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Colorado Desert District NewsletterT

R

A

CK

SJuly

2013

Inside thisissue

New Park patch,Page 8

Gold and Silver,Page 7

Island Lake Fire burns sixmiles of Picachos shoreline

Not a desk job ,Page 6

(Continued on Page 12)

Photo by Sue Barney

From Lower Dock at Picacho State Recreation Area, smokefills the sky as a wall of fire moves upriver on both sides ofthe Colorado River.

By Ranger Sue Barney

Picacho Sta te Recreation Area

Sunday, May 19, a large plume of black smoke was spottedabout a half mile south of the Lower Dock at Picacho State Rec-reation Area. The wildfire originated on the Arizona side of theriver in the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge. Flames from thefire were clearly visible from our maintenance shop and employ-ee housing area. A large sandbar in that area provides a recrea-tion spot for many boaters and they could be seen on the riverwatching as the fire burned both directions.

Emergency services were notified and preparations weremade for evacuation. Fire crews from the Imperial NationalWildlife Refuge arrived by vessel and several hours later theywere successful in stopping the fire at the south end below IslandLake. The fire continued to burn north and by early evening ithad moved past the upper dock.

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Page 2

Salton Sea State

Recreation AreaFrom the desk of Interpreter I Fredda Ste-phens:

Again this year we participated in the 24thannual Idyllwild Earth Fair May 18. Pairing upwith Mount San Jacinto State Park, we staffed atable with more than just fun things to do.

The Earth Fairs mission is to balance festivi-ty and education, and celebrate the diversity ofthe natural word, while motivating people to

be actively involved in preservation. Does thatsound a little familiar? We all are on the samepage.

This year the fair featured live entertainment,organic foods, interactive booths with recycledart and paper making, solar energy, composting,wildlife education and more. Visitors also weretreated to personal encounters with Western

Monarch butterflies in the butterfly tent andreptiles, insects, birds and even a goat.Our table was very popular. With the help of

Interpretive Specialist Ina Lengyal from Idyllwild,we assembled hundreds of flower pinwheels,pipe cleaner insects and rabbit masks for all thechildren to learn about while they practicedtheir fine motor skills.

Our vocal stuffed Audubon birds were a bighit and we all had a great time. It is always sonice to see a community come together with a

great educational opportunity for everyone.What a fun and worthwhile mission.

Palomar Mountain State ParkFrom the desk of Senior Park Aide Daniel

Minshew:Its summer time here at Palomar Mountain


LOG JAM: Notes from the District, sectors

Photos by Fredda Stephens

Making a rabbit mask is a lot of fun at theEarth Day fair in Idyllwi ld.

You have to get the eyes on just right tomake a proper bug.

Making colorful flower pinwheels in theshade is a great way to spend time at theEarth Fair in Idyllwild.

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.

Page 3

LOG JAM: District, sector notes (cont.)(Continued from Page 2)


and as the temperature rises so does the activi-

ty of our bug and snake population. We alreadyhave had six rattlesnake sightings in the pastmonth.

Ranger Jessica Murany responded to a callthe second weekend of June in the Doane Val-ley Campground when campers reported aSouthern Pacific rattlesnake who was hangingout a little too close for comfort. The snakewas trying to procure a mid-day snack ofground squirrel after lethally injecting it withintheir campsite. Somehow the friendly serpent

managed to hide underneath a log away fromthe two legged creatures which made the ex-traction of this slithery guy a little tricky, butwith some good ole fashioned State Park in-genuity, Jessica was able to rig a trash claw withsome duct tape, a shovel and some rope to re-move the snake without causing any harm tothe snake who was promptly returned to a lesspopulated area along with his snack.

It seems that the increase in people for the

start of summer hasnt deterred the localmountain lion population from making its pres-ence known. A reporter from the San DiegoUnion-Tribune was lucky enough to see one ofthese impressive cats on his day hike in mid-May. He reported seeing the cat as he washeading down the south side of Boucher Look-out.

