Colorado Desert District Newsletter T R A C K S June 2013

Inside this issue

Watching desert rats, Page 18

Just a memory, Page 7

Anza-Borrego Foundation, DPR honor Diana Lindsay

No lies here! Page 9

(Continued on Page 6)

Photo courtesy of

Diana Lindsay

The Anza-Borrego

Foundation (ABF) and

State Parks honored

Diana Lindsay for

her work for ABF and

ABDSP March 29 at La Casa del

Zorro. Diana is an expert on the Park

and has written several

books about ABDSP and

the area.

Diana Lindsay was honored by the Anza-Borrego Foundation (ABF) March 29 for her 30 years of volunteer service to ABF and ABDSP at a reception at La Casa del Zorro.

Her work with ABF to protect Anza-Borrego Desert State Park includes efforts to block San Diego Gas & Electric’s Sunrise Powerlink—originally destined to cross through the heart of ABDSP—and efforts to obtain privately held land within the boundaries of the Park for ABF which later were transferred to the State of California in the endeavor to make the Park whole.

Diana served two terms as president of the ABF board. In addition, ABDSP Superintendent Kathy Dice presented Diana a Medallion Award, the State’s highest honor for

“superior achievement” in volunteer service.

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Salton Sea State Recreation Area

From the desk of Interpreter I Fredda Ste-phens:

What could be better than creating jobs, helping communities and providing education in today’s times? AmeriCorps programs have been working in the environment, schools and social programs for more than a decade, help-ing people and helping youth prepare for the real world by learning about our planet and how to protect it.

The mission is to reach out to people in need and help urban kids connect to nature, all the while getting a real life education them-selves by learning job and social skills. It is a dual dream, Americans helping America.

There are many types of AmeriCorps pro-grams including the Vista branch in schools and social services. And now there is the Silver Three of AmeriCorps NCCC Pacific Region, which is a diverse group of young adults who are a strong force in public service. The team is trained in first aid, CPR and specialty roles. They travel around the United States providing help to communities. Among their many pro-jects are Habitat for Humanity in construction, disaster relief for hurricane Sandy and wilder-ness restoration in Death Valley.

This multi-skilled team of 12 spent five weeks at the Salton Sea State Recreation Area under the lead of Park Maintenance Assistant Lynn Jamerson, helping us fix, repair and paint our facilities. What a hard working team! Their en-

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LOG JAM: Notes from the District, sectors

Photos by Jim Dascoulias A Sarcodes sanguinea, snow plant, emerges from the forest floor near Lake Tahoe (above). Soon after, it looks rather like a red Christmas tree (right). It is a parasitic plant that derives nutrients from fungi that attach to tree roots; it is una-ble to photosynthesize.

Photo by Josh Heitzmann ABDSP Park Maintenance Assistant Franz Boschiero and Maintenance Aide Dennis Franklin stand with a new interpretive sign they installed near the mud caves in the south end of the Park.

.

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LOG JAM: District, sector notes (cont.) (Continued from Page 2)

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thusiasm was a dream come true. While they were here, they painted the ki-

osk both inside and out, the Sector Office, the Visitor Center’s front counter, our new Sea and Desert Interpretive Association trailer, the Camp Store, all of the restrooms at Mecca Beach and the shop, plus signs, curbs, rails, flag poles and even the gas tank. WOW, we can’t thank them enough.

These hard workers from all over the coun-try are between the age of 18 to 24 in this spe-cial program. Amy Olson from Maryland was

quoted saying “AmeriCorps NCCC is a won-derful way to serve communities and I am so excited to spend the next ten months serving with my team.”

Tangible benefits include minimum wage, health and childcare benefits, and an educational award at the end of service. Time in the pro-gram can count as work credits towards retire-ment in State Parks in the future.

I joined AmeriCorps when my kids were young and spent two years part time while going back to college to start a new career. I was a forestry student, but still trying to figure out what I really wanted to do; the program helped me sort out my interests. Working on a fisher-ies project where I did lots of biological sam-pling, I got to learn firsthand what I loved and what I didn’t. I got to do restoration projects, fish counts, radio tracking, water sampling, wild-

Photo by Jim Dascoulias Advance registration for training helps facilitators and teachers to prepare for their events. This attendee did not reg-ister for the California Trails and Green-way Conference at the Granlibakken Conference Center in Tahoe City, but seems intent on sneaking into the event after helping him/herself to ap-ples in a bowl at the registration desk.

Photo by Linda Roller Fit as fiddles and fresh as flowers, this “before” photo shows Alan Tulving, Jim Roll-er, Gary Haldeman and Bob Theriault in Anza before they dropped into Coyote Canyon for a hot day of bicycling April 28. The foursome left at 7:30 a.m. and arrived in Borrego Springs about 2:30 p.m. after one flat tire, a challenging trip through Collins Valley and a soak in the water at Third Crossing.

Please register in advance

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LOG JAM: District, sector notes (cont.)

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life counts, snow surveys, interpretation at com-munity events and so much more. Many of the people in my program were older and had mul-tiple degrees; AmeriCorps is not just for the young.

