Fifty-four volunteers showed up for the last project of the year. Friday morning around 8 a.m. Josh and I arrived at the camp site on the Blair Ranch. Lyle, Jim, Frank, BL and Doug had already been working on projects the previous three days. These guys finished one drinker, rehabbed another and hauled 2,500 gallons of water to the site ---they worked their butts off.

FINISHED GUZZLER READY FOR WILDLIFE — This guzzler has been rehabbed and is now ready to provide drinking water for desert wildlife. Many successful projects have been completed by volunteers and supporters of Water for Wildlife.

Myself, along with several volunteers headed out to dig and bury 100 feet of water line, the location for this dig was about 50 miles from our camp site at Marl Springs. Another crew headed south to dig out another spring, while the third crew ventured into the desert to work on another wildlife drinker. Lots of work was done this day and the crews managed to complete all projects that were scheduled for that weekend. We all returned back to camp and again the cooks and waiters were working hard making sure we were all were served a great dinner of ranch fed cattle hamburgers with all the trimmings, including BBQ beans, corn on the cob and Marie's famous per salad. We were also treated to an appetizer table that was overflowing with treats. Jim's homemade cheese-balls, homemade salsas, chips, 7 layer bean dip and pinwheel wraps. Topping off dinner after a full day of working in the desert there were 5 different kinds of homemade pies to choose from along with whipped cream topping...as told by Cliff McDonald.

Water for Wildlife receives a lot of support from many people and companies. A few that have been with this conservation project for many years include: CA Deer Association, Orange County Chapter of SCI, Predator Callers of Orange County, Quail Forever and Quail Unlimited, Society for Conservation of Bighorn Sheep and the Quail and Upland Wildlife Federation. Other companies supporting this valuable service to wildlife in the desert include; Alpen Optics, Barstow Wheel and Tire, H20asis (ice) Hargus Disposal, Daniel's Septic and the many volunteers that devote meaningful hours to Water for Wildlife.

To find out more about Water for Wildlife, future projects and how to get involved in their conservation projects call Cliff McDonald at (760) 449-4820 or contact him by way of his email at bigmc@ctaz.com.

Twentynine Palms Base closer to expanding into Johnson Valley

U.S. Marine Corps wants to acquire most of the Johnson Valley area used for popular off-road rock crawling sports to expand its Twentynine Palms training center.



By Mark Muckenfuss
Press-Enterprise

The U.S. Marine Corps has finalized a decision to annex 168,000 acres — including most of the Johnson Valley off-road recreation area — to its huge desert warfare training center near Twentynine Palms.

The only remaining obstacle to the expansion is action by Congress. Officials hope the addition will be included in the Defense Authorization Act for the coming fiscal year.

On Wednesday, Feb. 13, the Department of the Navy — parent agency of the Marine Corps — announced that it had signed a record of decision after studying various expansion proposals for six years, weighing the impacts and taking more than 19,000 public comments.

Much of that comment came from off-road vehicle enthusiasts who say the plan would kick them out of one of the last and best places to ride in the desert. Marine officials have said the expansion is necessary so that it can run maneuvers with three battalions simultaneously.

Of the 168,000 acres, 147,000 are currently public land maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The remaining 21,000 acres are privately owned.

Four-wheelers and motorcyclists say the open access in Johnson Valley allows them to drive for miles over open desert without having to worry about staying on trails. The area also includes rock-crawling terrain that draws some of the world’s best drivers. Most famously it is known as the site of the King of the Hammers, an annual race — held last weekend — that draws more than 30,000 people.

“It’s a wide-open area,” said Eric Anderson, 43, an off-road driver from Apple Valley. “This is one of the only places left where we can go forever, and we have such a large area that the impact is kind of minimized.”

Environmental studies of the Marine base expansion evaluated six options. The Navy adopted option six, which would permanently close 125,000 acres. Another 43,000 acres in Johnson Valley would be closed two months of the year when for annual large-scale military maneuvers. About 20,000 acres of Johnson Valley would remain open to the public full time.