He followed the cat for about 150 to 200yards (apparently they dont offer mountainlion safety 101 where this guy studied journal-

ism) before the cat took off and jumped downthe embankment and out of sight. This reportcoincided with six others weve received sincethe start of the calendar year. It was just lastyear that local Palomar Mountain resident andretired State Parks employee Dave Robarts hadone of these cats come sauntering into hishome. This account was more of an anomaly

than the norm, but lets hope that with the ele-vated number of sightings and Park visitors for

the summer we can co-exist with our native fe-lines without incident.

We would like to graciously welcome ourtwo new employees: Amanda Carlin and KateRochester.

Amanda will be our new seasonal interpretivespecialist who will launch our pilot programs,Palomar Outdoor Youth Challenge. Amanda isoriginally from Cleveland, Ohio, and came toCalifornia in 2002 to attend college. She cur-

rently is working on a masters degree in zoolo-gy and has worked with educating children andtheir parents for the last four years. She is amother of a 5-year-old boy and is married to achef. Her passion is in environmental conserva-tion and education.

Photo by Daniel Minshew

Park Aide Kate Rochester is happy to bework ing at Palomar Mountain State Park.

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LOG JAM: District, sector notes (cont.)


Kate is learning the duties of a seasonal park

aide. She is a San Diegan and currently resides inJulian. Kate has studied some zoology and has apassion for nature, wild life, photography andreading. She has always wanted to work in Na-tional or State Parks and hopes to develop a ca-reer in parks. Kate has three beautiful children.

Boucher Lookout is starting resemble moreof an active fire tower these days than an aban-doned ghost town. After being dormant and un-manned for the better of two decades, the fire

tower received a fresh make-over with newpaint and siding last year.The Volunteer Fire Tower Lookout Associa-

tion has been spearheading efforts to man thetower on a more regular basis. It was successfullast year and 12 volunteers staffed the tower 25days between September 1 and November 18,made four smoke reports and gave 1,438 visi-tors interpretive tours.

This year we received an overwhelmingamount of volunteer recipients when they flew

the opening for volunteers at the tower. Uponcompletion of their crash course at the HighPoint Lookout Tower located on the otherside of Palomar near the Observatory, the newvolunteer cadets will be ready for action.Weve been blessed so far this year to not haveany incidents with brush fire so heres hopingwe will be as fortunate the rest of the year aswe were the first half.

Cuyamaca Rancho State ParkFrom the desk of Heidi Addison-Bier:Felidae Conservation Fund provided a pro-

gram on pumas last month. The presenter, Za-ra McDonald, sent this email on her way backto northern California.

"Hi Heidi,I wanted to follow up with you and let you

know that after leaving the other night, abouttwo miles down the road, we had an incrediblesighting of a female mountain lion and her cub,

peacefully walking away from us up a dirt/graveldriveway. The cub rolled around a few timesand the mother patiently waited. Was a beauti-ful three minutes and a perfect ending to thatday. Interestingly on that same day, around thetime we were driving to CRSP, a lion was hit

Photo by Jessica MuranyA crab or flower spider, Misumenops sp.,takes a walk on a western azalea blossom.The spider is an ambush predator and isfound all over the United States and Canada.

(Continued from Page 3)

Photo by Steve BierLoaded with pollen, a bee continues to visit

flowers in ABDSP.

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on the 8 freeway and killed by a car.Thanks for having usBest, Zara McDonald"

Anza-Borrego Desert StatePark

The Volunteer Potluck will be held at 6 p.m.Tuesday, July 16, at the Paroli Homesite in

Culp Valley. Bring a complete place setting in-cluding silverware, a beverage, a potluck dish toshare and a chair. District and ABDSP staff areencouraged to attend these functionsachance to interact and show our appreciationto our wonderful volunteers.