Another member of the Silver Three team, Sarah Stelmaszyk from Connecticut, was quoted as saying, “When you help others, you help yourself.” Now that is the American Dream come true.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

The Volunteer Potluck will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 18, at the Paroli Homesite in Culp Valley. Bring a complete place setting, beverage, potluck dish to share and chair. District and ABDSP staff are encouraged to attend these functions—a chance to interact with and show our volunteers how much we appreciate them. Interpreter II Sally Thériault, who manages the Visitor Center, said volunteers always enjoy having staff attend these functions.

ABDSP’s 43rd annual Bighorn Sheep Count is

scheduled for Thursday, July 4, through Sunday, July 7. Participants will meet July 4 at the Borrego Palm Canyon maintenance shop be-tween 1 and 3 p.m. The group will return to the maintenance shop by 3 p.m. Sunday, July 7, to compile count data.

Orientation, mandatory for first-time coun-ters and highly recommended for veterans, will be at the Visitor Center Saturday, June 15, from 9 a.m. to noon. The orientation will cover big-horn natural history, census methods, desert safety and preliminary site assignments. There will be a PowerPoint program and a chance to look at skulls and receive handouts.

Sheep population numbers continue upward, with the most recent estimate in the Park at about 500. Totals in the entire Peninsular Range

are more than 900 sheep. Organizers have asked for volunteer back-

packers and drivers with four-wheel-drive vehi-cles as well as counters. RSVP by Monday, June 10, to ABDSP Ranger Steve Bier at Ste-ve.Bier@parks.ca.gov.

The count is coordinated by Steve and Re-tired ABDSP Superintendent Mark Jorgensen.

Montane Sector From the desk of Dave McClure, Volunteer

and Unit Coordinator for the Volunteer Trails Maintenance Unit at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park:

In April, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park was honored with the presence of Troop 308 from San Diego who enjoyed a weekend campout in the Park.

April 20, after a night under the stars and pines, the Scouts assembled at the Paso Pica-cho maintenance yard with volunteers from the Park’s Trails Maintenance Unit and were issued loppers, brooms, shovels and buckets of paint

(Continued from Page 3)

Photo by Mike Hamm Members of Boy Scout Troop 308 from San Diego haul debris across a meadow. They accomplished a tremendous amount of work on trails and Paso Picacho Campground while on a weekend campout at CRSP.

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LOG JAM: District, sector notes (cont.)

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Footprints District Safety Superintendent Kent

Miller has accepted an out-of-class assign-ment at Hungry Valley State Recreational Ve-hicular Area for the next few months.

Senior Park Aide Carl Kennerson left ABDSP’s Visitor Center at the end of April and will return October 1. The Visitor Cen-ter’s Senior Park Aide Abby Barker went on summer leave at the end of May and will return November 1.

ABDSP Maintenance Aides George Lautenschlage and Dennis Franklin also are off for the summer.

ABDSP Park Maintenance Assistant Cheryl Grout retired May 31. Cheri has worked in maintenance for ABDSP for nearly 13 years and began with Parks in 1990.

Visitor Services Park Aide Walter Einertson and Park Aide Beau Boulding have completed their seasons at ABDSP.

to spruce up the Paso Picacho campground campfire center.

This energetic group cleared overgrown veg-etation and painted all the benches in the camp-fire center. While they were at it, they also cleared overgrown vegetation and weeds that were growing into the campfire center access road. The boys were so efficient and energetic that the entire job was completed early, so they then struck out and cleared the Nature Trail of overgrown ceonothus.

Thanks to this hard working troop, the campfire center now is in top notch shape for the Park’s visitors this summer.

Picacho State Recreation

Photos by Mike Hamm Painting benches at a State Park campground might not sound like fun to some people, but members of Boy Scout Troop 308 from San Diego worked as if they really enjoyed it at Paso Picacho Campground at CRSP. They also cleared trails after working on the campground.

Area Due to the Island Lake Fire which began May

19, there is no column from Ranger Sue Barney this month. Complete coverage of the wildfire, which began in Arizona then jumped the Colora-do River to PSRA, will be in the next issue of Tracks.

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Joe Hopkins provides corrected Hawkwatch figures

Diana Lindsay’s Superior Achievement Award is signed by Major General Anthony L. Jackson USMC (Ret.), Director of Califor-nia State Parks.

Although Diana has retired from the ABF board of directors, her volunteer efforts on be-half of ABDSP are ongoing. She is a volunteer on the steering committee for the ABDSP Bota-ny Society.

She also recently joined the board of direc-tors of the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM). As a member of this board she hopes to increase the general awareness of the spectacular beauty, historical value and natural history of San Diego’s great desert region. Di-ana also serves as a SDNHM Canyoneer, lead-ing free public hikes.

Not only an extremely active volunteer, Di-ana is a prominent expert on the Anza-Borrego Desert. She has authored several award-winning books about the Park and the Colorado Desert.

She also founded and is president of Sunbelt Publications.

