Colorado Desert District Newsletter · with an Extreme Birding Tour around Salton Sea in search of migrating wood storks. Flood-ing from the previous day closed roadways and made

Colorado Desert District Newsletter T R A C K S

September 2012

Inside this issue

Having fun in Idaho, Page 10

What’s up there? Page 12

ABDSP hit by flash floods then ravaged by wildfires

District’s newest, Page 6

(Continued on Page 8)

Photo by John Peterson A sign welcoming visitors to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (above) is surrounded by water after a storm caused flash flooding July 30. The Wilson Fire on August 14 gives an ominous background to another sign welcoming visitors to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Photo by Gail Sevrens

Flash floods swept across the desert July 30, causing damage and temporary road closures and sweeping two vehicles down-stream in washes in ABDSP. Two men were rescued by AS-TREA, the Sheriff Department’s helicopter, after their pickup truck was washed down Fish Creek while they took shelter in

Page 2

Picacho State Recreation Area

From the desk of Ranger Sue Barney: Picacho has been bustling with activity as we

work to clean up from the “Friday the 13th” flash flood. Cleanup has included miles and miles of road grading, removal of mountains of sand that filled in the lower dock, hauling in more than ten loads of rip rap to reinforce the launch ramp, locating and digging out Park signs, delineating campsites and tending to the 200 new mesquite plantings and tangle of drip lines.

Imperial County road crews have been working on the 18-mile dirt road that leads into the Park, but there remain several stretches of deep soft sand that presented some challenges getting equipment in and out of the Park.

We were fortunate that the next big storm

that came through missed the Park so cleanup efforts were not derailed. District Equipment Operator Gregg Johnson and SSSRA’s Mainte-nance Chief I Chad Rowan have been doing a tremendous job with the efforts to get things back in order.


LOG JAM: Notes from the District, sectors

Photos by Sue Barney District Equipment Operator Gregg Johnson works to reestablish Picacho Road. Cleanup has included grading all roads in and around the main campground as well as the ten-mile road to the north end of the Park and out Indian Pass to the Park boundary.

Loads of rip rap (above) were hauled into PSRA to be used to reinforce the launch ramp and the road to the lower dock to help reduce damages in future floods. And now the good news: Mother Nature responds to the flooding with a forest of new growth (below). Within a week mesquite and palo verde seedlings sprouted. With the removal of non-native salt cedar and with drip lines already in place for the recently planted trees, some of the seedlings will have a fight-ing chance (if they can fend off the hungry rabbits, feral burros and extreme heat).


Page 3

LOG JAM: District, sector notes (cont.)

(Continued from Page 2)


Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

The Volunteer Potluck will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, September 18, at the home of Sam and Astrid Webb, 829 Santa Saba Court. Bring a complete place setting, a beverage, a potluck dish to share and a chair. District and ABDSP staff are encouraged to attend these func-tions—a chance to interact and show apprecia-tion to the incredible volunteers who are so vital to Parks. From Christmas Circle take Bor-rego Springs Road south to Rango Way. Turn left and proceed three blocks to Santa Saba Road. Turn left and go one block to Santa Saba Court and turn right.

From the desk of Ranger Jeri Zemon: A father and son went hiking up to the wind

caves (despite flashflood warnings and building clouds) July 30. They got caught in the center of the storm and took refuge in a wind cave for about an hour. When the storm passed, they

saw Fish Creek was really running. It washed their truck downstream about two miles. They were rescued by ASTREA, the Sheriff Depart-ment's helicopter. A very cautionary tale! (See page 8.)

From the desk of Ranger Steve Bier: September has arrived and with it more fire

scars (see page 1). Several lightning strike fires consumed Park land along Pinyon Ridge and Grapevine Canyon, as well as Park land in the Scissors Crossing area. Another fire near Vallecito Ranch also burned Park land.

The community of Ranchita was spared any

damage to buildings, but had a mandatory evacuation order as all roads leading west from Borrego Springs also remained closed. These fires come on the heals of several flash flood events that redirected several backcountry roads. The Fish Creek area was especially hard hit when a summer monsoon event scoured both the north fork and main fork of the creek (see below).

