Desert Protective Council News Archive

Suit to End Era of Ruinous ORV Open-Riding at Ocotillo Wells

Posted May 21, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

March 2011.
Photo taken in area of the park where drivers are officially only allowed on designated trails.

For Immediate Release:  Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Suit to End Era of Ruinous ORV Open-Riding at Ocotillo Wells

State Parks Abdicated Duty to Protect Fragile Desert and Archaeological Resources  

Sacramento — The California Department of Parks & Recreation has let off-road vehicles run amok in its largest off-road park, in violation of state resource protection laws, according to a lawsuit filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Desert Protective Council (DPC). If successful, the suit would end ORV “open-riding” beyond designated trails and require the park to implement strategies to protect the park’s rich archaeological resources and desert environment.

Read more... | |

Wind Turbine Blade Throw Incident At Ocotillo Wind Project

Posted May 18, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

On May 16th a 173 foot long wind turbine blade crashed to the ground at Pattern Energy’s $600 million Ocotillo Wind Project in the desert town of Ocotillo. The blade landed approximately 100 yards from the turbine, blocking a jeep trail on public BLM land.

In a press release Donna Tisdale stated, “This wholly avoidable public health and safety hazard occurred just one day after San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved the revised Wind Energy Ordinance & Boulevard Community Plan to remove community protections to allow 500 foot tall industrial wind turbines on private land in previously protected areas near homes, recreation areas, and sensitive wildlife—just like the BLM did for Pattern Energy’s Ocotillo Wind—despite pleas from adversely impacted community members over valid and justified safety concerns.”

Read more... | |

Marie Barrett Reports on Alamo River Wetlands Restoration Project

Posted April 30, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Marie Barrett, Desert Wildlife Unlimited Coordinator and DPC Member reported on improvement and restoration of critical wetlands habitat in Imperial Valley.

On Saturday, April 27, 2013 from 8 to 10 AM, Imperial Valley students, parents, and associated volunteers traveled to the Alamo River Wetlands. The volunteers participated in a fun morning improving the Alamo River wetlands wildlife habitat and water quality (and the Salton Sea) by planting bulrushes along the banks of treatment cells.

Read more... | |

Native American Heritage Commission Hearing - April 22, 2013 Update

Posted April 26, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Ocotillo desert 2012, prior to wind project construction

Monday April 22nd, the California Native American Heritage Commission conducted a long-postponed public hearing on the impacts to cultural and historic resources from the 12,000-acre Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility.

During the hearing on Monday, held in the State of California Office Building in downtown San Diego, the Commissioners listened to three and a half hours of heartfelt and eloquent testimony. Close to thirty Native Americans and a number of other concerned citizens spoke on the spiritual importance of the Ocotillo area. The Desert Protective Council’s conservation coordinator, Terry Weiner, also delivered comments in support of the tribe’s petition.

Read more... | |

Energy Projects, Fracking and the “Rights of Mother Earth”

Posted April 16, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

From Lush Desert to Construction Zone.

Activist San Diego held their General Meeting on April 15th at the Joyce Beers Community Center, San Diego, CA.  They invited communities to “Come & listen to what local environmentalists have to say on the most crucial issues of our time & discuss their own experiences & thoughts, from energy & climate change to the international movement protecting the Earth’s life sustaining ecosystems.”

Terry Wiener, Desert Protective Council’s Imperial County Conservation Coordinator, was among the speakers at the event…

Read more... | |

Ocotillo Wind Energy Project April 2013 Update

Posted April 12, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Ocotillo Desert 2012 prior to wind project construction

Update by Terry Weiner
On Wednesday April 3 2013, the Desert Protective Council’s Attorney filed a Notice of Appeal to the U.S 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 9th of Judge Alonzo P. Curiel. The Judge’s decision on February 27 2013 was against the Desert Protective Council’s complaint against the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management and Pattern Energy for the Ocotillo Wind Energy Project.

Meanwhile 94 of the slated 112 turbines have been erected and the blades on some are occasionally turning. Our colleagues and friends, who live in Ocotillo, have been documenting the daily wind speeds since December. Generally the wind speeds are such that they do not meet the minimum wind speed threshold for producing energy, thus often when the turbines are turning they are actually using fossil fuel energy from the San Diego Gas and Electric substation on the Ocotillo Wind site!

Read more... | |

March 2013 - The Southern Desert is Beginning to Bloom!

Posted March 29, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Desert Mallow (spheralcia) in Algodones Dunes

Desert flower-seekers, if you are planning to visit the Colorado Desert in San Diego and Imperial County to see what is blooming—the time is now!

Between March 19th and March 24th, DPC’s Conservation Coordinator, Terry Weiner, visited Ocotillo, the Algodones Dunes Wilderness, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. She was kind enough to pass along this wildflower report accompanied by beautiful photos.

Read more... | |

Winter / Spring 2013 El Paisano is Here!

