Mojave Preserve to celebrate 15th anniversary

KELSO • October 31 may be a day of fun and dress up, but for conservationists and rangers at the Mojave National Preserve, Halloween is the anniversary of a day that changed the California desert forever.

Fifteen years ago Saturday, U.S. lawmakers signed the California Desert Protection Act into law, making Joshua Tree and Death Valley national parks and establishing the Mojave National Preserve. To celebrate the preserve’s 15th anniversary, the National Park Service, National Parks Conservation Association and a new non-profit conservation group will present a day of free guided hikes and tours, keynote speakers and booths for kids at the Kelso Depot Visitor Center on Saturday.

Park rangers will lead hikes to the Kelso Dunes and the Vulcan Mine. The Fort Mojave Tribal Band and poet cowboy Rob Blair will entertain. Speakers include a former superintendent of Death Valley National Park and Jim Dodson, an activist who helped write the California Desert Protection Act.

“This was the largest and continues to be the largest parks and wilderness bill to affect the lower 48 states,” said Mike Cipra, California desert program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association and a member of the conservancy board.

The Mojave National Preserve Conservancy was officially incorporated in September and will be a membership and fund-raising organization for the preserve. The group will focus on creating youth education programs at the preserve as well as raising money for projects that may not get federal funding, Cipra said. It’s modeled after similar organizations at Joshua Tree and Death Valley.

David Lamfrom, board president of the Mojave National Preserve conservancy, said there was a need for an outside group to work with the preserve and the community. The conservancy will be a way to get Barstow residents out to the explore the preserve.

“Right now what we want to do is raise awareness about what an amazing opportunity people have to discover the Mojave National Preserve,” he said. “Especially visitors from Southern California.”

The bulk of the preserve’s visitors come from Southern California and southern Nevada, said Park Ranger Linda Blair, but one of the goals she’d like to accomplish in the next 15 years is getting new park trails established and expanding on the field trips schools from Barstow and Needles take to the preserve.

“The kids in Barstow live in the desert, but don’t know much about it,” she said, adding that 2016 marks the centennial of the National Parks Service. “I would say our goals for 2016 are basically getting more local communities to come out and enjoy the park.”

The Kelso Depot hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Activities begin at 10 a.m. The key note speakers begin at 1 p.m. The Kelso Depot is 34 miles south of Interstate 15 on Kelbaker Road.  

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com