Photo by Sue Barney Picacho State Recreation Area’s Park Main-tenance Assistant Georgia Schneider works to untangle the drip lines washed out with the “Friday the 13th” flooding.

Photo by Jeri Zemon Just a few hours ago this was a decent vehi-cle. After a flash flood took it for a trip down Fish Creek, the pickup wasn’t in such great condition. No one was in it when the flood happened.

Page 4



While this incident was one of the worst for the flood events, the pickup was not the only vehicle affected. In other locations throughout the Park, visitors attempted flowing water crossings, only to have their vehicles swept away.

One elderly driver rode piggy back on a sher-iff’s deputy after his vehicle was swept off the roadway near Font's Wash. His vehicle was re-covered the next day, with minimal mud and water damage. In attempting to cross, other motorists had to abandon their vehicles after cars stalled and were pushed to the road shoul-der by water.

Luckily, there was no loss of life in any of these events, and rangers were able to stop oth-ers from making similar attempts.

The flood events were not all bad. Within days of the floods, the heat and humidity brought out wildlife not seen in the summer desert for more than ten years. Fairy shrimp, little crustaceans that lay as dormant cysts (dry eggs) in the sand, sprang to life. Nearly every pool or roadside puddle that lasted five or more days was full of life. The thumb-sized Triops, or tadpole shrimp, was fast consuming the large beaver-tailed shrimp and clam shrimp that swam among them.

Other water predators such as giant water

beetles and boatmen descended from the skies to partake of the swimming treats.

Speaking of treats, the International Ranger

Day Ice Cream Social handed out treats to about 30 visitors who came by the Visitor Cen-


Photo by Franz Boschiero Elusive and seldom seen because it only blooms in the summer after rainfall, the common fishhook cactus, Mammillaria tetranscistra, blooms near Highway S-22.

Photos by Steve Bier Flooding at the end of

July brought hatching in the warm water pools left along Highway 78. Triops, a large orange-tailed fairy shrimp and two kinds of clam shrimp made an appearance, along with several large water bugs and back swim-mers.

Page 5



ter to help us celebrate World Ranger Day July 31. The day-long event started bright and early with an Extreme Birding Tour around Salton Sea in search of migrating wood storks. Flood-ing from the previous day closed roadways and made some dirt roads impassable, but the group recorded 56 species, including one adult wood stork who gave the group a really great flyby.

Salton Sea State Recreation Area

From the desk of Interpreter I Fredda Stephens:

It has been a real roller coaster ride this year at the Salton Sea, but we are happy that

we are now good to go for another season. I have been on vacation this past month and

have been lucky to visit a number of State Parks on my journey up to the North Coast.

It has been wonderful to see the parks in the middle of their busy season, park aides taking care of business and—most importantly—visitors enjoying their families and their summer vacations. It is nice to see normal after all that has transpired.

Once again, we are happy to be thinking more of interpretation rather than just staying open and alive. We have big plans for the up-coming year.

First on the list is another fall kayak trip to Picacho State Recreation Area. The trip two years ago was such a success. There is nothing more beautiful than the Colorado River at that time of year.

We are hoping to set it up really soon and have a flyer out shortly.

Again we are taking advantage of our re-


Photo by Jim Dascoulias Half-inch hail reports are usually taken with a grain of salt, so Jim Dascoulias measured and photographed a hailstone that fell in CRSP’s Green Valley August 12.

Photo by Fredda Stephens While on vacation, Interpreter I Fredda Stephens saw this old State Park poster on display at the Bothe Napa Valley State Park Visitor Center.

LOG JAM: District, sector notes (cont.) Page 6



sources with the State Park Foundation’s Park Champion Program as soon as the weather cools. We will be working on our old Iron-wood trail by replacing some of the markers and plants, and creating a new self-guided bro-chure.

Volunteers are needed to help. Call the Visi-tor Center at (760) 393-3810 for more infor-mation and the date.

Palomar Mountain State Park

From the desk of Senior Park Aide Daniel Minshew:

With the recent scent of smoke and burning landscape gliding through the mountain air, it is refreshing to find the smell of summer rain overtaking the senses.