From the desk of Superintendent KathyDice:

Wow! Three fires in a week in May. Wehope that means we will have a break for

awhile. The Island Lake Fire in Picacho burned3,200 acres, the San Felipe Fire did not damageany State Park lands but burned 2,800 acresjust north of the ABDSP boundary and theGeneral Fire took 1,271 acres.

The General Fire, which was started by tar-get shooters across the street from the Bannerstore around noon burned a little more than

900 acres in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park,which included Rodriguez Canyon and the back-side of Granite and Chariot mountains.

As usual, the inconvenience of having a firestart on a holiday weekend made this event aspecial challenge. I want to thank all those whoanswered the call to assist at the IC or in thefield during that fire.

A special shout out to Supervising Ranger SueMcLaughlin who served as my representative atthe scene of the fire as well at the IC when itmoved to Puerta La Cruz. Everyone should beso lucky to have someone so dependable asSue.

Also kudos to Park Maintenance Worker IIScot Martin, who shortened his weekend plansto come out to the fire and work with crewsand bulldozer operators in the first criticalhours of the fire. Associate Archeologist SueWade also dropped her plans for Monday andcame out to protect cultural sites. Rangers Ste-


Photo by Sam WebbMike and Jan Bigelow host the last ABDSPvolunteer potluck of the season where Mike

cooked hamburgers for the crowd.

Former District SuperintendentDave Van Cleve writes book

Retired District Superintendent DaveVan Cleve has written a book about hisyears working for State Parks.

My new (little) book has just been pub-lished on Amazon, he wrote. It takes ahumorous look back at my 32 years in thePark Service and is mostly a collection ofanecdotes about the wacky people and sit-

uations I ran into.The book, Have a Nice Day Job, can be

ordered at http://www.amazon.com/Have-Nice-Day-Job-superintendent/dp/1484850793/ r e f=s r _ 1_ 1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368723663&sr=1-1.

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ve Bier, Jeri Zemon and Nicole Van Doren also

stepped up to the plateSteve more thanonce.And research Anaylst II (GIS) L.Louise Jee

quickly responded with maps. Last but not leastI would like to thank the Resource folks, Dis-trict Services Manager Gail Sevrens, Environ-mental Scientists Eric Hollenbeck andMike Puzzo for applying their expertise to therehabilitation portion of the fire.

The San Felipe Fire started as a prescribedburn on California Department of Fish and

Wildlife property in the lower San Felipe Val-ley. It jumped the line and began burning southnear Vulcan Mountain. There were some smallspot fires on the east side of S-2 close to themonument at Scissor's Crossing.

Steve Bier was at IC with members of theResources Crew, Scot Martin and Park Mainte-nance Assistant Daniel Aceves. Helicopters,bulldozers and ground crews battled the blazeto get a line around it.

Thanks to Park Maintenance Assistant FranzBoschiero and Ranger Josh Heitzman, we nowhave a new interpretive sign posted in Ar-royo Tapiado explaining the safety hazards ofthe mud caves. This was a project that has longbeen overdue and was driven into fast forwardafter the unfortunate death of the explorer/

visitor a year ago.

Happy retirement to Cherie Grout. She com-pleted more than 16 years of work for us and isnow living in Hemet. Since that leaves a crew ofonly three to care for our facilities these nextfew months, we are bringing Park MaintenanceAide Natalie McSparron back to assist us with

housekeeping and priority projects a few dayshere and there. Please give her a big hello whenyou see her.

Coyote Canyon, Horse Camp and TamariskGrove were closed as of June 1 until September30 by District Superintendent Dan Falats order,as they are every year. Our Visitor Center isnow open only on weekends and holidaysthrough September.

Colorado Desert DistrictEnvironmental Scientist Joe Hopkins reports

Flat Tail Horned Lizard survey crews have beenassisted by new volunteers Denise Zuranski, aVisitor Center volunteer, and Bruce Edley, a re-cent college graduate and a devoted ABDSPherpetologist. Donna Hopkins, who workedwith the crew last season, has returned.

