Past Events

Stop the Towers Hootenanny
Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction

Pappy & Harriet's Palace in Pioneertown on
June 14, 2008, from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m.

The Stop the Towers Hootenanny will feature a buffet dinner, great music, no host bar and the opportunity to bid on silent auction items. This festive evening of fun and camaraderie promises to be a real "hoot" and will offer us all the opportunity to hear about the latest progress being made to stop the proposed 500kV power corridor through the Morongo Basin and surrounding communities.

Valuable items from local businesses, artists and individuals have been pledged. Renown artists Bev Doolittle, Ed Ruscha, Steve Rieman and Andrea Zittel have pledged original pieces to help raise monies to increase the education and legal fund--so you can expect to see almost anything up for auction at the Stop the Towers Hootenanny.

Don't miss this hootin' hollerin' evening of fun, all to benefit a great cause.

Climate Change and the California Deserts
co-hosted by
Defenders of Wildlife and the Mojave Desert Land Trust
Friday, February 8, 2008
10 AM TO 3 PM

This first ever ‘Climate Change and the California Deserts’ meeting will host a diverse set of professionals offering valuable insights into various components of desert conservation, management, and sustainable development in the face of climate change, a threat that is predicted to effect desert communities more acutely than other areas in the United States. With the effects of climate change coming to our backdoors first, beginning to understand the science and uncertainties behind various projections will be paramount for our communities.

1. Climate Change and Desert Communities by Micah Lang
ICLEI: “Local Governments for Sustainability” assists cities to adopt policies and implement quantifiable measures to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and enhance urban livability and sustainability. Our speaker will give an introduction to ICLEI and its mission as it applies to the desert. This includes:

· Description of the ICLEI ‘5-Milestone’ Process
· Conducting an emissions inventory
· Creating a Climate Action plan
· Description of ICLEI tools
· Overview of what other communities are doing in California and nationally
· Aspects of local climate action planning that are particularly important for desert communities
· Moving ahead: how ICLEI can provide support to your community as you initiate this process.

As a Program Officer in the Oakland, CA office, Micah provides support to members in the Western States and California regions, as well as assistance with international programs. Micah is also developing new decision making tools for ICLEI members and working to expand ICLEI’s member support in the water sector. Prior to joining ICLEI, Micah worked as a researcher on international and domestic water and wastewater services access. Micah has also worked as an advocate, policy analyst, consultant, and researcher on a broad array of sustainability issues in Latin America, the Mediterranean, Africa, and the United States. Micah has a master’s degree in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Colorado College.

2. Climate Change and Desert Bighorn Sheep by Dr. John D. Wehausen
Climate change will have important impacts on desert wildlife in the future. Moreover, these effects are already being realized today. Wildlife management and protected area planning for the California deserts’ biodiversity needs to be considered in the context of all the factors affecting the desert’s unique species of concern, including climate change. For bighorn sheep, metapopulation fragmentation has been found to have large negative effects on gene flow and genetic diversity patterns, and this is a critical conservation issue associated with climate change. The details matter and recent climate change models have been too crude to allow meaningful predictions. Few wildlife populations are likely to have the sort of long terms databases that exist for desert bighorn sheep in California. Given the fundamental need for such databases relative to the understanding of biological causal relationships involving climate variables, the best investment for wildlife in a climate change era would be to initiate the development of other such databases. Our public agencies should focus efforts on monitoring changes in wildlife populations in the coming years to best learn how to respond to climate change in an adaptive management framework.

John Wehausen is a field ecologist who has been researching the population ecology of bighorn sheep in the high mountains and deserts of California for the past 33 years. His emphasis has been the development of long-term data sets needed to understand how different variables affect the dynamics of bighorn sheep populations in different ecosystems. Dr. Wehausen has also worked on questions of bighorn sheep systematics, and in the past decade he has added molecular population genetics to his research.

3. Climate change and desert water regimes: inter-agency management challenges by Dr. Robert Wilkinson
Climate change is already impacting California’s water resources. In the future, warmer temperatures and different patterns of precipitation and run-off will affect the ability of local and regional agencies to manage water supplies in their communities. Local governments and planners need to be aware of these issues and help to coordinate innovative responses with agencies to ensure that the effects of climate change are mitigated to the best of our abilities.

Robert Wilkinson is an Adjunct Instructor for Water Policy at the UC-Santa Barbara Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Dr. Wilkinson’s research and teaching is focused on water policy, climate change, and issues of environmental policy. He also advises government agencies, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and foundations on water policy and environmental issues. He currently serves on the public advisory committee for California's State Water Plan, and he has represented the University of California on the Governor's Task Force on Desalination. He has advised the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on climate research, and has served as coordinator for the climate impacts assessment of the California Region for the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Location: Joshua Tree Community Center, 6171 Sunburst Avenue

$5.00 donation at the door - light food provided.

Find out more about Mary Sojourner http://www.magictails.com/marysojourner.html which contains copies of her essays and NPR commentaries.

Find out more about Susan Lang http://www.unpress.nevada.edu/author.asp?idAuthorID=1422

29 Palm’s new independent bookseller Saphiro’s
http://www.saphiros-online.com

Brunch with Huell Howser
Saturday, November 10, 2007
11:00 am - 2:00 pm

"Please join me for brunch at my home! Your participation will help to protect our beautiful Mojave Desert!"

Huell Howser
Host of California's Gold, one of the longest running and most beloved series about California ever produced, as well as Visiting with Huell Howser, Road Trip with Huell Howser, California's Golden Parks, California's Green, California's Water and Downtown invites you to a Benefit Brunch at his beautiful home in 29 Palms!

Please join us for a light lunch and beverages at Huell's beautiful home, with talks by Huell, Curt Sauer (Superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park) and the Land Trust

All proceeds benefit the Mojave Desert Land Trust
a 501(c)3 public charity

Perseid Meteor Shower – Shooting Star Party!
Saturday August 11, 2007 – 8:00pm–2:00am

Please join the Land Trust for this amazing Star Party!
Enjoy the Dessert Bar, Relax Under the Shooting Stars!
Bring friends and family to see the Perseid Meteor Shower!
Location: The Integratron, 2477 Belfield Blvd., Landers, CA 92285

Includes: Telescopes, Astronomers offering Sky Tours, National Park Ranger “Dark Skies” presentation, Integratron Tour & Sound Bath, Dessert & Coffee Bar. Your attendance helps protect the Mojave Desert! After 2am, camp for an additional fee. PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED BY 5 PM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8TH.

The meteor shower takes place over several days. On Saturday, the final eyelash of a moon will set at 7:17 pm and twilight will be over by 9:19 pm. The sky will be dark for great viewing of the Perseid fireballs. To find out more about the Perseid Meteor Shower, visit http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/ and http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/11jul_greatperseids.htm.

Directions: www.integratron.com. To register or get more info, call 760-361-6401 or email info@mojavedesertlandtrust.org.