But did you know that the sweet smell of summer rain is actually caused by bacteria? As it turns out Actinomycetes, a type of filamen-tous bacteria, occurs in soil when conditions are damp and warm. When the soil dries out, the bacteria produces spores in the soil. The

wetness and force of rainfall kick these tiny spores up into the air where the moisture after a rain acts as an aerosol (just like an aerosol air freshener).

The moist air easily carries the spores to us so we breathe them in. These spores have a unique, earthy smell we often associate with rainfall. The bacteria are extremely common and can be found in areas all over the world, which accounts for the universality of this sweet "after-the-rain" smell. Since the bacteria thrives in moist soil, but releases the spores once the soil dries out, the smell is most acute after a rain that follows a dry spell.

The cooler, wetter weather received August

17 is offering us a reprieve from the harsh hu-mid temperatures that have engulfed most of our days and nights over the past week and a half.

Typically folks down in the flatlands come up to the Park to escape the wretched warm weather that unkindly greets us during the sum-

Photo by Nicole Van Doren Peacefully sleeping, the District’s newest baby, Tyler Van Doren, is now eight weeks old. He was born to ABDSP Ranger Nicole and her husband, OWSVRA’s Maintenance Mechanic Chad, at 5:22 p.m. July 16.

Photos by Robin Halford

While on a flat tail horned lizard survey, Vol-unteer Robin Halford came across this beautiful example. The spines along its body as well as the fierce-looking horns on its head are clearly visible in these shots.

Page 7


guished before they caused any severe damage or threat to the local wildlife or people.

All three fires were first spotted and re-ported by the lookout tower at High Point which is located to the north east of PMSP by the Palomar Observatory. It was the volunteers who spotted and reported the fires, and expe-dited the response time of fire crews.

It’s invaluable to have resources such as the CALFIRE Tower Lookout Association active and manning these fire towers.

Our own fire tower (Boucher Lookout) here at PMSP is undergoing the necessary preparations to once again be staffed and op-erational.

Photos by Steve Bier Just trying to get across the road, a red diamond rattlesnake approaches the group of stu-dents who were collecting tilapia from the Salton Sea (see photo below). Adult red dia-monds typically measure from 2.5 to 5 feet in length and large ones can weigh more than five pounds.

mer months; but not the case this year, as tem-peratures have peaked into the mid-’90s and on most days has been hotter and more humid than the local foothills.

Mid-August Mother Nature was only teasing us as we had all the right ingredients for a wet summer storm, but only thunder and lightning came to fruition.

We narrowly escaped a potential disaster when lightning struck throughout the Park and across the county August 9. Thanks to the swift actions of our local Fire Department and the Cleveland National Forest Fire Department, the fires ignited on Palomar Mountain were extin-


Under the supervision of the California Depart-ment of Fish and Game Biologist Jack Crayon from Bermuda Dunes (far right), a group of stu-dents catch tilapia near the Visitor Center at the SSSRA. The students, from California State Uni-versity at Sacramento, are performing a salt tol-erance test study to see at what point the popula-tion might crash.

Page 8

Flash floods’ memory is dulled by wildfire

the wind caves (see pages 3 and 9). Another car was washed south of S-22 at Font’s Point Wash. The passenger was not injured and the vehicle was only slightly damaged (see photo below, right).

Thunderheads from Mexico brought the downpours and according to the National Weather Service (NWS), there were approxi-mately 1,000 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes during a five-hour period.

August 12 more lightning strikes caused four fires in and near ABDSP. More than 22,230 acres were burned between Highway 78 and S-22 and east of Ranchita.

The fires burned for days and covered Bor-rego Springs with smoke. Much of the land in and around Culp Valley, Pinyon Ridge and Grapevine Canyon was burned in that blaze. Continued thunderstorms worried backcountry residents as the monsoon season drug on, with high humidity making it very unpleasant.


Water with obvious waves turns Inspiration Wash into a powerful river.

Photos by John Peterson A truck driver slowly drives across Font’s Point Wash, the weight of his semi making it less likely he will be washed downstream.

Flash flooding forms deep dropoffs and washes where there were none before.

A car sits downstream of the highway in Font’s Point Wash.


Name your favorite books so we can read them too!

