BLM California Newsbytes Issue 698

Title: Untitled Document

Conway Summit

ISSUE 698 - October 28, 2015

- Happy Halloween 
- Every Kid In A Park 
- Trails 
- Fall Colors
- Headlines and Highlights
- BLM and DOI Highlights
- Wildlife Factoid
- Upcoming Events

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Hike Among Ghosts at the Headwaters Forest Reserve

Deep in the redwoods of northern California hides the ghost town of Falk. Once a busy mill town of four-hundred lumber workers and their families, Falk now haunts in the Headwaters Forest Reserve, a part of the BLM’s National Conservation Lands. (BLM Tumblr)

Halloween at Imperial Sand Dunes

Halloween is just around the corner! Are you heading out the Imperial Sand Dunes? Be sure to have your ISDRA Permit before you arrive. You can save time and money by stopping at one of the multiple retail locations on the way. For a map and more information visit: www.isdpermits.net  (BLM Facebook)

Happy Halloween

These Creepy Crawleres are pale yellow during the day, but take a blacklight out on a warm, moonless night and be surprised! When illuminated by ultraviolet rays from a black light, scorpions glow neon blue. Why? The UV light that hits them is converted by proteins in their exoskeletons into light of a blue hue, which is visible to the human eye. (BLM Facebook)

Related: Scorpions -El Centro (BLM Website)

Creepy Crawlers

Out in the desert you may find these partially hidden in the sand, waiting for their prey. Don’t get close, sidewinders are venomous! (BLM Facebook)

Amboy Crater

Follow @mypubliclands this week for spooky skies and landscapes, striking fall foliage, bats and creepy creatures, and much more! (BLM Tumblr)

 EVERY KID IN A PARK

Every Kid in a Park at Headwaters Forest Reserve

Julie Clark, Park Ranger at the Headwaters Forest Reserve on California’s North Coast, recently  took a classroom of 4th graders  to Headwaters in the spirit of “Every Kid in a Park.” Clark first visited the students in their classroom and presented a PowerPoint slide show on the natural and cultural history of the reserve. (BLM Newsbytes) 

Toddlers, Teenagers Enjoy Free Mountain Biking Outing

Mountain bikers ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers converged on the BLM Swasey Recreation Area west of Redding, Saturday, Oct. 24, for the annual Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day.  About 50  riders participated. (BLM Newsbytes)

Related: Every Kid in Park (DOI Website)

TRAILS

Bike Riders Enjoy Fall Colors on Bizz Johnson Trail

Fall colors are starting to peak along the Bizz Johnson National Recreational Trail in northeast California, and a group of nearly 20 bike riders were on hand to enjoy the sights when the BLM Eagle Lake Field Office hosted its annual Fall Colors Ride Saturday, Oct. 24 (BLM Newsbytes) 

Mountain Biking the Bizz Johnson Trail

Herald and News, 10/22/2015
Much of the year the Bizz Johnson National Recreation Trail is a “Bizzy” place. The 25.4-mile multi-use trail between the Lassen County cities of Westwood and Susanville is especially popular with mountain bikers, but it’s also used by equestrians, walkers and runners — earlier this month it hosted the annual Bizz Johnson Marathon, a Boston Marathon qualifier. (Read full story)

Paradise Royale Trail System

The Paradise Royale trail system is an amazing way to experience the Lost Coast of Northern California. The trails have been designed and built for a mountain bike optimized experience. Paradise Royale Trail System (BLM Website)

Related: Paradise Royale Trail System (BLM Flickr)

 FALL COLORS

Fall Colors

Get outdoors and enjoy beautiful fall colors on your public lands, like Wall Canyon Wilderness Study Area. The Wall Canyon WSA in Nevada is located 30 miles southeast of Cedarville, California. Small stands of aspens here in the higher elevations of Northeast California and Northwest Nevada usually reach peak color mid-October. (BLM Instagram)

Hunters Moon and Aspen, Conway Summit

The Conway Summit Area of Critical Environmental Concern is managed by the BLM California’s Bishop Field Office, adjacent to U.S. 395, so it offers some of the most accessible and spectacular fall color viewing areas anywhere in California. The backdrop is formed by 12,000 foot peaks of the Ansel Adams Wilderness and Yosemite National Park. The last of the color will probably last through this weekend unless rain/snow knocks off the leaves. (BLM Newsbytes)

HEADLINES AND HIGHLIGHTS

Cosumnes River Preserve

Managed by @natureconservancy, the BLM, and multiple partners, the Cosumnes River Preserve is home to California’s largest remaining valley oak riparian forest, and is one of the few protected wetland habitat areas in the state. (BLM Tumblr)

Public Lands ‘Week’ at Fort Ord

During National Public Lands “Week” from Oct. 17 to 24 at Fort Ord National Monument, the Bureau of Land Management and partners showed how to accomplish a varied mission with volunteers and community leaders who share a vision of stewardship. (BLM Newsbytes)

Alabama Hills

Backpacker, 10/2015
Why does this stretch of highway, from Mammoth Lakes to Death Valley, rise above all others? Just consider the superlatives: the highest and lowest points in the continental U.S., the Lower 48’s largest national park, the world’s oldest trees, a summer’s worth of lakes, and the best post-hike bakery you’ll ever feast at. Oh, and hot springs. Find all of that and more on a 200-mile journey along US 395, where the Sierra Nevada rise from California’s eastern valleys. (Read full story)