Last month Tracks reported on Hawkwatch and gave the numbers of hawks seen during the years of the official Hawkwatch. District Environmental Scientist Joe Hopkins has more correct information which he shares below. There have been 11 years of Hawkwatch in Borrego Valley, the first year when it was discovered mostly by Hal Cohen, then 10 years as a community pro-ject. This year was the fifth best year for Swainson’s hawks out of the 11 years.

Here are the correct numbers for turkey vultures (TVs), Swainson’s hawks (SW) and the grand total (Total) which includes a handful of red-tails, osprey, harriers and others. Year TVs SWs Total 2003 310 2,031 2,348 2004 855 5,228 6,118 2005 1,258 2,818 4,114 2006 1,251 1,605 2,890 2007 1,159 2,419 3,617 2008 1,411 5,378 6,872 2009 895 1,876 2,798 2010 1,272 3,105 4,402 2011 1,437 8,902 10,389 2012 1,022 4,880 5,915 2013 671 3,205 3,898

Photo courtesy of Hawkwatch

A Swainson’s hawk does not look happy spending a few minutes in captivity while waiting to be banded.

Diana still serves in other ways (cont.) (Continued from Page 1)

Page 7

CRSP’s volunteers get its trails in shape

Photo by Michelle Hernandez

Erin and Ron Robillard smooth

out the equestrian round pen at

Green Valley in preparation for

the coming season. Horses

now have a smooth place to

mosey around in the center of the

camp.

CRSP’s Trails Mounted Unit By Michelle Hernandez

Spring has leapt and it is busy, busy business as usual in the Park. During the winter we were usually snowed or rained out on weekends. The only work getting done was by the Wednesday crew, depending on, of course, the weather.

Erin and Ron Robillard went to Green Valley horse camp and smoothed out the round pen for the two-footers’ four-footed friends, giving them a nice place in the center of the camp.

Ken McIntyre and his ultra-marathon buddies went up to West Mesa trail and started clearing the ceanothus. These are the same guys who have worked on conejos, sugar pine, black oak and other trails where strong backs, endurance and craziness are required.

The Hike & Hack had a nice turn out when E. Baker, S. Russo, Mark Campbell, Oscar Quin-tanilla and I were joined by Mounted Assistance Unit (MAU) trainees Peter and Karen Axelson. Since the Hike & Hack is the non-power tool group within the TMU, trees are removed using hand saws, usually ones inadequate to do the job and this work party was no exception; next time we’ll make sure we have sharper saws and bigger trees when Peter and Karen join us.

Also a big thank you to the Axelsons for giv-ing us a horseback rider’s perspective on what

is best for horse and rider on the trails. Milo and Janet had a huge group of TMU

members and others come out for their trail work day. Along with TMU regulars Mark Campbell, Susan Russo, Elizabeth Baker and Skip Davis, the trail trekkers from Shadow Mountain Church, Neils Manley and his son, Mike and Kathy Hamm, and Dave McClure joined the chow line after the workday was completed (D. Mac and the Hamms helped supervise Jason De-Mendonca’s high school volunteers on the Azal-ea Loop while the other volunteers worked on Cold Stream).

Tree removal on the Harvey Moore Trail was done by MAU members, Ron Robillard and Ed Speth. We are grateful to those two for working in an area that doesn’t get as much work from the TMU as it needs. Thanks again.

Of course the Mounted Bike Assistance Unit (MBAU) continues its work on the Cold Spring reroute with April being the annual R.E.I. trail work party/campout in the Park. Thanks to all who made this work party one of the most fun and anticipated events of the year.

And for those who have missed out on all this fun, the TMU is always looking for more

Photo by Steve Boland Volunteer TMU members work to get a tree stump out of the trail at CRSP.

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The job is removing downed trees (cont.)

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people. After all, the more the merrier and there is plenty of trail work for everyone! CRSP’s Mounted Assistance Unit By Bonnie Slager

Flowers are really blooming and it is s ll very green in the Park. I love the sound of running water in all the little streams. Our campout in June will be a full house. Last year we had enough desserts to last all weekend and then some; they must be our favorite because we really overdid last time.

The benefit ride will be here before we know it. If you belong to a club or group that camps, please tell them and mark your calendar for July 28. It is a lot of work but with everyone’s help we can raise quite a bit of money to support the Park.

CRSP’s Trail Maintenance Unit Wednesday Crew By Ken Bonus

Early April 17, Howard Wiggins, Dave Capron, Ken McIntyre and I met up with Park Aide John Sproule at Paso Picacho. We drove to Cuyamaca Peak where we discovered that the wet cloudy condi-tions and high winds overnight had left the trees covered in exotic ice drapery (see photo below). Ice was feathered on some branches in thin sheets three to four inches long. But, our mission was not

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Photo by Ken Bonus Ice covered trees now have green leaves basking in sunshine at CRSP where volun-teer groups prepared trails for the season.

our collective esthetic enjoyment, it was to remove downed trees on the Burnt Pine and West Mesa trails. Armed with two chain saws, a couple of hand saws and a brush cutter, we headed off. Howard, Dave and Mac took out trees on the Conejos con-nector trail while John and I worked on the ones on the upper section of Burnt Pine. Eventually our paths merged and we continued downhill, taking out trees ranging from small branches to a large 36-inch-plus pine. We think the total was about 15. We stopped for lunch and, after humping the brush cutter about four miles, Mac put it to work on our mortal enemy, ceanothus. We'll be returning to the lower portion of Burnt Pine/upper West Mesa later to further wid-en out the trail corridor. Before we got down the hill and back to our vehicle, we discovered another large (36-inch-plus) pine across the trail; time did not permit us to remove it, but, it will be a fun pro-ject for someone in the future.