Photo by Steve BierABDSP Maintenance Mechanic Mike Dryepicks up an unused propane tank with the

front loader to make room for a new storageunit in the maintenance yard.

Photo bySam WebbRetired ABDSPSuperintendent

Mark Jorgen-sen speaks atan orientationmeeting forpeople who willparticipate inthe annual July4th sheepcount.

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ABF trustee receives several book awards

FootprintsBrenda Hemondhas accepted the posi-

tion of ABDSPs Park Maintenance Chief.Brenda began with DPR in 1992 as agroundskeeper at Old Town, San Diego, andserved in a variety of maintenance positionsafter that.

Brenda comes to us from Bodie State His-torical Park in Sierra District where she wasthe maintenance supervisor. Brenda starts July15.

Amanda Carlin is the new seasonal inter-pretive specialist in charge of new pilot pro-

grams, Palomar Outdoor Youth Challenge, atPMSP.

Kate Rochester joins Amanda at PMSP asa Park Aide.

District Services Manager GailSevrenshas accepted a job with the Califor-nia Department of Fish and Wildlife.

ABDSP Ranger Paul Reisman has

been named superintendent of Mount SanJacinto State Park.

Resources Crew members Park Mainte-nance Worker II Scot Martin, ParkMaintenance Assistant Daniel Aceves,Park Maintenance Aide John Molina andPark Maintenance Aide Jack Jorgensenare off for the summer season.

Environmental Scientist Lisa Gonza-les-Kramer is moving to Iowa to be withher family. She will continue to supervisor the

reforestation of CRSP from there for a shorttime.

Sandra Bennett has joined CRSP as aPark Aide.

Environmental Scientist Mike Puzzois off for a few months to be with his newson, Kellen.

Author Nicholas Clapps newest book, Goldand Silver in the Mojave: Images of a Last Frontier,has been awarded the Independent Books Pub-

lishers Association Benjamin Franklin gold med-al for interior design and a silver medal for his-

tory. Gold and Silveralso received a PubWestBook Design gold award for photography and isa finalist in the San Diego Books Awards forhistory.

Nick, a documentary filmmaker who hasstudied and filmed the deserts of the world,was visiting Death Valley when he noticed theQueen of Sheba mine. He was drawn into thestory of the mine and that led to his third book,Who Killed Chester Pray? A Death Valley Mystery.

His latest book on the Mojave evolved out ofthe research for that book.

Nick has lived in Borrego for several yearsand serves as a trustee for the Anza-BorregoFoundation and is a ABDSP volunteer. Thebook was published by Sunbelt Publications.

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Paige Rogowski is ABFs executive directorThe Anza-Borrego Foundation

Anza-Borrego

Foundation (ABF) an-nounced the appoint-ment of PaigeRogowski as executivedirector. Paige, whopreviously served asdevelopment director,will provide leadershipto ABF in its role asthe cooperating asso-

ciation working to pre-

serve and protect Anza-Borrego Desert StatePark.Were delighted to have Paige leading the

Foundation, said board President Ralph Singer.Her non-profit leadership skills, her expertisein outdoor recreation and conservation, and herdemonstrated commitment to land protectionin the region all dovetail with ABFs initiative toreach new generations of Park supporters. Sheis the right person at the right time to guide theFoundation.

Paige replaces C. L. Chuck Bennett whoserved as interim executive director after his 19years of service on the ABF board.

I am honored to step in to this role at thisstage in the organizations development, saidPaige. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park holds aspecial place in my heart, as it does for so manyothers. The Park contains valuable natural andrecreational resources and we must look to thenext generations to protect them forever. I lookforward to building upon ABFs excellent

achievements during the last 45 years.Paige holds a bachelors degree in AmericanStudies from the University of California at San-ta Cruz. She received a certificate in Fund Rais-ing Management from the Center on Philanthro-py at Indiana University.