Base officials have said they need the space in order to conduct simulated battles — with air support — for a Marine expeditionary brigade, an attack force of 15,000 troops. Such maneuvers, they said, require three corridors through which troops can advance. Currently, the base has only two such corridors.

The plan would also enlarge the base’s air space, which extends far beyond the physical boundaries of the combat center.

With the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, and the changing nature of warfare, some people have questioned the need for such large operations. Opponents of the expansion said Marine officials have other options. Among the six options is one that would add land on the eastern edge of the base instead of Johnson Valley, which is on the west.

Off-roader George Biddlecomb, 45, of Rancho Cucamonga is a past president of the Inland Empire 4 Wheelers.

“I think we have a good shot at turning the Marines eastbound,” Biddlecomb said. “It would keep live fire off the public lands.”

On Thursday, the off-roading community filed a petition with the White House opposing the westward expansion. The petition reportedly had 27,000 signatures. The White House has said it will respond to any petition with more than 25,000 signatures. The Obama administration has not yet taken a position on the base expansion.

However, the president recently signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. Included in the bill is a provision, referred to as the Bartlett Amendment, that requires the Marine Corps to present, among other information, a study of the economic impact of the base expansion at Twentynine Palms.

Capt. Nicholas Mannweiler, spokesman for the base, said the required report has been filed with Congress.

“The economic impact is kind of the center (issue) right now,” said David Cole, whose Lake Arrowhead company Ultra4 Racing, organizes the King of the Hammers. “The Marines have not really answered any questions that were proposed in the Bartlett Amendment.”

Cole said he invests $500,000 in the race each year. He estimated this year’s crowd between 35,000 and 40,000. There is no other place in the United States, he said, that offers a 105-mile course combining open terrain as well as rock crawling. If the land is lost, his event, which just completed its seventh year, will cease to exist

“We want the Marines to be trained as well as they can be trained,” he said. “But they’ve already identified (an alternate) training area that meets all their requirements. We’re fighting for the public to recreate on the desert. I don’t care about the race. I can go get a job again. We just want to make sure our grandkids can still come out her and recreate.”

Federal gift of land to schools went awry

Jill Tucker
San Francisco Chronicle

There was a time when California's schools were financially set for life - holding the rights to any profit and proceeds from 5.5 million acres, or 6 percent of the entire state.

The land was given in trust by Congress when California joined the union to support the education of children, then and forever more. Other states received similar "sacred, irrevocable" trusts for their schools.

In California, a state blessed with bountiful agricultural potential, veins of gold, power-producing rivers, a coastline full of commercial possibility and so much more, the school trust acreage should have produced riches beyond every teacher's wildest dreams.

It didn't.

As was the case in many states, most of the land was quickly sold off, mismanaged, used as chess pieces in backroom deals or neglected, according to Utah researchers who recently released the first analysis of school trust lands in more than 100 years.

"As you can imagine, there was probably a lot of good-old-boy stuff going on," said Margaret Bird, a school land trust specialist at the Utah State Office of Education. "It's money that belonged to someone else, namely schoolchildren, and it was just stolen."

There were 134 million total acres granted nationwide to support public education by 1959, with about a third currently remaining in the hands of state agencies to benefit schools.

Of the original California school trust land, less than 500,000 acres remain, generating about $6 million in royalties and revenue each year, with all proceeds deposited into the state teachers' pension fund.

Pot of cash raided

In addition, about $60 million was set aside from the trust's profit to be used for further investment. But that small pot of cash was raided to nearly nothing by Gov. Jerry Brown to help balance the budget.

The state must pay back $59 million to the trust by 2016.

Nearly two dozen states have nothing left of their school land trust.

"While we point sometimes at California - and to be honest there is, on the part of some people, snickering - California at least has some lands left," said Richard West, executive director of the Center for the School of the Future at Utah State University, author of the report.

