News of the desert from Sierra Club California & Nevada Desert Committee JUNE 2018 DESERT REPORT BY ALAN O’NEILL rior. Before retiring to start the Outside Las Vegas Foundation (now rebrand- CRESCENT PEAK ed as Get Outdoors Nevada), I served as Superintendent of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area for thirteen WIND PROJECT years. While in this role, I was appointed the National Park Service Coordinator to oversee the implementation of the Cali- Potential Disaster to a Protected Landscape fornia Desert Protection Act which gave me a unique opportunity to get to know the Mohave Desert landscape and issues. The Castle Peak area connects the Mojave National Preserve, Castle Moun- tains National Monument, and Lake The Crescent Peak Wind Project has potentially up to 700’) on 32,500 acres Mead National Recreation Area, three been proposed in Nevada just east of the and would extend nearly to twenty-two units of our National Park System and Colorado River. This is one of the worst miles running north/south along the enjoyed by millions of visitors annu- possible locations imaginable. At full ridgelines adjacent to the California ally. In addition, this region includes a development this project would include border. number of other critically important up to 248 industrial-scale wind turbines I have spent over fifty-two years ecological areas, among which are the (each the height of the Planet Hollywood in conservation and public lands work, Wee Thump and South McCullough Resort in Las Vegas, over 400’ tall and mostly with the Department of the Inte- Wilderness Areas, the Spirit Mountain T Traditional Cultural Property, the Paiute/ Eldorado Valley Area of Critical Environ- mental Concern (ACEC), and the Walking Potential Disaster to a Protected Landscape Box Ranch conservation easements. The area contains important habitat for the desert tortoise, is the eastern ter- minus of the world’s largest Joshua Tree forest, serves as migratory corridor for desert bighorn sheep, and is important for migratory birds as well as Bald and Golden Eagles. The area has a unique desert grasslands community with many species of native grasses found only in a small region of the East Mojave in Ne- vada and California, and there are other species related to similar grasslands in southern Arizona and Mexico. Beyond habitat, this view-scape along the Colorado River is central to the cultural heritage of at least eight Native Crescent Peak Project Area adjacent to Walking Box Ranch Road American tribes. It has been designated ALAN O’NEILL CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 BY JOHN HIATT the desert regions of California, Nevada, and Utah was dramatically smaller than MILITARY BASE it is today. In 1940 the population of Ne- vada was about 110,000, as opposed to some 3 million today, an almost 30-fold EXPANSION increase. While much of Nevada is still very sparsely populated, the growing populations of Las Vegas and Reno IN THE DESERT exert pressure on the rest of the State for resources and recreation and thus there is a conflict between proposed WEST military base expansion and the civilian population. Where Are We Headed? Since the end of the draft following the Vietnam War, the proportion of the U.S. citizenry that has experience with military service, either directly or via family members, has declined to a low of some 3% currently. This means that Currently, the Air Force is proposing seamlessly in a common battle-space. If most of the people in this country have to expand the Nellis Test and Training working together in wartime is a neces- no relevant experience to enable them Range (NTTR), in Southern Nevada, by sity, then it seems like a sharing of train- to judge whether the needs of the armed some 300,000 acres, and the Navy wants ing facilities at home not only makes forces are in sync with the desires of to expand the Fallon Naval Air Station, sense but would enhance preparedness. those agencies. This leads to a dangerous in north central Nevada, by 769,724 During World War II, there was an situation in which the civilian popula- acres, for a combined total of nearly 1.1 enormous expansion of military training tion is paying the costs of our military million acres. These proposed expan- facilities in many parts of the country, but doesn’t really know what they are Csions come on top of the training facility particularly in the West. The emphasis paying for or whether it is actually expansions at Fort Irwin (Army), Twenty on the West was due to the fact that needed. This is the situation President Nine Palms (Marines), and China Lake much of the nation’s federally owned Eisenhower referred to when he warned (Navy). It seems time to ask questions public lands are in the West, and also us to “beware of the military-industrial about need