It was a pretty long day as we covered about five miles of trail, making it back to Paso around 3 p.m. Mac and Howard had to rush back to town, but Dave and I hung around for tool clean up, etc. Once that was done, we moseyed over to the picnic area to share a bottle from a brewer.

Photo by Mike Hamm Volunteer Boy Scouts work on the trails at CRSP so everything will be in top shape for the summer visitors (see page 4).

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(Continued from Page 8)

As we were chatting, I looked over Dave's shoul-der and noticed a squirrel making a mad dash over the ground and into its hole. A few seconds later, a bobcat trotted up and was only about ten feet away! It had been fixated on the squirrel then looked up to see Dave and me! I swear you could hear it thinking, "Oh no!" It headed out across the parking lot and I managed to snap a quick picture with my cell phone. It was a fun ending to a busy day of trail work. Sea and Desert Interpretive Association By Connie Brooks

Whew!!!!! One hundred and five degrees here last month, but that didn’t seem to bother the fishermen. As I look out on our jetty, I see umbrella after umbrella, fish-ing pole after fishing pole.

This morning there must have been 40 vehicles parked on the jetty. The tilapia love this warm water and are biting like crazy.

Several times a day I walk over to the fish cleaning station to see the size of the tilapia that people are catching. I have seen a lot of nice big ones, around two and a half pounds. They are all females right now as this is spawning season. Since there is no limit on the amount of tilapia you can catch at the SSSRA, people are bringing several five gallon buckets full at a time!

As you can imagine our fish cleaning station is a crowded place on weekends. I don’t think I would want to be the one to clean all of those fish, but I wouldn’t mind fish tacos for dinner!

The SSSRA Camp Store carries night crawl-ers, hooks, weights, snacks, rents kayaks and opens at 6 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday. We have had several people come in to rent kayaks which they take out for fishing. Can you imagine hooking a huge corvina like there used to be here in the Salton Sea from a kayak … what a ride that would have been!

ABF adds more acreage to ABDSP (cont.)

The Anza-Borrego Foundation On April 25 the Anza-

Borrego Foundation recorded the acquisition of a 160-plus-acre parcel located at the en-trance to Coyote Canyon. This new acquisition is the gateway to the canyon and also is on the Juan Bautista de Anza Na-

tional Historic Trail. Prior to this acquisition the Park did not have a permanent legal access through this property.

The land is within the flood zone of Coyote Creek and possesses an array of desert creo-sote scrub vegetation. In years of good rainfall and spring wildflower blooms, this property has one of the finest displays of annual wildflowers. One of our desert's rarest wildflowers, Gan-der’s cryptantha, lives in this area. The property has been documented as a movement corridor for Peninsular bighorn sheep which move be-tween their lambing area on Coyote Mountain and the San Ysidro Mountains to the west. The acquisition also is important to maintaining the Borrego Valley Aquifer by preserving the land from future degradation or agricultural pursuit.

Photo by Connie Brooks

Visitors fish from the shore of the Salton Sea which is full of eager-to-bite tilapia.

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By Lou Bahar Paleontology Society

[Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part column on awards and Paleontology Society mem-bers who received them.]

The April issue of Tracks reviewed the many awards Parks volunteers received at the annual Volunteer Gala. That evening, Paul Larson re-ceived the Medallion Award for superior service which includes his work for the Paleontology Society.

And three well-deserved Departmental Pop-py Awards were given to Paleontology Society members Sandra and Bob Keeley for leadership in the field and to Linda Gilbert for outstanding contributions to the paleontology database, website and invertebrate curation.

Paul’s efforts for the Park are spread throughout several groups of volunteers, how-ever it is important to mention his work for the Paleontology Society.

Paul joined the group in 2006 and completed his training that season. He has participated in the Friday monthly field trips with volunteers and students. He also is a regular participant in the Monday trips for certified volunteers.

Paleontology Society volunteers honored

These trips allow for surveying to areas that are too difficult for the entire group to ex-plore. These weekly field trips have expanded the collection of vertebrates from three million years ago to four million years ago and inverte-brates from four million years ago. With all this experience in the field, Paul has enrolled in the training to become a paleontology field leader.

Although Paul is very active in the outdoor work, he also is an active participant inside. He worked with the invertebrate volunteers to curate and input data regarding this part of the collection. He is the person who will pick up the broom or dust cloth and clean up or do anything that needs doing. He served on the 2012 bylaws committee and is active in the highly successful 5th Grade Camp program, now known as Camp Borrego.