Related: Alabama Hills (Discover the Desert BLM Website)

Road Trip: Route 66 and the Grand Canyon

The Desert Sun, 10/27/2015
The idea for this road trip was born on New Year’s Eve. I was planning to ring in 2015 with friends in Los Angeles, but also thought it would be cool to go see the Grand Canyon for the first time. I punched it into my phone and saw that I could be there in just five hours — “That’s it?” I thought. It wasn’t so far away. I went for it, and learned that getting there was half the fun. Our trip begins on I-40, just across the California state line in Needles. I take the Topock/Golden Shores exit over the Colorado River to the mother road: Route 66. (Read full story)

Related: Historic Route 66 (Discover the Desert BLM Website)

Groups want Gen. Patton’s Camp Iron Mountain Preserved

The Desert Sun, 10/27/2015
From 1942 to 1944, tanks rumbled across the remote cactus- and shrub-studded southeastern Mojave Desert, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers trained for combat during World War II. At 18,000 square miles, Desert Training Center, a simulated theater of operations – also known as the California-Arizona Maneuver Area – was the largest training ground in military history. (Read full story)

Related: World War II Desert Training Center, California-Arizona Maneuver Area (BLM Website)

Forest Renews Itself in the Wake of ‘Devastating’ Lake Fire

KCET, 10/27/2015
In June, the Lake Fire near Big Bear in the San Bernardino Mountains burned an area the size of San Francisco: 31,359 acres, just shy of 49 square miles. My neighbors and I in Joshua Tree watched nervously as the bright orange flames lit the night sky to the west, and smoke hung heavy for weeks in our skies and our lungs. It wasn’t a huge fire by Californian standards, but it was intense, with individual flames so large we could see them from 35 miles away, and fire crews struggled to cover ground on the steep and broken slopes of San Gorgonio Mountain’s north face. (Read full story)

Desert Clean Energy Plan Still Not Inspiring Confidence

The Desert Sun, 10/23/2015
California will need to get 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, as mandated by Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers earlier this month. But in the desert, an ambitious plan to promote clean energy development is limping toward the finish line. (Read full story)

Related: Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP.org)

BLM AND DOI HIGHLIGHTS

Enjoy Fall Foliage in Oregon’s Steens Mountain!

With endless opportunities for recreation, the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area includes deep glacier carved gorges, wilderness and wild rivers as well as a rich diversity of plant and animal species. The 52-mile Steens Mountain Backcountry Byway provides access to four campgrounds, and the views from Kiger Gorge, East Rim, Big Indian Gorge, Wildhorse and Little Blitzen Gorge overlooks are not to be missed! CLICK HERE to plan a visit. (BLM Tumblr)

Check it Out- More Reasons to Visit Utah This Fall

Several stunning landscapes managed by BLM Utah are featured in the recent Bloomberg Business article, Why You Need to Go to Utah’s Wild West . (BLM Tumblr)

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976

This week, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 turns 39! FLPMA established a comprehensive and systematic approach to managing public lands in a way that protects “the quality of scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archaeological values.”  (BLM Tumblr)

WILDLIFE FACTOID 

Facts about Scorpions

• Scorpions can slow down their metabolism when food is scarce. They can survive on only one meal each year.

• Scorpions glow under an ultraviolet light. This ability to glow in the dark probably attracts insects.

• Scorpions are so tough that they can be put in a freezer overnight and spring back to life.

Source: Easy Science for Kids.com

UPCOMING EVENTS

October 29-30: BLM Advisory Council Plans Meeting in Mendocino

Management issues for Central California will be on the agenda when the Bureau of Land Management’s Central California Resource Advisory Council meets Oct. 29-30 in the Mendocino area. The RAC will meet from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015, at the Mendocino Hotel, 45080 Main St., Mendocino, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Time for public comment is reserved from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. (BLM News Release)

November 5-6: Northern California Resource Advisory Council

The Bureau of Land Management's Northern California Resource Advisory Council will convene for a meeting and field tour Thursday and Friday, Nov. 5 and 6, in the conference center at the Red Lion Hotel, 1929 Fourth St. in Eureka. On Nov. 5, the council will convene at 9 a.m. and depart immediately for a field tour to public lands managed by the BLM Arcata Field Office. Members of the public are welcome. They must provide their own transportation, meals and beverages. (BLM Website)

November 6: Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains National Monument

Save the Date! November 6, 2015 marks the 15th anniversary of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto National Monument – and we want you to celebrate with us! (BLM Facebook)

November 8: BLM Offers Burros for Adoption in Davis

Residents of the Davis area will have the opportunity to add some long ears to the family when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will offer wild burros for adoption at the Donkey Welfare Symposium on Sun., Nov. 8 California Wild Horse & Burro Adoption Schedule (BLM Website)

November 21: Public Meeting Scheduled to Address Land Use Changes in the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area

Representatives from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Marine Corps will host a Resource Management Group meeting about changes in land use in the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area on Nov. 21 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  (BLM News Release)

November 23: Public Comments Due

The Bureau of Land Management  Ridgecrest Field Office, has announced the availability of the proposed plan for remediating contamination for Operable Unit 1 (OU1) at the Rand Historic Mining Complex Site. The proposed plan was prepared by the BLM under authority of the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act  and is the first step in the CERCLA remedy selection process. (BLM Website)

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