Page 9

More than 22,230 acres were burned (cont.) (Continued from Page 8)

Photo at left by John Peterson Photo above by Jeri Zemon

When it’s over and the clouds head east (left), a beautiful sunrise ends the day. Two people were caught in the wind caves when the storm hit Fish Creek. The flash flood took their vehicle downstream (above) and they were airlifted out by the Sheriff Department’s helicopter (see page 3).

Photos 1—3 by Franz Boschiero (1) Flames and fire light Pinyon Ridge and the night sky above ABDSP’s employee housing. (2) Smoke billows up, beginning to fill Borrego Valley. (3) At times there were large streaks of smoke across the sky and on other days, smoke just hung, thick and oppressive.

1 2

3

Library volunteers prepare for new software for us

Volunteer librarians are learning t There is a self-check out sheet on a shelf on

the west side of the library (619) 318-1126 or and instructions on how to use the computer if no one is there.

Page 10

By Dr. L. K. Murray, Paleontologist

Although August typically is the annual low-point in activity at the District’s Stout Research Center (DSRC), that does not mean the Paleon-tology Society (PS) volunteers are idle.

Every summer a large group of volunteers gather at a series of pre-planned paleontology venues elsewhere, so far, strictly in North America. In past years they have met at the Walcott Burgess Shale beds in British Columbia, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the American Museum in New York.

This summer the itinerary is focused on Idaho paleontology, including American Falls and the Idaho Museum of Natural History and vari-ous paleontology localities and collections. Sev-eral of the field trips and tours will be hosted by local geologists, interpretive staff and other pro-fessionals. Watch this space for future details and photographs to be provided by returning participants.

August 17, PS Volunteer Steven Byrum pre-sented his poster for the summer internship he undertook at the DSRC. The presentation took place at San Diego State University East Com-

Paleontology Volunteer presents paper

mons and was attended by PS Volunteer Norm Gallagher (who, as a fellow San Diegan shared many a ride to and from ABDSP with Steven, especially during paleontology certification training) and me.

Approximately 58 local San Diego under-graduate students participated in this yearly MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) program to provide students di-rect experience with science and technology-based companies and government agencies. MESA is an NSF (National Science Foundation)-funded program with local participating schools: San Diego State University, Southwest College and San Diego City College.

Steven’s project, under my supervision as District Paleontologist, involved describing and measuring every conceivable dimension of jaws and teeth of fossil (from ABDSP) and modern (mostly from ABDSP) canids (wolves, coyotes, and foxes).

Photo by Lyn Murray Paleontology Society Volunteer Steve Byrum stands with his poster on identification of canids through examination of fossilized teeth that he presented at San Diego State University August 17. (Continued on Page 11)

Photo by Lou Bahar ABDSP Paleontology Volunteers learn how to measure and record bison and camel tracks in southern Idaho under the supervi-sion of Mary Thompson whom Lou Bahar calls, “The Unofficial State Paleontologist.”


Page 11

Volunteers visit Idaho this year (continued)

He also was required to read a dozen sources of data, statistical methods and descrip-tions of fossil and modern species of canids, written by paleontologists and naturalists in book, journal and digital formats.

The final product will be a statistically based analysis of measured data and descriptions of ABDSP fossil canids and comparison with simi-larly aged canids from other North American

(Continued from Page 10) fossil localities, in order to determine the gen-era and species identifications of the local fossil canids.

We already have a good idea what they are, but previous identifications are either out of date or were not supported, originally, by ade-quate scientific data. Steven will give a Power-Point presentation to the Paleontology Society next season and the results should be published soon thereafter.

Photo by Lou Bahar Members of the Paleontology Society stand in front of the Idaho Museum of Natural His-tory—just one stop during the latest of their annual summer trips to investigate paleontol-ogy around the country.

Retired Associate State Archaeologist Joan Schneider and Anza-Borrego Foun-dation as well as Colorado Desert Ar-chaeology Society Volunteer Chuck Bennett have returned from Mongolia where they were Earthwatch leaders for the Ikh Nart

Footprints Archaeology Project. Ikh Nart is ABDSP’s sister park.

ABDSP Ranger Steve Bier, Retired ABDSP Superintendent Mark Jorgen-sen and Retired District Superintendent Mike Wells traveled to Mongolia in August.