She first joined Anza-Borrego Foundation in2006. Paige has also served as the development

director for Leave No Trace Center for Out-door Ethics and managed the volunteer accred-itation process for the American Camp Associ-ation Southern California and Hawaii. Duringher career she has raised more than $15 mil-lion dollars for charitable causes.

ABF's mission is to protect and preserve thenatural landscapes, wildlife habitat and culturalheritage of ABDSP for the benefit and enjoy-ment of present and future generations.

ABF also an-nounced that it hasreceived a new patch(and has other itemsor order) to cele-brate the 150 yearsof California StateParks. The patch isavailable for $3.95and $3.16 for volun-teers. It is available atthe Visitor Centerand ABFs Park Store.

Friends of Palomar Mountain State ParkThe girls of GirlScout BrownieTroop 1852 ofCarlsbad raised anddonated $100 to-ward keeping Palo-mar Mountain StatePark.

"Your gift will havea big impact on the

Park," Rick Barclay, Chairman of Friends of Pal-omar, told the girls during the official handover ceremony. "Absolutely every dollarcounts to keep the Park open and beautiful, nodoubt about it. I'm really impressed with yourhard workyou had to sell a lot of cookies toraise a hundred dollars! And I'm especially


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Name your favorite

books so we can readthem too!

Page 9

Girl Scouts, Wilsons give to PMSP (cont.)

Photo by Sam WebbSome of the ABDSP volunteers who attend-ed the May potluck enjoy their meal (seepage 5). This is just one group of volunteersin our District who work so d iligently for ourparks.


grateful that you decided to share your hard-

earned money with Palomar."In February the girls visited the Parkmanyfor the first timeand were struck by its beau-ty and learned of the Park's plight. When itcame time to sell cookies and to decide whereto contribute a portion of their proceeds, sup-porting Palomar Mountain State Park in its hourof need was proposedan idea that came fromthe girls, not their parents.

The gift was given in loving memory of DanBeishline, recently departed grandfather of one

of the girls.

Another donation that the Friends of Palo-mar is thrilled about is $30,000 from the Wil-son Family Foundation.

This is the second gift of that size that Boband Marion Wilson have donated to help saveand support Palomar Mountain State Park. Thefirst was given as a match challenge in early2012, immediately after Friends kicked off ourinitial fund drive.

This most recent contribution came sponta-neously through an awareness of what it willtake to keep Palomar open and thriving.

"I still believe in the concept of private sup-port for our state parks," said Mr. Wilson."Judging from the assessment portrayed in ournewspapers, it is the only answer."

The Wilsons' generous donations of$60,000 represents nearly a third of the$190,000 Friends has raised so far.

"I just want what's best for Palomar," Mr.

Wilson stated.Mr. Wilsons support for Palomar goes be-yond financial and includes his inestimable ser-vice as a premier advocate for the Park. He haspersonally laid the groundwork for potentialfuture support from five local Indian bands andcasinos.

In March 2012 he was the focus of a news

article about how private support was the lastremaining option for saving Palomar from per-manent closure, and in May 2013 he was fea-tured in The California Report's "Will LocalsKeep Paying for State Parks They Saved?" pro-duced by National Public Radio.

Sea and Desert Interpretive Associati onSSSRA Volun-teers and staff aretaking a close lookat the Visitor Cen-ter stock and will bew o r k i n g o nhandouts, brochuresand future pro-grams. A new bookby local artist Chris-

tina Lange, Portraits and Voices of the Salton Sea,is available in the Center and, according to In-terpreter I Fredda Stephens, is a beautiful trib-ute to the people of the Salton Sea with haunt-ingly memorable photography and stories fromlocal residents.


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Kayak trips are planned at PSRA(cont.)