Profits in other states

Other states, however, have a lot to show for the land.

Arizona, for example, still has all of the mineral and/or surface rights over its original 928,000 acres as well as $440 million in the bank. New Mexico has most of its initial 8.7 million acres and $10.7 billion in its fund.

As in other states, the land sold off in California was gone even before the start of the 20th century.

"In the old days, they sold off everything anybody wanted," said Jim Porter, public land management specialist in the California State Lands Commission.

A lot of what's left in California is in the desert.

Still, the Utah report questioned the ongoing management of the land and funds across the country, noting that some states, for example, don't make market rate on some leases or royalties.

In California, the school trust is overseen by the State Lands Commission, which comprises the lieutenant governor, state controller and finance director. West argues that education officials should be part of the conversation about how to use the trust.

Across the country, much of the revenue from state trust lands come from mineral, oil and gas rights; timber production; agriculture; and commercial or residential leasing.

Geothermal leases

In California, the vast majority of revenue is generated from geothermal leases at the Geysers along the border of Sonoma and Lake counties. A bit of oil, gold and other minerals also generate some revenue.

In a weird historical twist, California is still owed about 51,000 acres from the federal government for the land trust because some of the initial parcels designated for education support were already occupied. The federal program allowed for that, guaranteeing replacement land to make up for property already in use, but California has yet to receive that land.

The State Lands Commission is working with other states to pursue legislation that would push federal officials to fulfill their pledge to California and any other states owed acreage.

In the meantime, Porter said, the commission wants to expand solar and wind efforts, which could produce significantly more revenue for the school land trust.

But given current law, the money wouldn't make it into classrooms.

Teacher pensions

While other states use the land trust proceeds for libraries, technology, schools and other programs, California deposits all revenue into the teacher pension fund, as directed by the Legislature in the mid-1980s.

Why support the pension fund rather than schools directly?

"My guess is political muscle," Porter said, noting the pension fund needed financial help from the state. "You've got to get the money from somewhere."

The Utah researchers questioned California's use of the money and whether it met the intent of the Continental Congress when they established the school land trust.

"A retired teacher does not help the school at all," Bird said. "If I lived in California I'd be out right now looking for an attorney ... because somebody needs to speak up for the children."

Acting on tip, federal officials recover stolen petroglyph panels

The location of the petroglyphs, stolen from a sacred Native American site last fall, was disclosed in an anonymous letter. The tip may have come from the thieves themselves.

Greg Haverstock, an archaeologist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, inspects the site north of Bishop, Calif., where thieves removed Native American petroglyph panels last November. Aciting on a tip that may have come from the thieves themselves, federal authorities have recovered the five panels. (Don Kelsen, Los Angeles Times / November 12, 2012)

By Louis Sahagun
Los Angeles Times

Federal investigators acting on a tip have recovered five petroglyph panels that thieves cut from an eastern Sierra site sacred to Native Americans, U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials said Thursday.

The location of the petroglyphs, stolen last fall, was disclosed in an anonymous letter to authorities.

By failing to sign the letter, its author walked away from a $9,000 reward — a sign that the tip may have come from the thieves themselves. Experts had said the petroglyphs would fetch little money from collectors and would be difficult to fence because of widespread publicity about the theft.

No arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing, officials said.

Bernadette Lovato, manager of the BLM field office in Bishop, declined to disclose details about the recovery, including when or where the petroglyphs were found. "The panels are currently being held as evidence," Lovato said.

"Now, the healing can begin," she said. "Recovery was a priority for me, and the public outrage intensified the need for them to be returned."

Investigators believe the vandals used ladders, chisels, electric generators and power saws to remove the panels from cliffs in an arid high-desert region known as Volcanic Tableland, about 15 miles north of Bishop. The thieves gouged holes in the rock and sheared off slabs that were up to 15 feet above ground and 2 feet high and wide.

