Association of Partners for Public Lands annual convention and trade show

We are in San Diego, California, gearing up for the Association of Partners for Public Land's annual convention and trade show that we will attend February 9-10. This annual convention brings together federal and state land management agencies and nonprofit organizations to learn, conduct business, and build a national public lands community.

We are expecting over 400 attendees and over 150 exhibitors. We will be handing out free education materials, demonstrating resources that are available to you and promoting ways for you to create a larger Leave No Trace presence in your area. We will also have our laptops available, so anyone who stops by our booth can participate in the Bigfoot Challenge right then and there.

All the best...

Agata and Jason

New National Monument in the Works in California

Mojave Desert National Monuments in the Works

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says she plans to introduce legislation today to establish two national monuments on roughly 1 million acres of Mojave Desert outback that is home to bighorn sheep and desert tortoises, extinct volcanoes, sand dunes and ancient petroglyphs.

Its centerpiece, Mojave Trails National Monument, would prohibit development on 941,000 acres of federal land and former railroad company property along a 105-mile stretch of old Route 66, between Ludlow and Needles.


The smaller Sand to Snow National Monument, about 45 miles east of Riverside, would cover about 134,000 acres of federal land between Joshua Tree National Park and the San Bernardino National Forest in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Its diverse habitats range from desert scrub to yellow pine forests 9,000 feet above sea level.

The legislation, which had been delayed by efforts to resolve conflicts among environmentalists, off-roaders and renewable energy interests, would also designate 250,000 acres of public land near the Army's training center at Ft. Irwin as wilderness; add 41,000 acres to the southern boundary of Death Valley National Park and add 2,900 acres to northern portions of Joshua Tree National Park.

Article continues: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mojave21-2009dec21,0,7093884.story

America The Beautiful

It’s hard to focus today, let alone blog, when so much rests in the balance.

We all have laundry lists of issues, campaigns, people we are watching today from divergent beliefs about family, the economy, the war, the environment. I do hope, among other things, that once we wade through the muck of our country’s current disarray, our public lands will see some relief. Leave No Trace programs on public lands have been directly affected by ravaged budgets, shifting priorities and cut programs.

Glimmering, off in the future, I anticipate and wish for more robust days for our cherished public lands.