Page 12

Extreme Birding tour is growing larger By Rebecca Walsh

Reprinted, with permission, from the August 1 edition of The Desert Sun

SALTON SEA — Extreme birding sounds like a contradiction. Pull out a lawn chair and some binoculars, and you're done. But life in the desert is lived amid stark contrasts in tem-perature, exposure and insect activity.

While a day ago the annual Extreme Birding tour at the Salton Sea would have been a swel-tering affair of bugs and sun, on Tuesday, the outing was awash in rain and mud.

Extreme conditions made to order. And the birds cooperated, too.

“A wood stork just flew in,” retired state park superintendent Mark Jorgensen alerted the group of mostly amateur birders to the un-usual native North American stork that makes its way from breeding grounds in Mexico to the manmade lake in the Coachella Valley.

The big white bird has a bare black head and neck.

“Oh, he's really gorgeous,” gushed Denise Zaranski, a city electrical inspector from San Diego. “Isn't this exciting?”

Tuesday's birding tour was officially billed as a quest to see the increasingly rare wood stork. But because it was International Ranger

Day, the second-annual tour was as much about the current and former state park rangers lead-ing it and the wildlife refuges they traversed.

Part interpreters/part boosters, they walked bird watchers with binoculars and umbrellas through ankle-deep mud on a search for the sometimes elusive Pacific Flyway shore birds that stop over at the Salton Sea every spring and summer.

“We work in extreme climes. Our jobs take us into some very hazardous conditions,” said Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Ranger Steve Bier. “This gets people out with a little bit of fun to live the life of a ranger. We're not always in pristine conditions. A lot of it is muck and mud.”

Not for the faint of heart or the sleepy, the early-morning tour slogged past farm fields and CalEnergy Generation's handful of geothermal plants around the southernmost tip of the Sal-ton Sea to Red Hill Marina, the Sonny Bono Na-tional Wildlife Refuge and Obsidian Butte.

“This is an aspect of birding that most people in the United States don't get to do,” Jorgensen


Photo by Jay Calderon The Desert Sun

Retired ABDSP Ranger Bob Theriault looks through a scope and Retired ABDSP Super-intendent Mark Jorgensen looks through bin-oculars during the Extreme Birding Tour at the Salton Sea.


ABDSP Ranger Steve Bier looks for birds flying over the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge July 31. A geothermal plant releases steam in the background.


Page 13

ABF sponsors early morning event (cont.) (Continued from Page 12)

said. “In the desert, there are things to do every day of the year if you're willing to put up with some heat and some bugs.”

“Today, we don't have extreme heat. We don't have extreme smell. But we have extreme road conditions.”

Besides the birds — American white pelicans, black skimmers, Forster's terns, lesser night-hawks, yellow-footed gulls and one great horned owl — the rangers offered lessons in geology, seismology and conservation along the way.

Noting the history of the Salton Sea — which was formed when a canal diverting Colorado River water burst at the turn of the 20th Cen-tury — former Anza- Borrego ranger Bob The-riault says purists have to consider the impact of the place on wildlife now.

“I know people say it's a manmade lake,” he said, lining up his scope. “But all the other places these birds used to go to are gone now.”

Last year, the first tour organized by the Anza-Borrego Foundation nearly died for lack of participation (one bird enthusiast showed up).

This year, nine tagged along with the rangers, a wise-cracking trio of California State Park sys-tem veterans.

“We're growing,” noted Bier, with a smile. Steve and Barbara Barnes left their home in

La Mesa in San Diego County at 1:30 a.m. to make the 4:30 a.m. rendezvous in Imperial County.

The San Diego State professor and admis-sions counselor decided to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary with the birds.

“I'm a plant guy. I have the finest aloe garden in San Diego County. I wanted to go out to dinner,” he said. “But the birding here is im-pressive.”

And Jennifer Puel drove in from her home in Temecula for Tuesday's birding tour.

After undergoing treatment for a brain tu-mor a year ago, Puel volunteers at Anza-Borrego as an interpreter.

“It's like anything in the desert — people are afraid,” Puel said.

“But this is great. It's rainy and overcast and more birds are out.”