The theft was reported to the BLM last Oct. 31 by visitors to the area, where Native Americans had carved hundreds of lava boulders and cliffs with spiritual renderings: concentric circles, deer, rattlesnakes, bighorn sheep and hunters with bows and arrows.

The site, which is still used by the local Paiute Indians for ceremonies, is protected under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Authorities said the petroglyphs were probably worth no more than $500 to $1,500 each.

But they are priceless to Native Americans, who regard the massive tableaux as a window into the souls of their ancestors.

"It feels real good to have them come back home," said Raymond Andrews, Paiute tribal historic preservation officer.

Lovato said the petroglyphs may eventually be put on public display, "but that will be up to Paiute-Shoshone tribal leaders."

Damaging or removing the petroglyphs is a felony. First-time offenders can be imprisoned for up to one year and fined as much as $20,000, authorities said.

Anybody with information about the theft is asked to contact the BLM at (760) 937-0301 or (760) 937-0657.

Tortoise center wants out of the shelter business

Mojave Max, Nevada's most famous desert tortoise, roams the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in September 2009. (Las Vegas Review-Journal File)

By Henry Brean
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

After years of taking in people's unwanted pets, the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center at the valley's southwestern edge is desperately trying to get out of the shelter business.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials announced Tuesday that the federal facility has discontinued its pickup service for pets and strays, which literally gobbles up resources meant for research and recovery work.

Instead, the center is teaming up with the Animal Foundation to develop a new tortoise drop-off and adoption program through the foundation-operated Lied Animal Shelter.

The Fish and Wildlife Service simply doesn't have the funds to take in and care for more than 1,000 unwanted tortoises a year, said Ted Koch, who heads up the agency in Nevada.

"We aren't picking them up anymore, and we do not want to take them in anymore," Koch said. "We cannot take them in anymore."

Lied Animal Shelter was already accepting desert tortoises as part of its mission to take in "anything anyone brings to us that's an animal," said Betsy VanDeusen, development manager for the Animal Foundation.

Clark County's largest animal shelter would serve as the main drop-off point for unwanted tortoises that would otherwise end up at the conservation center.

That's the goal anyway.

Koch acknowledged the change could result in more pet tortoises being dumped into the open desert by their owners, even though doing so is "illegal, unwise ecologically and cruel."

"Unless you do it at the right place at the right time, it's likely to end in an unpleasant death for the tortoise," he said.

The conservation center was established 20 years ago as a place for developers to put the federally protected animals after removing them from job sites.

The San Diego Zoo now manages the center under a 2009 partnership with the Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies.

Koch said shelter work takes time and money away from the facility's core missions of research, education and the controlled release of tortoises into the wild, but there is another reason the community needs to transition away from using the center as a care home for unwanted animals. He said the conservation center only has funding for the next two years, and its future is unclear.

VanDeusen said the Animal Foundation is now developing an adoption program in consultation with the center. The details are still being worked out, but the idea is to let people adopt male tortoises only in an effort to curb backyard breeding.

The program should be up and running later this year, she said. Until then, Lied will take in as many tortoises as it can and turn the rest over to the conservation center.

No healthy tortoises will be euthanized by Lied or anyone else, at least not yet.

Koch said he can't rule that out down the road if funding continues to shrink and no solution can be found to "stem the flow of unwanted pet tortoises."

Some estimate there could be as many as 150,000 captive desert tortoises in the Las Vegas Valley alone. Koch couldn't vouch for that number, but he said there isn't much to stop their numbers from skyrocketing in a backyard setting with ample food, water and protection of predators.

Tortoises lay up to a dozen eggs at a time precisely because so many of the hatchlings don't survive in the wild. In captivity, the number of eggs is the same but the survival rate is far higher.

