DesertBlog

The Desert Protective Council needs you

As the tax year draws to a close, it’s time for us to as you to consider joining or renewing your membership in the Desert Protective Council! We’ve had a productive 55th year, and hope you’ll continue to support us in 2010. As a special incentive, we’d like to offer you a gift — a copy of Frank Wheat’s important book California Desert Miracle — with your donation of $100 or more.

The threats to our beloved deserts have never been more urgent, from misguided industrial solar proposals to climate change to rampant abuse by off-road vehicles. Thankfully, your contributions allowed us to expand our role as a leading voice for southern California’s deserts in 2009:

• We sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service for reducing critical habitat for the endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep.
• We worked with other national conservation groups to map out areas of the desert that deserve permanent protection from industrial solar development.
• We have been closely involved in crafting the language for Senator Feinstein’s pending California Desert Wilderness, Recreation and National Monument Bill.
• We monitored and recorded ongoing off-road vehicle damage to the threatened Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area’s fragile and irreplaceable natural and cultural resources.
• We chaired a state-wide committee working to improve management of off-road vehicles on both public and private lands.
• We submitted expert comments, participated in public meetings, and held public forums on many crucial issues facing the desert, including air pollution, off-road vehicle abuse, and inappropriate industrial and energy development.

Our commitment to Environmental Education has strengthened in 2009. Our unique Salton Basin Living Laboratory curriculum, which immerses Imperial students in the natural and human history of the landscape they inhabit, has met with resounding approval from teachers, students, and parents. We coordinated workshops and training field trips for 4th-6th grade teachers and will be working with the Imperial County Science Resource Center to expand support of the program throughout the county. We provided support for the Parks Online for Teachers Program, bringing programs from the Paleo Lab and the field in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to more and more Imperial County classrooms.

Of course, education doesn’t end when you leave school. And in 2009, we at the DPC have ramped up our work to educate the public about crucial desert issues. DPC’s staff have appeared in press coverage of desert energy development by news organizations as far afield as Swedish public radio — and on NPR, closer to home. We set up public presentations throughout southern California by author George Wuerthner based on his book Thrillcraft – the Environmental Consequences of Motorized Recreation.  We continue to send out our newletter, El Paisano, and its accompanying Educational Bulletins. Our DesertBlog continues to increase in readership, as has our Twitter feed, “@DesertBlog,” which provides readers with up-to-the-minute links to breaking desert news and thoughtful commentary. We’ve also established a thriving presence on Facebook, and plan to bring our important message to a new generation of desert activists in that important venue.

We’re proud of these accomplishments, and we’ve accomplished them without a gigantic budget. And we expect to accomplish even more in 2010, from modernizing our website to sponsoring the annual desert climate change conference in the Morongo Basin.

DPC puts your dues and other contributions to incredibly effective use to protect our precious desert landscapes. But we do have some overhead. While we have considerable capital to fund projects in Imperial County, none of it can be used for our day-to-day operations or for projects outside Imperial County. Printing and mailing El Paisano, Educational Bulletins and brochures; keeping our website running; addressing threats that affect all deserts, such as off-road vehicles and energy development – none of these can happen without your ongoing support.

As a special bonus, if you contribute $100 or more, we’ll send you a copy of California Desert Miracle: The Fight for Desert Parks and Wilderness,Frank Wheat’s stirring and informative history of the epochal California Desert Protection Act of 1994. Wheat, a former DPC advisory board member, describes how committed activists got the Act through Congress despite filibusters, “holds,” and other legislative mechanisms of delay and destruction arrayed against it. This story will become only more relevant in 2010, as we work to improve and enact Senator Feinstein’s desert protection bill.

I hope you’ll not only join or renew at the highest level possible, but also consider an additional donation to support our programs. With your support, at whatever level, DPC will be able to protect the desert landscapes we all love.

Sincerely,

Chris Clarke
Communications Coordinator

P.S.: Have you remembered the Desert Protective Council in your estate planning? If you are older than 70, you can make rollover contributions from your IRA to DPC, without triggering federal income taxes (check with your financial advisor or tax attorney for more information).