Desert Lands Focus of Washington Visit Last month, the Conservation Lands Foundation sent a coalition of public lands groups to Washington DC. I was fortunate to join, and meet with our congressional offices about public lands. Friends of the Inyo has a long history working to protect the California desert. With recent administrative attacks it was a perfect time to meet with congressional staff and touch on current threats and opportunities. From hearing rooms to hallways to cafeterias, our meetings took place just about everywhere. Our packed three-day agenda consisted of a visit to the Senate building to meet Feinstein…
Alabama Hills
While the birds were the star of the festival, the people made it pretty great too: Saturday started out cold (photo by David Carle)… But we persisted, and had a great time (photo by Janet Carle). It was a gorgeous day to search for birds (Gabby Guerrero). We learned a lot from Bob Steele about the art of bird photography (Sam Dummer). Dave Herbst led his always popular exploration of the microbiotic life of Owens Lake (Janet Carle). (David Carle) This year’s festival offered many excited trips off the lake. Here’s the group…
Check out the finished work by Friends of the Inyo’s Stewardship Crew on the Alabama Hills Trail. The crew is done for the season. We really appreciate the fine work they did not only on the Alabama Hills Trail- a new trail that connects the town of Lone Pine to Whitney Portal by way of the Alabama Hills – but accross the Eastern Sierra, from the Golden Trout Wilderness to Black Canyon in the White Mountains, on up to the Bridgeport Area and everywhere in between. Check out below for more pictures of their great work.
Friends of the Inyo’s Stewardship Crew is in their 4th week building part of the new Alabama Hills Trail. This multi-use trail (hiking, mountain bike, equestrian) will link the town of Lone Pine to Whitney Portal. This trail runs on BLM and Inyo National Forest Land through the Alabama Hills. The Stew Crew came back tired last week. The work involved a LOT of heavy lifting and moving rocks to place as steps for the new trail. They built 22 steps in two days last week- incremental work. Check out some pictures of their great work (photos by Tristan Kadish):
There are lots of issues on BLM land currently underway in the Eastern Sierra. The BLM lands are sometimes put in the shadow of the vast expanses of US Forest Service and National Park lands like Death Valley, the John Muir Wilderness, and newly added White Mountains Wilderness, but they should not be overlooked. In the Eastern Sierra, they include the Bodie Hills, Granite Mountain and Owens Peak Wilderness (photo shown) areas, and the Alabama Hills, as well as many more extraordinary places that make up the East Side. Here are just some of the many preservation issues, on lands…