And beyond the Paleontology Society, we would like to note that Paul is a founding mem-ber of the Botany Society and now serves on its steering committee.

He has been a leader of the group maintain-ing the Visitor Center garden and for many years has led Anza-Borrego Foundation/Botany Plant and Wildflower walks educating the pub-lic about the flora of ABDSP. He likely holds the record for leading the most ABF/Botany plant walks. He is so knowledgeable and ap-proachable that return visitors to the Park ask for him to be their leader.

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Photo by Jon Gilbert Paleontology Society Volunteers Sandra and Bob Keeley received the Poppy Award for their work in the field.

District file photo

Paul Larson holds his Medallion Award for

superior service

which he received at

the Volunteer Gala in April. Paul belongs

to two volunteer

societies and works with

ABF.

Page 11

Their paleontology work? Priceless! (cont.)

Both the Botany and Paleontology societies are grateful for his participation in their activi-ties.

Sandra and Bob have led numerous field trips. The words, “leading a field trip,” might sound like guiding a car caravan to a chosen spot, hik-ing around a bit and returning. However, there are many hours of work on either side of those actions.

Every trip begins with instruction by the Dis-trict Paleontologist regarding the geographic area to be surveyed. Maps of the area are pre-pared. Leaders bring backup tools and recording supplies (for volunteers who forget) in addition to first aid and emergency equipment.

Field leaders are responsible for the physical safety of the volunteers as well as the quality of the data they collect. Volunteers survey the ter-rain in groups of two or more and, when a fossil is found, the leader must go to the site and take a GPS reading, often traipsing hundreds of me-ters away from their own survey area to as-sist. GPS recording secures the geographic co-ordinates of the fossil locality from which the stratigraphic unit (geologic context/age) of the locality may be determined.

Leaders count heads at lunch break and again at the end of the trip to make sure everyone is present. Those who find fossils return to the laboratory at the end of the trip (instead of go-ing straight home), to place them in the prepara-

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tion system and to complete the required pa-perwork. Field leaders must verify that paper-work is completed correctly and record the numbers of fossil finds for their annual report to the District Paleontologist.

In addition to normal duties, the Keeleys also prepared all aspects of the annual field camp, a three-day fossil survey. Field camp also may produce interesting finds. In the event of a large excavation, such as a tortoise or a mam-moth, leaders must request a CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act—a formal review of the impact of a proposed project) to dig in the State Park. They then lead the volunteers for as long as it takes to excavate the fossil. In recent excavations this has added up to several months of several days per week.

Finally, leaders prepare a year-end report for the District Paleontologist, who will use the

Photo by Lou Bahar Paleontology Society Volunteer Michael Gu-berek leads the entertainment portion of the annual end– of the season party.

District file photo

Paleontology Society

Volunteer Linda Gilbert was honored for her work on the data-

base and other projects. (Continued on Page 12)

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Photo by Jon Gilbert Paleontologist Lyn Murray gives Hugh Vance a certificate of appreciation—the Endovelicus Award—for his dedication to health and safety in the laboratory.

Staff, volunteers survey for flat tailed horned lizard

Resources again is conducting its flat-tailed horned lizard (FTHL) surveys which fulfill its participation in the Interagency Coordinating Committee for FTHL Man-agement (ICC).

FTHL Volunteers from last year, Robin Halford and Kate Harper, have returned to survey with Environmental Scientists Joe Hopkins and Eric Hollenbeck.

“Several new volunteers will be joining us throughout the summer, but more are needed,” Joe said. “If you are interested in helping out with this interesting endeavor, please call me at (760) 767-5748 or email me at Joe.Hopkins@parks.ca.gov.”

Volunteers keep programs running (cont.)

information in making his annual report to the Department of Parks and Recreation. Everyone involved with field programs led by Sandra and Bob appreciate their commitment and dedica-tion to this important part of the program.

Linda, the other Poppy Award recipient, was honored for her massive amount of work on the collections database and for her leadership in making curation of the invertebrate collection an active and viable project. She is the web-master for the Paleontology Society web page http://www.anzaborregopaleo.org/ and keeps it current throughout the year.

Linda has spent many hours working with volunteer James Landers (another database ex-pert) to correct errors accumulated in the data-base and card catalogue systems in the past 50 years. She has developed new tables and revived little-used tables for invertebrate, plant and track fossils. This includes creating a data entry protocol for volunteers working in curation. She has organized volunteers to sort hundreds of drawers and thousands of fossil trays, speci-men labels and catalogue cards to validate the

information and correct it when needed. The database is the last stop for all infor-

mation associated with any fossil on its long road from the field to the drawer. After all the other steps it goes through, recording the in-formation of a specimen into the computer is as important as finding it.

Once recorded, scientists can access the da-ta and use it in their own research projects, visit the collection or obtain a specimen loan to measure and study the fossils. Recorded data includes geographic coordinates, geologic con-text, species identification, fossil description and at least 70 other fields of information.