Koch knows it sounds strange for the agency charged with saving the desert tortoise to actively campaign against more breeding of the animal. But he said one of the fundamental purposes of the Endangered Species Act is to conserve the ecosystems on which species depend, "and raising individuals in captivity does not meet that purpose."

No other federally protected species is so widely kept as a pet, Koch said. "It's unique in the country."

In addition to the collaboration with Lied, the Fish and Wildlife Service is exploring a possible partnership with the Humane Society or other animal group to offer tortoises for adoption nationwide.

Ultimately, Koch said, the agency is open to any ideas that might help keep the state reptile of Nevada from stacking up at shelters while officials try to figure out how to preserve it in the wild.

MOJAVE DESERT: Reward offered in burro death

Burros rounded up from public land in the West are held in BLM corrals until adopters can be found. (File photo)

BY David Danelski
Press-Enterprise

The federal government is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever killed and butchered a wild burro on public land in northeast San Bernardino County.

A biologist found the carcass earlier this month in the Ivanpah Valley, near the site of a solar energy project under construction next to Interstate 15 a few miles from Primm, Nevada.

The animal appeared to have been cut up at the site for its meat, said David Briery, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman. Whoever killed the burro left behind its head and ribcage.

Burros are protected under the federal Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The law makes it illegal to kill them.

“We are working with other agencies to bring the responsible parties to justice and hope members of the public will provide us with helpful information,” said Amy Dumas, a BLM wild horse and burro specialist, in a news release.

Anyone with information about the dead burro can contact Chief Ranger Brad Baron at 760-326-7000.

The bureau regularly uses helicopters to round up wild burros on public land in Southern California and throughout the West when theirs ranges are deemed to be overpopulated. Some of the animals are taken to holding corrals in Ridgecrest and later offered for adoption.

The BLM regularly brings horses and burros to the Sundance Ranch off San Timoteo Canyon Road in Redlands for adoption events.

As of November, about 1,100 burros rounded up in the West were being held in federal corrals, according to a BLM website.

Boulder City Bypass project protects tortoises

By Joe Hawk
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

White men must not be the only creatures who can't jump.

Fortunately for Steve Cooke, the desert tortoise doesn't have much of a vertical leap, either.

As chief of environmental services for the Nevada Department of Transportation, Cooke has the responsibility of ensuring the state's environment isn't damaged when a new roadway is constructed. So this month his focus is on the desert tortoise, a species more endangered - with apologies to Woody Harrelson's 1992 film character Billy Hoyle - than white men who CAN jump.

Cooke's role comes into play as Phase 1 of the 15-mile Boulder City bypass project gets under way on a short opening stretch of virgin land between the Foothills Drive exit on U.S. Highway 95 in south Henderson and where the new road will meet U.S. 95 to the southwest of Boulder City.

The 2.75-mile expanse soon will be enclosed by a fence during construction to keep the desert tortoise from plodding in. While the length might be somewhat daunting, not so the height.

Eighteen inches.

Eighteen inches of tightly meshed metal fence that will prevent even juvenile tortoises from crawling in.

"Because they're an en­dangered species, we have to take certain precautions to protect them," Cooke says. "They can't jump two feet."

The opening phase's environmental safety work extends beyond the desert tortoise to select desert plants in the area - at a combined protection/salvage cost of $1.5 million.

Before the first bulldozers roll in, a number of cactuses and yuccas have to be rolled out, replanted elsewhere, only to be returned as landscaping or erosion control when the opening phase of the bypass project is completed.

'IT'S NICE TO GET IT STARTED'

Make no mistake: Despite what you might read or hear about the fitness, financing and future of the bypass project's more contentious second phase - 12 additional miles of a four-lane, limited-access freeway that, if constructed, would permit motorists to skip driving through Boulder City - the first phase is being built.

Tentative completion date: late 2017 or early 2018. Or so hopes Tony Lorenzi, the state Transportation Department's project manager.