Photo by Connie BrooksIn spite of the fire in May, kayak trips are planned for October 5 and 6, October 12 and 13,and October 19 and 20 at Picacho State Recreation Area. The overnight tr ips are sponsoredby the Sea and Desert Interpretive Association and include a kayak, camping space, specialboat tour, two breakfasts, lunch and dinner as well as round-trip transportation from theSalton Sea State Recreation Area. The kayak trip is $150 per person and with the round-triptranspor tation i t is $199.00. There is a $25 discount for couples. Reserve by calling Connieat (760) 289.9455.

Connie Brooks reports that this is the first

time that the Camp Store has been open duringfishing season and were they ever surprised atthe amount of business they had. They broke allwinter records and weren't able to keep bait,coffee or snacks in stock!

SDIA Board Member Frances Fiamengo re-tired from the board after more than 20 years.

Its very sad to see her go. She has been avery active part of our board, said SDIA Presi-

dent Bill Meister.Spending most of her life at the Salton Sea,

she has witnessed many changes that have tak-en place. Joining the board in the early 1990s,Frances has been vice president, secretary andtreasurer and was a park aide as well.

Its been wonderful watching how muchthe SDIA has advanced over the years. Itsbeen a lot of fun and very challenging she stat-ed. I have really enjoyed meeting and workingwith people here and at Picacho. I will miss


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Name your favorite


Page 11

Volunteers keep CRSPs trails open (cont.)(Continued from Page 10)

everyone, but will still be here to help with fes-

tivals.CRSPs Interpretive Assistance Uni tBy Philip Price (Volunteer Librarian)

Yes, we have a library and even a collectionof archival materials! And with these we can alllearn more about the wonders of CuyamacaRancho State Park, its history, people and sur-rounding environment, the flora and fauna thatcall this place home. This resource is providedfor volunteers as well as staff to enhance ourunderstanding of the Park and to enrich our

interactions with all who may visit.Molly Jean Featheringill, who formerly was

responsible for the functioning of the library,has been a pillar of activity and volunteerismand has led the way to making the Visitor Cen-ter and the library what it is today.

A binder with a simple procedure for bor-rowing books is on top of a storage tote in theback of the Visitor Centers conference room.

CRSPs Trai ls Maintenance Uni tBy Michele Hernandez

This month thehike and hack wascancelled due toMay Training. Awork party wentout the followingweekend on ColdStream Trail Southout of Paso Picacho.Milo led Reeve and

Georgia Peterson, Elizabeth Baker and Susan

Russo south while Dave McClure went downto Cold Stream parking and worked north withMarc Campbell.

Ken McIntire and his hard working crewhave been working on Burnt Pine and SugarPine. He and Wally also took out a huge fallentree on Kellys Ditch. Park Maintenance Super-visor Jim Dascoulias and his crew have been

working on Kellys Ditch by the Park boundary.Hopefully that part of the trail to EngineersRoad will be done soon. Jim then plans to finishup West Mesa by Monument. Milo came outagain on Saturday of Memorial Day weekendand worked on the front of Stonewall. He wasjoined by Elizabeth Baker and Marc Campbell.

Meanwhile, Dave McClure took Skip Davisout to Fern Flat Fire Road to clear somedowned trees. Alas they only got one tree donebefore succumbing to a flat on their truck. Thespare looked mighty sketchy, so erring on theside of discretion, they limped back down tothe shop. Bill Butters been taking care of treelimbs at rider and horse heights with his trusty24 saw while riding in the park.

CRSPs Mounted Assistance Uni tBy Bonnie Slager

May was a busy month and the Park has real-ly been beautiful with wild flowers popping upall over and a lot of small pine and oak treesgrowing up to four or five feet tall. The Park isreally making a comeback now from the fire. Icannot believe it has been ten years this coming

October. The Park is certainly different butbeautiful and showing so many signs of re-growth. The Benefit Ride is schedule July 28and the annual MAU Family and Friends cam-pout is just around the corner. We start Thurs-day, June 20, and stay until Monday, June 24.