Linda, Sandra and Bob are all fossil magnets, and have each brought in many fossils, large and small. They all have served on the Paleontology Society Steering Committee and are always available to help wherever needed. The Paleon-tology Society applauds these Poppy Award recipients and thanks each of them for their

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Warner-Carrillo ranch house opens June 1 The grand opening of the newly restored

1857 Warner-Carrillo adobe ranch house is scheduled for Saturday, June 1. There will be historically-themed activities and attractions from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at San Felipe Road/State Highway S-2, one-half mile east of Highway 79.

Admission is five dollars, but is free to those 3 and under. There will be food and refresh-ments. The event also is a fundraiser for the na-tional landmark, with its adobe barn next on the restoration list.

There will be tours of the ranch house, a Wells Fargo exhibit and interactive demonstrations and exhibits. Those who arrive in cos-tume can have tintype pho-tographs taken. The Ante-bellum Marine Band and Ku-meyaay bird singers will per-form and there will be a his-toric reenactment by the Army of the West.

The Warner-Carrillo Ranch House played im-portant and colorful roles in the Western frontier as a Butterfield Overland Stage Station, stopover for itiner-ant gold prospectors, Civil War trading post and long-time cattle ranch.

Centuries earlier, Native Americans enjoyed the nearby hot springs and water sources, but they were expelled from their homeland by the ranch's ownership in the early 20th century.

Doña Vicenta Sepúlveda Carrillo, a well-to-do rancher, wife and mother, had the adobe ranch house built for her family and lived there until 1869. Twice widowed, she supervised ranch operations such as raising cattle, sheep, barley and hay with the help of her children and local Mission Indians. Known for her hospitality,

Doña Carrillo was described by William Heath Davis, a prominent early San Diego pioneer, as "a beautiful and fascinating widow" who "managed her rancho with much ability."

Settlers, gold prospectors, soldiers and ad-venturers stopped at the house, which served as the Butterfield Stage Stop from 1858 until the Civil War began in 1861. The Overland stage route was one of California's regularly scheduled transcontinental connections and a

popular choice, as it was the most southerly route to Cal-ifornia and the one with the best weather.

Many settlers' diaries rec-orded the pleasure and relief of arriving at the inviting ado-be outpost, set in the well-watered valley, after an ardu-ous, and often dangerous, journey crossing the great southwestern deserts.

After the turn of the 20th century, the ranch was owned by a series of cattle-men, including former Cali-fornia Governor John G. Downey. Cowhands moved in using it as a bunkhouse; it ended its life as a family home. Despite this heavy use

and subsequent deterioration after it was vacat-ed in 1960, the ranch house had survived with much of its architectural integrity and a great deal of its historic fabric intact. The original fire-place mantle, woodwork and vigas remain.

Its restoration was made possible by funds raised and grants awarded to Vista Irrigation District, which responded to the call for pro-tection when Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO) identified the ranch house and barn as San Diego County's "most important unprotect-ed historical site" in 2000.

The Warner-Carrillo Ranch House played important and colorful roles in the Western frontier as a Butterfield Overland Stage Station, stopover for itinerant gold prospectors, Civil War trading post and longtime cattle ranch.

Page 14

Two budget items will help the Salton Sea

Library is open year ‘round

Although it is undergoing some changes, the Stout Research Center Library is open all summer during office hours.

There is a self-check book on the west side of the room to note whether you have borrowed a book, or a video or audio tape.

If you come in to study or to borrow books, the Librarians ask that you sign the guest book near the door.

Recent encounters with desert tortoises prompted us to repeat the advice given by Environmental Scientist Eric Hollenbeck. Any desert tortoise should be left alone when encountered, he said. They are not native to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, but are native to Pica-cho State Recreation Area and possibly Indio Hills Palms. They should not be touched or hindered in their travel unless they are found on a road and are in immi-nent danger of being run over. In that case, they can be gently picked up and moved to the side of the road in the direction they were headed.

When lifting a tortoise, always support all four feet to avoid stressing the animal. If the animal has tags or num-bers those should be reported. If possible, photos should be taken and emailed to the District environmen-tal staff. If possible, take GPS or other coordinates so we can keep a log of all tortoises found in our parks.

Tortoises known to have been kept in captivity of any kind should never be released back into the wild. Dis-trict environmental staff can be consulted about what to do with tortoises brought in from a captive situation.

Tortoises found in Picacho State Recreation Area or Indio Hills Palms should never be touched at all and avoided in all circumstances. If a tortoise in these areas is in imminent danger, activity should be halted and Dis-trict environmental staff should be contacted so a quali-fied person can deal with the situation.

Officials announced May 9 that the Assembly Budget Subcommittee has supported Assembly-man V. Manuel Perez’s request for two budget items that will back restoration efforts at the Salton Sea.

The subcommittee approved $2 million for the Salton Sea Funding Feasibility Study and $3 million for the Salton Sea Financial Assistance Program, according to an article in the Desert Sun.

Perez has been working for the restoration of the Sea, building habitat and controlling dust emissions.

The $2 million, which is from non-General Fund bond funds, will go toward a study to ana-lyze state, local and federal funding that can sup-port restoration of the Sea, including money from developing local energy resources.