versus desire and what is the due to the number of clear weather days complex.” end game for military training facilities. available for aircraft operations. At the For at least the last 150 years, The Air Force and Navy both state time of World War II, the human popu- military planners have been behind that due to new aircraft that fly faster lation in the Western US, particularly in CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 and higher than ever before and weap- ons systems (missiles) that are typically launched miles from the target, ever bigger buffer zones are necessary to pro- tect the public from errant or accidental IN THIS ISSUE drops. At the same time military person- nel admit that modern computer guided 1 Crescent Peak Wind Project missiles are both very dependable and 2 Military Base Expansion In The Desert West so expensive that they don’t usually use Unintended Consequences - Impacts Of Base Expansions On Wildlife real missiles during training but rely on 3 dummy missiles to give pilots the sense 4 New Science In An Old Dispute - Cadiz Project Threatens A Major Spring of how their planes fly with the added 6 Dust Control At The Salton Sea TAKE ACTION weight of armaments! 8 The Racetrack - A Place Where The Magic Is Threatened Both the Air Force and Navy also say they need more space for training of 10 Pollution Affects Us All - Duty On Mexican Border That Is Not Recognized commando type units involving drop off 11 Get Your Kicks On Route 66 - Across The California Desert: Part I and pick up by aircraft. Each branch of 18 Desert Updates the military wants their own exclusive training facilities and is jealously protec- 20 Trail Ambassadors - Giving The Eastern Sierra The Care It Deserves tive of their space. Ironically, during an 21 Outings actual war all branches of the military are expected to cooperate and work 2 DESERT REPORT JUNE 2018 BY LAURA CUNNINGHAM ous air and ground space for peacetime military operations in the free world.1 This equates to more than 15,000 square miles of airspace and 4,700 square miles of restricted land. More than seven- ty-five percent of all live munitions used by the Air Force for training are dropped on the Nevada Test and Training Range.2 The area is used heavily for air training with various aircraft, including Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones), for live-fire exercises, for bombing tests, and also for ground troop training operations. I worked as a contractor on the South Range of the NTTR, after being cleared in a federal government back- ground check and authorized by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. I drove up to the gate, checked in with the guard, and hitched a ride with one of the civilian contractors (many of whom were veter- ans) out to the site on the Range where UNINTENDED I would be monitoring the Federally Threatened desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). No cameras were allowed. The site was a bombing range CONSEQUENCES where live-fire tests were carried out and an urban warfare center was being constructed out of old metal shipping Impacts of Military Base Expansions on Wildlife containers. These were stacked on top of each other and welded together to form various types of buildings. These would be used for training operations including ground special operations and air attacks. In 2004, I worked as a biological monitor the other hand, was extremely impact- Because most of this Range is on the Nevada Test and Training Range ed with large areas run over by tanks, managed as de facto Wilderness with no (NTTR) from the Creech Air Force Base. and I found crushed lizards, collapsed ground disturbance or bombing except I had previously worked on universi- burrows, and vegetation removed. Each for certain delineated “targets,” I found ty herpetological research projects at base has a resource management plan the desert amazing: I felt like I was going other military bases, including China and biologist(s) who try to minimize or back in time with scattered Joshua trees, Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (US mitigate impacts, but nevertheless the undisturbed natural rock desert pave- Navy) and Fort Irwin National Training impacts can be large. ments, sand washes full of big galleta ICenter (US Army). Each military base The giant Nevada Test and Training grass (Hilaria rigida), and tortoises—a is different with unique training uses Range takes up much of southern Neva- lot of tortoises. I saw tracks everywhere, and resource impacts. China Lake was da, including low Mojave Desert basins, every day. Around the “target,” burrows beautifully pristine desert, as very little sagebrush flats in the Great Basin, and were present and my job was to make ground operations were undertaken forested arid mountain ranges.