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Conservation groups, including Friends of the Inyo, sued the U.S. Forest Service today to stop exploratory drilling in California’s eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains that threatens an endangered fish and a dwindling population of bi-state sage grouse.
Experience Dark Desert Skies at Conglomerate Mesa with Friends of the Inyo, Nov. 6 – 7 There are just a handful of spaces left for this outing that promises to be an exceptional learning experience under new-moon skies in a non-light-polluted part of the Northern Mojave Desert on Death Valley’s doorstep. Friends of the Inyo’s Dark Desert Skies Campout at Conglomerate Mesa will happen November 6-7, the weekend when Daylight Saving Time comes to an end, which means you will enjoy an extra hour of stargazing. Click on the media player button below to listen to Bryan Hatchell, FOI’s Desert…
It’s pronounced “bah-hah-dah” This is our final post for this year’s National Hispanic Heritage Month, which ends this Friday, Oct. 15. Since Sept. 15, when it began, Friends of the Inyo has been celebrating with our community by sharing the meanings of just a few Spanish-language words in the nature and conservation arena that have made their way into English. Today’s word is bajada, the feminine form of bajado, the past participle of the verb bajar, which means to descend, go down, take down, or get off, as from a horse. According to Merriam-Webster, a bajada in English means a broad…
Vol. 1 – Issue 5, of the Keep Long Valley Green Newsletter, “Every Last Drop,” is hot off the press!
Read how water ties all of us together, no matter what our backgrounds, and how California Natives taught Europeans in the 19th Century state-of-the-art irrigation methods. Happy reading…and if you like what you read, happy sharing!
Even if you can’t trill your r’s, arroyo is a word you should know. There is just one week left in this year’s National Hispanic Heritage Month, which is observed from September 15 through October 15. Friends of the Inyo has been celebrating with our community by sharing the meanings of just a few Spanish-language words in the nature and conservation arena that have made their way into English. Today’s word is arroyo, which, according to Merriam-Webster Online, means a watercourse (such as a creek) in an arid region, or a water-carved gully or channel. Wikipedia offers a more nuanced definition,…
FOI’s October Column on Page 4 of this week’s issue of El Sol de la Sierra features a discussion on the Seven Principles of “Sin Dejar Huella” (Leave No Trace), between FOI Communications Director Lou Medina and Stewardship Director Alex Ertaud. Happy reading…and if you like what you read, happy sharing!
Following a trying summer of wildfires, poor air quality and temporary National Forest closure orders in our state, fall feels like an especially welcome respite this year. In the October Issue of our Juniper E-Newsletter, we present a recap of the work Friends of the Inyo’s Trail Ambassadors did toward the end of the summer to protect and care for the public lands of the Eastern Sierra despite various challenges; a foretaste of fun outdoor events we have coming up this month and next; an update on our campaign to Protect Conglomerate Mesa; an invitation to enjoy our linguistic blog posts in celebration of National Hispanic Heritage…
The aspen leaves are making their annual change from green to orange/yellow/red, electrifying our Eastern Sierra landscape. Sadly, that means the all-important summer stewardship work of our Trail Ambassadors has come to an end. September marked the last month our Trail Ambassadors (TAs) were out and about on the trails of our Eastern Sierra Forest Service lands, from Lone Pine to Bridgeport (a close-to-150-mile stretch of public lands). Here’s just a bit of what they have been up to during the past several weeks: Lily Emerson closed out the season with a super-successful cleanup at the fourth annual Bridgeport Trails…
However you choose to spell it, it’s good for you! National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 through October 15. Friends of the Inyo is celebrating with our community by sharing the meanings of just a few Spanish-language words in the nature and conservation arena that have made their way into English. Today’s word is piñón, which, in its Anglicized form is spelled “pinyon.” In Spanish, piñón can mean any of various small pines with edible seeds found in western North America, as well as the edible seed of such a pine, according to Merriam-Webster. We all know…
National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 through October 15. Friends of the Inyo is celebrating with our community by sharing the meanings of just a few Spanish-language words in the nature and conservation arena that have made their way into English. Today’s word is mesa, which in English means an isolated relatively flat-topped natural elevation usually more extensive than a butte and less extensive than a plateau, according to Merriam-Webster Online. It is a geological term that comes from the Spanish word for table. An English word sometimes also used for mesa is tableland. An example of a…
A Nahuatl Word Hispanicized National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 through October 15. Friends of the Inyo would like to celebrate with our community by sharing the meanings of just a few Spanish-language words that have made their way into English. Today’s word is coyote. This word comes from the Nahuatl, which belongs to the Uto-Aztecan family of languages. Nahuatl is believed to have developed in Central Mexico and spread northward to the Southwestern United States, and Southward to Central America. “Coyotl” is what the Nahua people called this animal, which is considered a “trickster” by various…
National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 through October 15. Friends of the Inyo would like to celebrate with our community by sharing the original meanings of just a few nature or conservation terms that have made their way from Spanish into English. Caldera is the Spanish word for cauldron or boiler. It has been adopted into English as a geological term that, according to the National Geographic Online Resource Library (nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia), means a large depression formed when a volcano erupts and collapses. The main difference between a caldera and a crater is twofold: Craters are formed by…