Seventy-five percent of the land has cleared right-of-way acquisition, with only three parcels left to be purchased through contentious condemnation in the courts. The full land acquisition is coming at a cost of $20 million to $30 million, according to documents provided by the transportation agency.

As acquisition wraps up, the second "package" of the opening phase begins, first with the environmental safeguards and followed in late summer or early fall by the start of construction on a frontage road and numerous utility relocations - everything from moving towers belonging to the Western Area Power Administration to relocating conduits of the Colorado River Commission, Southwest Gas, NV Energy, Las Vegas Water District, AT&T, Cox Communications, etc.

"Literally a dozen, if not more," Lorenzi says as he ticks off the more notable names.

The relocation of the utilities and the construction of the frontage road is a 12- to 18-month segment of the project, estimated to cost between $20 million and $22 million.

From there, construction begins on the mainline - or new roadway - with Package 3 going from Foothills Drive to the Railroad Pass interchange, with the mainline being built under the existing railroad bridge, and followed by Package 4, which is the extension of the mainline from the interchange to U.S. 95.

Package 5, the construction of the mainline as an underpass to a reinforced, at-grade Railroad Pass bridge, likely would be built at the same time as Package 3.

The combined cost of the mainline construction would come in at between $90 million and $110 million, bringing the total price tag for Phase 1 to somewhere between $110 million and $140 million.

The state transportation agency, which gets its funding from the federal government and a percentage of state gasoline taxes, is paying for the project.

One of the highlights of Phase 1 will be an artistic history lesson on the construction of Hoover Dam that will be chiseled into a 1,200-foot-long retaining wall along the route. The rendering will start with the migration of the '31ers to Southern Nevada, to the pouring of the dam's forms, to the dangerous work of the dam's high-scalers, to a rendering of the completed project.

"I feel really good about this getting started," Lorenzi says. "There's been a lot of anticipation.

"There's been some delays for multiple reasons" - funding and right-of-way issues, construction logistics - "but it's nice to get it started."

PHASE 2 CONTENTIOUS

Lorenzi and Cooke recently appeared at an open house at Boulder City High School to explain the Nevada Department of Transportation's work on the initial phase of the two-phase project.

Most of the community's concerns, however, regarded Phase 2, the approximately 12-mile stretch that will connect the southwest portion of Phase 1 at U.S. 95 to the recently completed interchange at state Route 172, the road to Hoover Dam.

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is developing Phase 2, with the likelihood of establishing the uninterrupted 12-mile stretch as a toll road to cover the construction funding of between $330 million and $350 million. Early discussion said the toll could start at $2.25 per passenger vehicle, with the price going up for multi-axle trucks.

A 2012 study announced at the meeting said 44 percent of drivers would choose to use the toll road, with the remainder of motorists continuing to drive through Boulder City.

Some attendees were upset at the prospect of almost half of the area's current traffic being diverted from businesses in the nongaming community, while others saw the need to reduce city traffic, which can become heavy with travelers going between Las Vegas and Phoenix during the spring and summer months.

But with funding of Phase 2 yet to be determined and construction still years off, if it happens at all, there's plenty of time to ease concerns and massage egos.

Meanwhile, Phase 1 is being built. And even if there is no Phase 2, there will be a fresh stretch of roadway that will connect to U.S. 93 into Boulder City via a high-speed flyover and to U.S. 95 via graded ramps.

"Even though it's a short distance, there's still a huge amount of work to get (to completion)," Cooke, the state transportation agency's lead environmentalist, says as tortoise fencing goes up this month.

"Once things start," Lorenzi chimes in, "we build a lot of momentum quickly.

"There's nothing I like better than to see something getting built," he adds. "It's progress. The public is getting what it's paying for."

Interior Chief Salazar stepping down in March

FILE - In this March 9, 2009 file photo, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Washington. Salazar will leave the Obama administration in March, an Obama administration official said Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

BY MATTHEW DALY
ASSOCIATED PRESS


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill and promoted alternative energy sources throughout the nation, will step down in March.