Posted March 23, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Our most recent El Paisano newsletter and Educational Bulletin are now available for your reading pleasure!

Read more... | |

San Diego Regional Publishers, Diana and Lowell Lindsay Receive Media Award

Posted March 19, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Louise Torio presents award to Diana Lindsay

The Congress of History of San Diego and Imperial Counties has named San Diego regional publishers Diana and Lowell Lindsay as the recipient of their Media Award. They were presented with the award at the 2013 History Conference held this year in Vista, California. The award was given in recognition of their contributions to the preservation of “The History of this Region” through their publishing house, Sunbelt Publications.

Read more... | |

Salton Basin Living Laboratory Field Trip to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Paleo Lab

Posted March 12, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Salton Basin Living Laboratory Field Trip to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Paleo Lab on March 5, 2013
by Terry Weiner

In years past the Desert Protective Council has conducted fall teacher training workshops in our Salton Basin Living Laboratory Program and funded buses for the Imperial Valley field trips to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. But this spring, several of our veteran SBLL teachers took the initiative to find funding for bus transportation and recruit parent volunteers to car-pool students for the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Field trip. Using our SBLL official Field Trip Workbook, Susan Millan and Marilyn McAlister of Sunflower Elementary, and Terri Shiffer from the El Centro School District Home Schooling Program, brought their fourth and fifth grade students to Anza-Borrego and to the Anza-Borrego Paleo Lab.

Read more... | |

Fighting the Sahara Mustard Invasion - A DPC Funded Project

Posted March 11, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Pulling sexually mature Sahara mustard. (Brassica tournefortii)

Desert Protective Council has long funded the fight against this weedy invader, which threatens to overrun the Southwest, wiping out acres of iconic wildflowers displays and harming the region’s overall biodiversity.

In the U-T San Diego article: Sahara Mustard Invasion Threatens Wildflowers, Deborah Sullivan Brennan reports…‘the Sahara mustard is scattered from Oceanside to Del Mar to Imperial Beach, from California to Texas to Utah. But perhaps its best-known site of encroachment is the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, where the plant is crowding out more and more stands of native wildflowers that splash the hillsides with an artist’s palette of color.’

Read more... | |

Environmental Justice and Coachella Valley

Posted March 5, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

23rd February 2013, Thermal. Desert Mirage High School

by Christina Lange

Learning to Harness the Sun

The inaugural Environmental Leadership Health Summit took place on February 23rd, 2013 as part of an environmental justice movement in the Eastern Coachella Valley. This part of the desert struggles with poverty, bad air and water quality, high unemployment, high levels of asthma, a receding Salton Sea, high levels of Arsenic in well water, pesticide spraying, and the list goes on and on. A far cry from the glitzy, ritzy bright lights that are shining over the golf courses just due West in the other half of the Valley. 

Read more... | |

Suits Against Ocotillo Wind Project Dismissed by Judge

Posted March 4, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a U.S. District Court judge, has dismissed two legal challenges to a wind energy project outside the small desert town of Ocotillo, CA.

Desert Protective Council spearheaded a lawsuit disputing a 10,000 acre right of way for the wind plant, granted by the Bureau of Land Management, as well as related amendments made to the California Desert Conservation Area.

Read more... | |

Leading Bird Group Wants the New DOI Secretary to Review Possible Revised Rule

Posted February 19, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Bald Eagle by George Gentry USFWS

Leading Bird Group Wants the New Department of the Interior Secretary to Review Possible Revised Rule Weakening Eagle Protections for Wind Industry
by Terry Weiner

In a press release February 19, 2013, the American Bird Conservancy called on the Department of Interior to suspend further consideration of a revised rule that would weaken protections provided to eagles pursuant to the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act by allowing private companies to apply for an unprecedented 30-year permit to kill these iconic species http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/releases/130219a.html

Read more... | |

Public Land Activists Sue Interior Department

Posted February 12, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

Public Land Activists Sue Interior Department on Plan to Keep Millions of Acres Open for Industrial Solar Development.

February 12, 2013 - Three public-interest environmental organizations have filed a legal challenge against Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s decision to keep millions of acres of public land available to industry for siting of destructive utility-scale solar plants. In the complaint filed Tuesday, Western Lands Project, Desert Protective Council,and Western Watersheds Project cited the government’s failure to consider alternatives that would focus solar development on degraded lands and in the already-built environment. The government’s analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) ignored alternative approaches that would be less damaging to the environment, more efficient, and less costly to taxpayers and ratepayers.

Read more... | |

An Interview with Terry Weiner, of the Desert Protective Council by Jim Stiles

Posted February 1, 2013 by Indy Quillen. Categories:

TERRY WEINER is our Conservation Coordinator here at Desert Protective Council. DPC is one of a relative handful of environmental groups that has openly expresed concerns and frustration with the ongoing massive development of alternative energy projects that being planned and built across the American West. Jim Stiles of THE ZEPHYR interviewed Terry about those concerns…

Read more... | |