The $3 million will fund a second year of the assistance program administered by the Depart-ment of Water Resources and Department of Fish and Game. The program’s grants support projects that “improve habitat for fish and wild-life at the Salton Sea, while also benefiting air quality by covering exposed lakebed with habi-tat,” according to Perez’s office, the Sun said.

Desert tortoises should be left alone, expert tells us

District file photo Desert tortoises are fun and interest-ing to watch, but we shouldn’t touch them.

Page 15

District firefighters have refresher course

Photos by Gail Sevrens District fire fighters gathered May 1 to participate in a refresher class with facilitators Park Maintenance Worker II Scot Martin and OWSVRA’s Research Analyst II (GIS) Don Solleder. Environmental Services Intern Gary Reece and Senior Park Aide Bob Eisele assisted with teaching modules. Associate State Archaeologist Sue Wade (above, left) prepares to get into an emergency shelter. Other class members (above, right) start to climb in their shel-ters. Below, some class members observe while others lie in their shelters. Others who par-

ticipated were Park Mainte-nance Assistant Daniel Aceves, ABDSP Ranger Ste-ve Bier, Park Maintenance Worker I Randy Burt, Park Maintenance Supervisor Jim Dascoulias, Environmental Scientist Eric Hollenbeck, Research Analyst II (GIS) L.Louise Jee, State Park Equipment Operator Gregg Johnson, State Park Super-intendent I Kent Miller, Envi-ronmental Scientist Mike Puzzo, State Park Peace Of-ficer (Lifeguard) Timothy Senneff from Inland Empire, District Services Manager Gail Sevrens and ABDSP Ranger Don Strampfer.

Page 16

LuAnn visits Taipei, Taiwan, for PORTS By LuAnn Thompson

State Park Interpreter I In April, for the first time, I was able to leave

the country for a PORTS program and went to Taipei, Taiwan!

United States Teacher Seth contacted the PORTS team and requested a program for his English Language Learners in Taiwan and they sent him to me. We set the date for when Teacher Seth was going to be in Taiwan to visit his students. In the meantime, I learned how to say “Good Morning, my name is…” and “Thank you” in Chinese.

There were many teachers and a large group of fifth grade students in the classroom for the

program. I started with my Chinese greeting and received a big round of applause from the students!

As we travelled around the desert, students told me adaptations they observed after seeing videos of various plants and animals. We saw cactus and cactus wrens, roadrunners, desert iguanas and sidewinders as we travelled across the open creosote desert floor. The sidewinder

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Dear Ranger LuAnn, Hello Ranger LuAnn, I am William

thank you for telling me the desert ani-mals, I like the birds and fossil.

I like the fossil because the fossil are taking the long time to be a fossil, so I like the fossil.

I didn't want to the desert before so this trip is my favorite. I think the de-sert are cool because it has a lot of cool animals can see.

Here is a Taiwan's representative ani-mal it name are Formosan Blue Magpie

William C.

Dear Ranger LuAnn, Hello, I am Shenna. I am the student

in Tsai Hsing 501. I love today's field trip of Anza

Borrego Desert State Park, I learned many of the desert, l learned the ani-mals in desert and animals' fossil, like lion's. It was very cool! You helped us to understand many interesting things in the desert, I hoped that we can do that again, I want to learn all of the things in desert, desert's things were toooooo cool.

I have a question to ask you, why did the sidewinder can walk on the sand very fast, is that it's skin help it? I just have this question because you told us very detail about all of the things. Thank you!!

I hope that you can come to Taiwan, Taiwan is a good country, it often rains and the night market is great, there also have many fun animals in Taiwan. I think that you will like it. I can be your tour guide.

Sincerely, Shenna

Student William sent LuAnn a picture of the Formosa blue magpie which is shown above. The bird is a member of the crow family and is an endemic species living in the mountains of Taiwan.

Page 17

Dear Ranger LuAnn, Hi, my name is Felicia, it is so nice to

meet you! I learn a lot about desert ani-mals and plants. The coolest thing is that you became invisible, it is so awe-some!!!!!!! In this summer, I am going to go to America and Canada with my family and friends, if it is okay with my family, maybe we can go visit you at your desert, your park looks super fun !

I like the roadrunner, it can run so fast! I like the baby borrego it is so cute. I like the coyote, too. It looks like it is finding food. I think I really need to go visit your fabulous park to learn more thing! Is the big fossil really a mam-moth's teeth? It is so big, so enormous! It can't fit in my mouth! I like the hum-ming bird, too. It is very small and eats nectar. I never seen a bird who eats nec-tar, other birds only eats insects and other things that is much more smaller than they are. I still don't really know how you became invisible, it is awesome! This project is fun, I wish I can do it again.

Thank you for teaching us more about desert. Wish you have a great day!!

Your friend, Felicia H.

