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- Desert News, June 10
Desert News, June 10
It's hot.
May 28
Tourist rescued from cliff in Death Valley
A 32-year-old visitor from Canada who was apparently having a very bad day at Death Valley National Park left a bus tour at Artist’s Palette, intending to walk into the desert and not return. She was found, still alive, on an unstable slope north of the popular site. After several failed attempts to reach her, she was hoisted to safety by a California Highway Patrol helicopter a day after she left her group.
May 30
Nevada’s parks, wildlife projects likely to benefit from $350M in federal land sales
The controversial Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act of 1998 enabled the sale of public lands near Las Vegas to allow increased development in the area. More than $300 million of the recent proceeds will likely be devoted to improvements and repairs at state and national parks in Nevada.
Lake Mead Water Level Has Zero Risk of Falling Below 1,000 Feet Before 2028
Two recent wet winters have offered a reprieve of sorts for Lake Mead, which would have to curtail power production at Hoover Dam’s turbines if the lake level drops into the triple digits.
May 31
Great Salt Lake likely peaks for the year and will start dropping again
At 4195 feet above sea level at the end of May, the Great Salt Lake is unlikely to rise any higher this year. The peak lake levels are just six feet above an historic low recorded in 2022. Seasonal variation in lake levels historically run about two feet, but in an era of climate change historic normals might be aspirational at best.
June 1
As extreme heat kills more Nevadans, OSHA bets on worker protections
Nevada’s Clark County counted 307 heat-related deaths last year, a more than 80 percent increase over 2022. A bill to require employers to protect workers from extreme heat died in the state legislature last session, but Nevada’s OSHA is working on regulations to force companies to do the right thing.
June 2
Joshua Tree National Park seeks public comment on proposed camping, tour fee increases
The National Park Service is considering increasing fees for campground use and ranger-led tours of the popular Keys Ranch. Under the Federal Lands and Recreation Enhancement Act, parks are able to keep their fees comparable to those visitors would pay for similar services offered by non-NPS companies. the proposed increases would see fees for campsites rising from $15-25 (the current fees for individual campsites) to between $25 and $35, while group campsite fees would edge up to $55 per night.
June 4
Here’s what Nye County just did in response to ‘grave concerns’ about water
After the Canadian firm Rover Critical Minerals filed more than 400 mining claims in the community of Amargosa Valley, Nye County’s usually mining-friendly County Commission unanimously endorsed a call for a mineral withdrawal in the area, which would prevent new claims on federal land.
Full disclosure: The campaign for a mineral withdrawal is spearheaded by the Amargosa Conservancy, which counts Desert Advocacy Media Network’s Chris Clarke among its Directors. 90 Miles from Needles recently spoke with Amargosa Conservancy’s Executive Director Mason Voehl about the campaign.
Containment and Care in the Sonoran Desert
Discussion of migration and movement across the US-Mexico border often characterizes the deserts of the borderlands as unremittingly dangerous places. Migrants do indeed face serious risk in the desert, but Reineke cites arguments that the danger is a creation of settler culture.
June 5
Las Vegas City Council passes ordinance to ban outdoor balloon releases
Sin City’s City Council voted 4-3 on June 5 to approve a ban on deliberate releases of lighter-than-air balloons within the city limits. Most of the impetus for the ban came from the spate of blackouts and other power grid issues caused when mylar balloons become entangled in power lines and transformers. But LV resident Christian Daniels of the Desert Balloon Project (who was interviewed by 90 Miles from Needles in 2022) lauded the ban for its likely boost to his efforts to keep wildlife from mistaking the colorful trash for food. “I wrote letters to businesses who sell balloons and asked for an educational message to be posted and or attached to the string and not one answered me,” Daniels said on Facebook.
BLM finalizes target-shooting ban on most of Arizona monument
In a big win for conservationists and animal welfare advocates, the BLM is seeking to ban target shooting on more than 95 percent of the Sonoran Desert National Monument in Arizona.
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How the changing landscape of the Sonoran Desert has made it more at risk for wildfires
An interview with Ben Wilder, the director of Next Generation Sonoran Desert Researchers, covers the landscape-level changes that are bringing more and bigger fires to the Sonoran Desert. Chief among those changes is an onslaught of flammable invasive plants, but an increase in ignitions from human activities and climate-enhanced storms also plays a role.
Lithium is part of Nevada’s future. Can it be mined sustainably?
Environmentalists weigh in at a committee hearing in Carson City about how to ensure Nevada can produce lithium with the least possible environmental damage.
Utah cities hit a snag as they write plans to reuse wastewater flowing to the Great Salt Lake
Utah regulators received a flood of applications for permits to use treated wastewater from users seeking to get in ahead of a new law that strictly limits that reuse. The law was intended to make sure that the Great Salt Lake continues to receive treated wastewater, and critics of the rush of applications worry that the permits would divert that wastewater from the lake and to other uses, such as irrigation and industrial use.
Santa Cruz County (AZ) Submits Extensive Hermosa Scoping Comments to Forest Service
County officials have significant concerns about a proposed magnesium and zinc mine in the Patagonia Mountains.
June 6
California County Tells People to Avoid Gas Stations
The Imperial County Air Pollution Control District advised local residents to procrastinate on filling their gas tanks, and to refrain from using certain household chemicals, as ozone in the Imperial Valley’s air hovered at dangerous levels. The county, along with most of the Southwest, faced dangerous heat in the last week, which increases ozone formation when the atmosphere reacts with certain chemicals.
Migrants from around the world traverse California desert to reach US
The desert portion of San Diego County sees a jump in numbers of migrants seeking asylum at the border. Reuters reporters talk to migrants from around the world.
BLM Seeks Input for San Rafael Swell Travel Management Plan
The Bureau of Land Management wants public comment on its plan for regulating off-road vehicle traffic and other uses of the highly scenic San Rafael Swell area in central Utah.
16,400 petitions submitted to President Biden asking for new California monument
The petitions urge the Biden administration to designate about 660,000 acres of California desert lands south and east of Joshua Tree National Park as a new Chuckwalla National Monument.
Indy Environment: Wildfires, cheatgrass have Nevada feeling the need for seed
Wildfire can convert healthy stands of sagebrush to invasive cheatgrass monocultures, but replanting native plant seed after fire can mitigate the wirst of the cheatgrass incursion into burned areas. Problem is, Nevada doesn’t have a lot of people gathering and preserving native plant seed, which means replanting is often done with seeds from other, cooler climates. The resulting plants often don’t do as well in Nevada’s more arid, warmer environs.
June 9
Cadiz Inc. exploits Latinos in scheme that could destroy desert
An Op-Ed raises some stinging criticisms of the deceptive divide-and-conquer tactics of the notorious Cadiz, Inc. water mining proposal’s backers.