For more information about the annual tour, call (760) 767-4063 or email [email protected].


Birders rendezvoused at 4:30 a.m. for an Extreme Birding tour sponsored by the Anza-Borrego Foundation. The group looked for birds in the rain, on muddy ground and claimed to have a great time.

Photo by Ray Shindler PORTS Interpreter I LuAnn Thompson gets ready to investigate Badlands Na-tional Park on her vacation. As so many Parks’ employees do, LuAnn and her husband Ray Shindler visited national and state parks while on vacation.

mailto:[email protected]�




Page 14

District volunteers gave 63,751 hours in 2011 Acting District Superintendent Gail Sevrens

sent an email to District employees with the annual report of volunteer contributions of vol-unteers and corresponding work by staff to recruit, train and manage volunteers.

“The report shows that our district is one of the leaders statewide in the use of volun-teers—no surprise!” She wrote. “We are far and away the tops in number of hours contrib-uted by both natural and cultural resource vol-unteers, second in public contact volunteer hours and in the top six of total volunteer hours.

“About half of our staff members reported hours working with volunteers and each of those hours yielded an average of 9.43 volun-teer hours! The total number of volunteer hours contributed to our district was the equivalent of almost 31 full-time staff mem-bers—about half of our full-time permanent staff!

“Volunteers remain an important part of our team here at State Parks. They also provide a strong community involvement component of people who know and love their parks and lead to support of others. I would like to thank each of you for your ongoing work to integrate

volunteers into the parks—your extra effort really shows!”

Volunteers at the Colorado Desert District reported 63,751 hours by 606 volunteers. The hours were in the following catagories: Admin-stration, 7,636; Campground/Park Hosts, 5,790; Interpretat ion , 3 ,969; Maintenance/Housekeeping, 6,018; Public Safety, 6,822; Natu-ral Resource Management, 13,528; Cultural Re-source Management, 3,735; Public relations, 189; Public Contact, 14,829, and Special Events, Other, 1,235.

Acting Deputy Director Ronilee A. Clark re-ported that this is the fourth consecutive year that the Volunteers in Parks Program (VIPP) re-corded more than one million volunteer hours to state parks—1,088,258 hours of service! She noted that this means an equivalent dollar value to the department of nearly $24 million.

“Well-trained and skillfully-managed volun-teers offer a cost-effective way of meeting criti-cal operational needs: each staff hour spent sup-porting the program yields as statewide average of 11 hours of volunteer time,” she wrote.


Salton Sea State Recreation Area Volunteer Bob Dwyer mans a booth for the SSSRA. Bob is an expert birder, kayak volunteer and a NAI Certified Interpretive Guide.

District file photos Volunteers work on hiking trails at Cuya-maca Rancho State Park.


Page 15

CDD, State depend on volunteers (cont.)


Volunteers delivered 52 percent of all pre-sented interpretive programs in 2011.

Campground hosts and volunteers assisting with public contact functions combined for an additional 29 percent of the total volunteer hours.

Earth Day, Trails Day, Coastal Cleanup Day and other one-day or weekend special events and public workdays attracted more than 19,000 short-term volunteers. Working with the California State Parks Foundation, park co-

The VIPP report said the total number of vol-unteers decreased by 20 percent in 2011, while volunteers participating in single day and week-end projects decreased by 22 percent. The aver-age number of hours invested per volunteer in-creased from 32 to 39 hours during the two-year period.

District file photos Picacho State Recreation Area’s Camp Hosts Dick and Loraine Sufficool work hard to help the small staff at the Park they love.

ABDSP Volunteers Sam and Astrid Webb take a break at last year’s Holiday Bash. The Webbs are ABDSP volunteers, work for the Colorado Desert Archaeology Society, send messages throughout the District for staff and Sam photographs any– and everything and shares his photos and flyers with staff.

Although a small park, Palomar Moun-tain State Park has a large group of volun-teers including members of CRSP’s sup-porting organi-zation, CRSPIA. Chairperson for the Friends of PMSP Rick Bar-clay is at work on a project.

operating associations and other partners, indi-viduals, families and groups assisted in cleaning up parks, maintaining trails, producing living his-tory demonstrations and participating in other interpretive and restoration projects around the state.

