Urge your Representative to Oppose the House Farm Bill H.R. 2 The Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 (H.R. 2) is brimming with attacks on America’s bedrock environmental laws and our national forests. The House Farm Bill includes numerous Congressional exemptions for up to 6,000-acre forestry projects, including exemptions from public input and other critical environmental review. Such exemptions would prioritize logging over clean water, recreation, and wildlife. Please call your Representative and tell them you oppose H.R. 2 This bill promotes logging over other uses of public lands and creates backward incentives that would shift emphasis and funding from…
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On Friday, April 20, the Horton Creek Campground was alive with archaeological artefacts, bighorn sheep skulls, stream macroinvertebrates, interesting rocks, Leave No Trace flash cards, Paiute words, and sixty-two children from Round Valley Elementary School. Led by Friends of the Inyo and the Bishop BLM, Round Valley Earth Day is a chance for the elementary school students to learn about many different aspects of the place where they live, from its indigenous history, to its plants and animals, to its recreational opportunities. The students arrived at the campground at 8:30am, and the clock began ticking. Eight educational stations were set…
Please Attend the State Mining Board’s Workshop on May 9th in Riverside, CA to Support Responsible Mining Practices The State Mining and Geology Board is holding a public hearing on possible revisions to backfill regulations that require companies to backfill their open pit mines once a mine has closed. These regulations ensure companies complete reclamation. California currently has strict mining standards that place the responsibility for effective reclamation where it belongs: on mining companies. The mining industry would like to see these standards weakened or eliminated so it can expand industrial scale, open pit mines across the state, while avoiding expensive reclamation…
Below are the birds we saw at the 2018 Owens Lake Bird Festival: Waterfowl Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Blue-winged Teal Cinnamon Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Redhead Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Ruddy Duck Rails/Crane Virginia Rail Sora American Coot Shorebirds Black-necked Stilt American Avocet Snowy Plover Semipalmated Plover Killdeer Spotted Sandpiper Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Whimbrel Long-billed Curlew Marbled Godwit Ruddy Turnstone Sanderling Dunlin Least Sandpiper Western Sandpiper Long-billed Dowitcher Wilson’s Phalarope Red-necked Phalarope Red Phalarope Towhees/Sparrows Chipping Sparrow Vesper Sparrow Lark Sparrow Black-throated Sparrow Sagebrush Sparrow Bell’s Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Song Sparrow Lincoln’s Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Finches/Old World…
This summer, Friends of the Inyo’s seasonal crews will delve into a new kind of stewardship: scientific data collection. In partnership with CalTrout’s Sierra Headwaters Region, we’ll monitor greenhouse gas emissions from three meadows on the Sequoia National Forest to determine the relative rates of carbon sequestration in degraded vs. restored meadows. Meadows cover only 1.7% of the Sierra Nevada range1, but their soils may contain up to 30% of the region’s organic carbon stocks2. When meadows are degraded, preliminary research shows they transform from net sinks to net sources of carbon3. Functioning meadows sequester carbon at six times the…
The April 24th edition of the Inyo Register featured Friends of the Inyo’s event which returns for a fourth year in 2018.
A Talk with Mike Johnston Friends of the Inyo Executive Director Wendy Schneider sat down to talk with Eastern Sierra 4WD Club President Mike Johnston to learn more about his thoughts on the relationship between the OHV and conservation communities and the best way to move forward with helping each other to protect and care for our Eastern Sierra public lands. So, how did you get to the Eastern Sierra? Like a lot of the people here, I’m a transplant. I grew up in Palmdale. At that time it had one traffic light. I decided to leave the…
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will hold a public meeting on the West Mojave Route Network (WEMO) in Lone Pine tomorrow night (April 24th) from 5-7 pm. Come view maps and ask questions about the proposed routes to be designated in Inyo County. Get ready for the meeting with this handout of WEMO talking points: WEMO_Public Meeting Talking Points_FOI
Senator Diane Feinstein’s latest desert protection bill (the California Desert Protection and Recreation Act of 2017) received a hearing on July 26th. Friends of the Inyo and our partner, the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group, are gathering letters of support for the Alabama Hills National Scenic Area portion of this bill. The bill also contains additions to Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks, designates new wilderness and wild and scenic rivers, closes loopholes to provide true permanent protection for conservation-designated lands in the Desert District, and provides protections from Cadiz and other water export projects (see AB1000 below for more…
Join the Inyo National Forest on Thursday, April 19 to plant 2,000 Jeffrey pine seedlings near Swall Meadows The Round Fire of February 2015 destroyed acres of Jeffrey pine forest near the community of Swall Meadows. As part of the Swall Meadows Community Fuelbreak Project, the Inyo National Forest needs your help to restore the forest by planting Jeffrey pines in the burned area. Meet on Thursday, April 19 at 9am at the junction of Lower Rock Creek Road and Swall Meadows Road. Equipment, water, and gatorade will be provided, but please bring your own gloves, long pants and sleeves, sun protection, and lunch….