Ron's Log

Bicycling Berdoo Canyon

Good video [no audio] documentation of a two day bicycle ride going from Coachella into Joshua Tree N.P. via Cottonwood, then returning via Berdoo Canyon. They stayed off pavement as much as possible, so most of their journey from Coachella up to I-10 would probably have been on the Meccacopia Trail. They say they were "battling 90 degree heat." IOW, cool weather.

Roy's Desert Resource Center Ribbon Cutting

Supervisor Marion Ashley. In the background is a portrait of the late Supervisor Roy Wilson.

More photos.

Oneonta Geology Students Set To Partay!

For spring break some geology students from SUNY Oneonta will be in our neighborhood. Here's the PDF, but below I've copied some of the text:

Mojave-Mecca Field Trip, February 20-28, Spring Break 2010

Looking for the sun? How about a spring break near Palm Springs, and a walk on the wilderness side??

Announcing the Mojave-Mecca Field Trip First Spring Break, 2010

Come to the Information Meeting: Tuesday, 5 pm (10/13/09) Room 205 Science 1 Building to find out more!

This field trip explores tectonic, volcanic, and geomorphic features along an active plate boundary in southern California. Students will investigate folds and faults including the San Andreas fault in the Mecca Hills Wilderness; stroll in the shade of 1000 Palms fed by springs along the San Andreas fault; take a tram ride to 10,000 feet above local valley floors for a birds-eye view of a tectonic valley; visit a wind farm in a tectonic gap; measure offset along the 1992 Landers earthquake zone; trek over the gigantic Blackhawk landslide shed off a tectonic thrust fault; peer into folded layers in Rainbow Basin for fossil camel footprints; stand on effusive and explosive volcanoes (now extinct); squeeze into slot canyons cut by drainage from Pleistocene lakes; gaze at cave formations; listen to singing sand dunes; and probe desert geomorphology. Join us!

The trip runs for 9 days including travel, February 20-28, 2010 over the first spring break. Students will fly to Las Vegas, NV, and then take vans to field sites. We will stay at places ranging from undeveloped campgrounds to university research stations with dorm rooms and a kitchen. After the field trip, students will investigate a field location of their choice further, and make a 15-20 minute presentation to the class in April.

A minimum of 9 students is needed for trip to run. Costs will not exceed $1000 per student including air fare, food, lodging, vans and fuel, and tuition.

Students will supply their own sleeping mattress and sleeping bag (expect to see a few mornings with frost), and eating utensils (plate, cup, spoon/fork/knife). Each student will be expected to carry a piece of group camp equipment as checked baggage on the flight out.

Necessary/Useful Items [long list of standard camping items cut for brevity]
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Sorry. Leave the golf clubs home.

Prerequisites: an intro Geology course and either Geol 220 or Geol 201, and permission of instructor, Dr. Les Hasbargen.

Frey Marina at North Shore

Today was the first time I've visited the marina at North Shore since the county started construction work to turn it into a community center/medical clinic. I'm really disappointed that they seem to be doing everything possible to strip it of its mid-century modern appearance. I think it will turn out looking like a county clinic.

They haven't touched the bait shack.

There was a gull who thought he could challenge the pelicans.

Oasis Date Gardens

In Thermal on Route 111.

More photos here.

The Patton House

In Indio at 48th and Jackson.

Karl Baker Honored (old news)

This is worth watching if only to hear Pat Hammers say "pissed me off." Mr. Baker was honored on Memorial Day 2009 (but I just found this video) by The Veterans For Peace: "Elected Official Of The Year - Thank you for your tireless efforts to improve the city and for the cause of peace and equality in the Coachella Valley."

Windfarms Have No Effect On Home Prices

So says a study funded by the Department of Energy. Here's the study report [PDF] itself, and its summary:

With wind energy expanding rapidly in the U.S. and abroad, and with an increasing number of communities considering wind power development nearby, there is an urgent need to empirically investigate common community concerns about wind project development. The concern that property values will be adversely affected by wind energy facilities is commonly put forth by stakeholders. Although this concern is not unreasonable, given property value impacts that have been found near high voltage transmission lines and other electric generation facilities, the impacts of wind energy facilities on residential property values had not previously been investigated thoroughly. The present research collected data on almost 7,500 sales of singlefamily homes situated within 10 miles of 24 existing wind facilities in nine different U.S. states. The conclusions of the study are drawn from eight different hedonic pricing models, as well as both repeat sales and sales volume models. The various analyses are strongly consistent in that none of the models uncovers conclusive evidence of the existence of any widespread property value impacts that might be present in communities surrounding wind energy facilities. Specifically, neither the view of the wind facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities is found to have any consistent, measurable, and statistically significant effect on home sales prices. Although the analysis cannot dismiss the possibility that individual homes or small numbers of homes have been or could be negatively impacted, it finds that if these impacts do exist, they are either too small and/or too infrequent to result in any widespread, statistically observable impact.

Before you all erupt in cheers and applause, let me cool your excitement by pointing out that the study included NO analysis of any of the California windfarms. I'm not convinced we can just assume that California real estate prices behave the same as prices in Texas, Iowa, or Pennsylvania.

GOPS Hike In Desert Hot Springs

Today I went on a little hike with Great Outdoors exploring the eastern end of one of the most prominent features of the San Andreas fault close to Desert Hot Springs. That is, the pressure ridge that runs from near Long Canyon Road to Two Bunch Palms Resort.

This hill that we hiked around is a pressure ridge pushed up by the Mission Creek strand of the San Andreas fault. Can anyone tell me whose property that is on top of the hill?

More photos here.

Citrus Quarantine

The Desert Sun is reporting today that the California Department of Food and Agriculture has extended the citrus quarantine throughout the entire Coachella Valley to protect against the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri). This is based on a November 24 press release that other media reported on that day or even earlier.

The press release says, among other things, "Residents and people moving through the quarantine zone are urged not to remove citrus fruits with leaves and stems from the area." But in a November 18 press release on the subject of expanding the quarantine area in northern San Diego County it says "The quarantine requires that local residents not move home-grown fruits and vegetables from the property of origin and to consume fruits and vegetables on-site." In addition, the Desert Sun article quotes Steve Lyle, the Food and Agriculture Department's public affairs director, saying "Residents who have citrus trees in their yards aren't allowed to remove the plants, plant parts or fruit from their property."

That's a fairly extreme limitation that, if the California Department of Food and Agriculture really means it, will require some intensive education. It bans the traditional practice of sharing citrus fruit with your neighbors and friends. It would also ban the dumping of excess citrus fruit, or even citrus fruit waste, into your trash to be hauled to a landfill. Would it be okay to run that fruit waste down into your garbage disposal, or do people have to start composting their citrus waste on site?

Here is a pamphlet [PDF] with photos of the insect and the damage that can be caused by Huanglongbing disease, which can be carried by the psyllid, but has not yet been found in California.