The Department presented 37 Poppy Awards and ten Volunteer Medallions during 2011. In our District at the annual Volunteer Gala March 27 at the RoadRuner Club, Poppy Awards were given to Volunteers Jackie Caffeé, Mike Medema, Ann Nourse and Don Rideout. Volunteers Pat Gerdesen and Jimmy and Judy Smith received Volunteer Medallions.





Page 16

Volunteers learning, working (continued)




Retired ABDSP Ranger Bob Theriault looks through a scope and Retired ABDSP Super-intendent Mark Jorgensen looks through bin-oculars during the Extreme Birding Tour at the Salton Sea.


Page 17

They help in so many ways (continued) (Continued from Page 16)

Page 18

ABF announces new sponsors, partners

Let’s be kind to the Earth

Computers, cell-phone chargers, and other electronics use power even when turned off.

This creates annual emissions equivalent of 17 power plants, accord-ing to the Going Greener Guidebook..

Plug appliances into power strips to use as a master switch to turn them off when they’re not in use.

We welcome input from readers. Please send your earth-saving ideas to [email protected].

The Anza-Borrego Founda-tion (ABF) has announced the 2013 Anza-Borrego Institute Sponsors and Borrego Part-ners.

These businesses demon-strate their commitment to ABDSP and to ABF’s mission to protect and preserve the natural landscapes, wildlife habitat and cultural heritage of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park for the benefit and en-joyment of present and future generations.

In a year that has held great uncertainty for Parks’ funding, these businesses have stepped up and offered their support to make sure that ABDSP is open and accessible to the public and protected for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.

This year through the new “Borrego Part-ners” program, local businesses demonstrate their support of the Park. Sponsors of the

Anza-Borrego Institute are Borrego Valley Inn and Ocean-side Photo & Telescope (OPT),

Borrego Partners include Borrego Outfitters, Borrego Springs Resort, Borrego Valley Inn, Calico’s, Carmelita’s Mexi-can Grill, Kendall’s Café, Road-Runner Golf and Country Club and The Springs at Borrego.

Anza-Borrego Symposium Sponsors are Borrego Springs Resort, The Nature Conser-vancy, the University of Cali-

fornia’s Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center and volunteers.

ABF has asked District and Sector employees to support the businesses that support the Park and to offer them your thanks when you visit them.

Each business will have plaques, logos and taglines to show their support of ABDSP to their customers. Some of them will be included in a new section of the Park magazine as well.

And with the support of the Anza-Borrego Symposium Sponsors, a Research Symposium has been scheduled Friday through Sunday, No-vember 2 through 4 (see page 19).

The symposium will celebrate the 80th anni-versary of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the establishment of the University of California's new Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Re-search Center, and is dedicated to the memory of the late State Park Environmental Scientist Paul Jorgensen.

ABF has requested poster submittals detailing research on aspects of the conservation, ecol-ogy and natural history of California's Sonoran Desert region.

For more information, contact the Sympo-sium Coordinator Briana Puzzo at (760)767-4063 ([email protected]).

We’re looking for District staff members who will share their ten favorite books to be published in TRACKS.

Please send your book list with short reviews to [email protected].

Page 19

Colorado Desert District 200 Palm Canyon Drive Borrego Springs, CA 92004

TRACKS

TRACKS Colorado Desert District Newsletter

Gail Sevrens, Acting District Superintendent Colorado Desert District Leslie Bellah, TRACKS Editor Borrego Springs, CA 92004 (760) 767-4037 Fax: (760) 767-3427 E-mail: [email protected] Anza-Borrego Sector……………………………………….....…….....Kathy Dice, Superintendent Anza-Borrego Desert State Park® Montane Sector……………………………………………..……..Nedra Martinez, Superintendent Cuyamaca Rancho State Park Palomar Mountain State Park Salton Sea Sector……………………………..……...………Paul Reisman, Acting Superintendent Indio Hills Palms Picacho State Recreation Area Salton Sea State Recreation Area

Documents

Colorado Desert District Newsletter · with an Extreme Birding Tour around Salton Sea in search of migrating wood storks. Flood-ing from the previous day closed roadways and made