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Students want to visit ABDSP now (cont.)

was a favorite in their letters. Brave students offered to try their English to

share adaptations. I took them up Borrego Palm Canyon where we saw bighorn sheep and chuckwallas, frogs and palm trees. We talked about endangered species and how Parks pro-tect habitats. After sharing a hummingbird vid-eo, I asked the students to talk to each other and share the adaptations they observed. I looked out at a whole class of students flutter-ing little wings—they had never seen a bird that could hover in the air in one place.

In the middle of the class some soft music started playing and I asked what was happening. Teacher Seth said it was time to share some of their culture with me. We massaged our eyes and temples and face muscles to relaxing music that is played in all classrooms for morning re-laxation! Nice …

Then we flew, in ABDSP Ranger/Pilot Kelly McCague’s plane, out over the badlands to see the size of the Park. Teacher Seth and the bilin-gual Chinese teachers helped with interpreta-tion throughout the program.

In the badlands, I shared the fossils we find and the great migrations from the Ice Ages. I told them that during the Ice Ages many of the animals from Asia came into North America for the first time and many of our animals migrated to Asia for the first time in their evolutionary history!

At the end of the program I shared my green screen technology and travelled with Google Earth from Anza-Borrego to their school in Tai-pei. The teachers helped me navigate right to their school site and all of the students gave a big cheer when I zoomed in on their school buildings, as if I had actually travelled to them. Technology is really amazing …

The students wrote letters offering to be my tour guide and show me the beautiful nature in Taiwan and attached pictures of animals that I

could see there and pictures of their pets and families!

I love sharing Anza-Borrego with 8,000 Cali-fornia students every year, as most of them have never visited a desert or a State Park and we want to invite them to explore our parks. A cross-Pacific exchange was a fun and unique challenge. The Taiwanese students also loved seeing the desert and learning about its unique life forms. Many hope to see Anza-Borrego one day when they travel to the United States.

Page 18

ABDSP volunteers, staff tour Mt. San Jac

Photos by Sam Webb; written by Sally Thériault Twenty ABDSP Volunteers, Senior Park Aide Abby Barker and I (left) spent a day at Mount San Jacin-to State Park April 24. After the ride to the moun-tain top in the tram, we explored the Park. There was great weather with enjoyable temperatures in the desert and on the mountain, although haze and high clouds (above) dimmed the panoramic views. Park Aide John led us around the top then down to Long Valley, a picnic area that doubles as the trailhead for many hikes, long and short. Some folks hiked the 1.5-mile Desert View Trail while others explored the .75-mile Discovery Nature Trail. Several people noted the film in the Visitor Center was written by Regional Interpretive Spe-cialist Joanie Cahill (formerly a District employee) and Office Technician Leslie (Martony) Bellah and featured former District Superintendent Dave Van Cleve, all reminders of the day when Mount San Jacinto was part of the Colorado Desert District.

(Continued on Page 19)

Page 19

Group remembers our District’s link (cont.)

District and ABDSP Volunteer Karin Vickars and her daughter Heather Redfern were in Boston to watch Karin’s son, David, participate

in the marathon when the bombing occurred April 15. Her husband, Volunteer Mac McNair was in Borrego Springs.

After returning to their home in Vancouver, Canada, she wrote, “My daughter and I were just around the corner when the bombs went off. It was an extremely traumatic experience and I had trouble sleeping for about 10 days af-ter. I think that it probably triggered old fears from when I was very young and in the blitz in London during the Second World War.

“We were then also 'locked down' in our ho-tel room for the balance of the day and night until we left for our flight the following morning.

“It was some time before we knew that my son, David, was safe. He had completed the race before the bomb went off, but everything was such chaos that our plans to meet up with him did not work and we had a worrisome time un-til we knew that he was safe.”

Volunteer Karin Vickars was close to Boston bombing

District file photo Volunteer Karin Vickars and her daughter Heather Redfern have a good time at the Volunteer Gala weeks before the Boston bombing.

(Continued from Page 18)

Photos by Sam Webb; written by Sally Thériault Most of us came down the mountain with a few unique souvenirs, a resolve to visit again and a great suggestion for summer visitors looking for things to do outside. There are many other trails we’d like to hike, including the four-mile loop to Round Valley, an eight-mile hike across the Park to Idyllwild (which would require a car shuttle) and the 12-mile trek to the top of the peak! Many thanks to Volunteer Mike Medema for planning this trip.

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

TRACKS

TRACKS Colorado Desert District Newsletter

Dan Falat, District Superintendent Colorado Desert District Leslie Bellah, TRACKS Editor Borrego Springs, CA 92004

(760) 767-4037 Fax: (760) 767-3427 E-mail: Leslie.Bellah@parks.ca.gov

Anza-Borrego Sector…………………………………….………....………......Kathy Dice, Superintendent Anza-Borrego Desert State Park® Montane Sector…………..……………….....……..Ray Lennox and Brent Hufford, Management Team; Dan Falat, Law Enforcement/Public Safety Management Cuyamaca Rancho State Park Palomar Mountain State Park Salton Sea Sector……………………………..……...………....………Kathy Dice, Acting Superintendent Indio Hills Palms Picacho State Recreation Area Salton Sea State Recreation Area