A former U.S. senator from Colorado, Salazar ran the Interior Department throughout President Barack Obama's first term and pushed renewable power such as solar and wind and the settlement of a longstanding dispute with American Indians.

With Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson also leaving the administration and Energy Secretary Steven Chu expected to depart, Obama will have a clean slate of top officials overseeing energy and environment issues.

In a statement Wednesday, Obama said Salazar had helped "usher in a new era of conservation for our nation's land, water and wildlife" and had played a major role in efforts to expand responsible development of the nation's domestic energy resources.

Salazar said in a statement that the Interior Department was helping secure "a new energy frontier" and cited an aggressive agenda to reform oil and gas leases, which he said had increased offshore drilling safety.

Under his watch, the Interior Department has authorized nearly three dozen solar, wind and geothermal energy projects on public lands that provide enough electricity to power more than 3 million homes, Salazar said.

Obama has vowed to focus on efforts to bolster renewable energy in a second term while continuing to expand production of oil and natural gas. He also has made it clear he will focus on climate change, an issue he has acknowledged was sometimes overlooked during his first term.

Former Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, a longtime Obama ally, is among those mentioned as a potential successor to Salazar, along with John Berry, director of the White House Office of Personnel Management. Berry is a former assistant interior secretary and the director of the National Zoo. Gregoire, whose term expired Wednesday, also is considered a candidate to head the Energy Department or the EPA.

Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., a senior member of the House Natural Resources Committee and a favorite of the environmental community, also is believed to be under consideration for Salazar's position.

Salazar, 57, entered the Senate with Obama in 2005. At Interior, he gained the most attention for his role in the drilling moratorium, a key part of the administration's response to the April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. It was one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history and led to the unprecedented shutdown of offshore drilling.

Business groups and Gulf Coast political leaders said the shutdown crippled the oil and gas industry and cost thousands of jobs, even aboard rigs not operated by BP PLC. But Salazar said the industry-wide moratorium was the correct call and that his ultimate goal was to allow deep-water operations to resume safely.

"Today, drilling activity in the Gulf is surpassing levels seen before the spill, and our nation is on a promising path to energy independence," Salazar said in his statement Wednesday.

The moratorium was lifted in October 2010, although offshore drilling operations did not begin for several more months. Some Gulf Coast lawmakers continue to complain about the slow pace of drilling permits under the Interior Department, which renamed and revamped the agency that oversees offshore drilling in the wake of the spill.

Salazar also approved the nation's first offshore wind farm, Cape Wind, off the Massachusetts coast.

On land, Salazar has promoted solar power in the West and Southwest, approving an unprecedented number of projects, even as oil and gas projects continued to be approved on federal land.

Salazar also oversaw the settlement of a multibillion-dollar dispute with Native American tribes that had lingered for more than a decade.

Throughout his tenure, Salazar tangled with oil companies. He criticized the George W. Bush administration for what he called a "headlong rush" to lease public lands, saying officials treated oil and gas executives as if they were "the kings of the world." Soon after taking office, Salazar suspended 60 of 77 leases in Utah that had been approved under Bush, setting a confrontational tone that would continue the next four years.

Jim Noe, an oil executive and head of a shallow-water drilling coalition, said Wednesday that Salazar's actions "hurt the industry, thousands of workers and the small businesses and communities that depend upon them. We hope that future leadership at the Interior Department will be able to take a more balanced approach to natural resource development."

Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said Salazar worked to strike a balance between responsible energy development and vital environmental protection.

Salazar set a sound foundation for solar and wind power on federal lands, while protecting areas where development does not make sense, Beinecke said.

Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune hailed Salazar for opening seven new national parks and 10 wildlife refuges while protecting Arctic areas from offshore drilling.

Salazar's leadership "has helped put our nation on a path where protecting our natural legacy and wild lands is a priority, not an afterthought," Brune said.