Desert News, May 27

Drought, suckers, and stinknet

May 27, 2024

May 21

Mining company doubles down on harming Ash Meadows

Instead of being chastened by public opposition to the company’s plans to drill lithium exploration boreholes on the doorstep of Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Rover Critical Minerals has raised the ante by filing at least 400 mining claims in the region, frightening locals with the prospect of open pit mines near their homes.

This county is California’s harshest charging ‘desert’ for electric cars. Local activists want to change that

The grassroots environmental justice group Comite Civico del Valle is pushing for more electric car chargers in Imperial County, California’s poorest county — and a likely source of most of the state’s lithium, used in electric car batteries. Activists fear that their communities will be overlooked as the rest of the state electrifies transportation.

May 22

The tiny Calif. state park foreshadowing Joshua Tree National Park's future

A close look at Saddleback Butte State Park, whose western Joshua trees are on the knife-edge of local extinction.

Here’s how much water is flowing to the Great Salt Lake as the snow melts

Between October 1, 2023 and May 19, nearly 1.62 million acre-feet of water flowed into the lake, data from the U.S. Geological Survey shows. That’s 37 percent more than a “normal” year.

Mojave Desert hydrogen plant largest ever built

The SoHyCal renewable hydrogen plant in Lancaster CA, in the heart of the West Mojave, can produce three tons of hydrogen per day using solar electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

Wildlife Groups Initiate Legal Action: Feds Too Slow To Protect Sonoran Desert Tortoise

The environmental groups WildEarth Guardians, Western Watersheds Project, the Desert Tortoise Council, and the Tucson Herpetological Society have filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue with the US Fish and Wildlife Service over FWS’s refusal to protect the Sonoran desert tortoise, which has declined significantly since being declared a distinct species from the Mojave Desert tortoise a decade ago.

What happened to Arizona’s ‘fireproof’ desert—and what can be done

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Invasive plants are making Sonoran Desert fires burn more frequently and longer, study says

A study shows that introduced and invasive plant species have changed the Sonoran Desert from a biome largely immune to destructive wildfires into a frequently burning grassland. (This story isn’t new, though the study is. Certain observers you may know have been making this call for decades now.)

Most Nevada reservoirs at 80 percent capacity or more

A good snowpack year is raising Nevada water forecasters’ spirits.

How to stay safe at Lake Mead, one of the country’s deadliest national parks

Good safety tips for visitors to Lake Mead, which has seen between 20 and 30 fatalities a year for most of this century.

May 23

Good news for desert tortoises: Stretch of Mojave Desert gets federal protections

More than three million acres of the Mojave Desert in California has been declared a “sentinel landscape” dedicated to protection of the Mojave desert tortoise, as well as other rare, threatened, and/or endangered species. The Department of Defense supports this move, which covers land surrounded by half a dozen military bases, out of concern that rampant development and uncoordinated management will extirpate species outside of the bases, forcing the military to act as the sole custodian for the beleaguered species.

May 24

Invasive Plant is Causing Concern in the Sonoran Desert

Stinknet, Oncosiphon pilulifer, is a close relative of chamomile which, unlike its kin, smells terrible and reproduces so quickly that it can smother entire counties’ worth of native desert plants. Native to southern Africa, the plant was first observed in the US in the 1980s between San Diego and Los Angeles, making an appearance in Arizona in the early years of this century.

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When is monsoon season? El Pasoans should expect below-average rainfall in 2024

About two thirds of El Paso’s average nine inches of annual rain generally comes during the summer monsoon months. This year is expected to be significantly drier, with perhaps as little as two inches falling from June through September. The culprits: the end of El Niño and the overall drought.

Artist paints razorback sucker mural at Moab Information Center

A mural project featuring Utah wildlife has come to Moab, the fifth Utah town to host wall-sized images of native wildlife. The Moab artwork celebrates the endangered razorback sucker, a fish native to the Colorado River basin whose numbers have been severely hurt by dams and other industrialization of the watershed. The project aims to create similar murals in each of Utah’s 29 counties.

May 26

Air quality alert issued for Maricopa County

The National Weather Service issued an air quality alert for Maricopa County starting at 9:08 a.m. May 26. The warning expires at 9 p.m. May 28.

The quest to save El Paso’s diminished wetlands

An in-depth look at the campaign to save the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park south of El Paso, which 90 Miles from Needles covered in early May.