CRSPs Mountain Bike Assistance Uni tBy Chad Leptich

Recently while on patrol, I came across anew type of trail user. These mountain bikersunplug from society for weekend bike packing

trips. They are easy to spot because they havetravel bags on their handle bars and behind theseats. These people were very friendly and hap-py to converse about their travels. One hadstarted near Idyllwild and was trying to make itto downtown San Diego. The idea is to ride allday and sleep at State and County Parks andmake it home in time for work on Monday.

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Page 12

Winds blew embers across river (cont.)

Photos by Sue BarneyThe flag still waves over Old Lonesomesgrave at Carrizo Boat-in Camp at PSRA.


Firefighters from Imperial County and Win-

terhaven Fire Department were on stand-by inthe main campground for structure protection.Fortunately the air was calm and the fire re-mained slow moving on the Arizona side of theriver. Efforts were made during the night byground crews but a stand of hot burning tama-risk caused the fire to jump the line.

Monday brought 30 to 35 miles per hourhigh winds that fueled the fire. Forty foot flamesshot up and eerie whistling sounds could beheard as the heat sucked the moisture from wil-

low trees. Shifting winds blew embers acrossthe river igniting vegetation in the Park nearTaylor Lake. The fire burned both directions onthe California side and continued north in therefuge on the Arizona side.

About 100 firefighters from agencies as faraway as Las Vegas, Prescott and Tucson re-sponded along with air support. Inmates fromthe Arizona Department of Correctionsworked the Arizona side along with crews fromthe refuge.

When the smoke cleared, the flames had tak-en more than six miles of our shoreline and

about 12 miles of the refuge shoreline in Arizo-na, about 3,200 acres total. While much of thevegetation was phragmites and salt cedar, sev-eral stands of cottonwoods and willows alsowere impacted. Within Picacho, two shadestructures and a bathroom were completelyburned. Two shade structures and some wood

parking rail were partially burned.

Yuma County Sheriff looks for boaters thatwill have to evacuate the area while flamesmove right down to the Colorado River.

Looking upriver (north) from Carrizo, the fire

still is very active. Hoge Rock is on the right.It is obvious the fire jumped the river againand even the island in the middle of the riverwas burned.


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Page 13

Park was closed on Memorial Day (cont.)(Continued from Page 12)

The impacted area covered from south of

Taylor Lake to north of 4S Beach Camp.The timing of the fire forced the closure ofthe Park during the Memorial Day weekend.ABDSP Ranger Josh Heitzmann was a big helpto us in keeping recreationalists off the hazard-ous shorelines and out of the closed camp are-as.

With the vegetation removed one could geta sense of what the river was like long beforethe phragmites were introduced to aid in ero-sion control along the river banks. Some histor-

ic sites, long covered by vegetation, were re-vealed.

When mining was active in the area, Paddle-

wheeler Boat-In Camp was a ferry crossing thatwas used to supply the mines and ranches onthe Arizona side of the river. The fire revealeda large hill on the Arizona side with large metalhooks where the ferry cable used to be se-cured. Supplies brought by vehicle to Picachowere transferred here by ferry and then drivento Nortons Landing and Hoge Ranch. Due to

ABDSP Ranger Josh Heitzman (above)heads out to make sure the Memorial Week-end crowds stay away from closed areas.The party goes on in spite of the charredlandscape (below).

Photos by Sue BarneyThe charred remains at 4-S Beach Camp aremute testimony to the impact of the IslandFire. Remarkedly, the other two shade rama-das and composting toi lets were untouched.

Park maintenance Assistant Georgia Schnei-der checks out damage at PSRAs 4-S Beach

Camp.

the hardworking efforts of the fire crews Nor-tons Landing was spared from the fire, but itdid burn through Hoge Ranch as it worked itsway to Catfish Cove where it extinguished itself.

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Page 14

There is proof: terror bird flew at ABDSP


By Lou BaharPaleontology Society

Many volunteers have returned to cooler ar-eas for the summer, but it is still hard to get aspot in the parking area. Volunteers are hard atwork on data entry and continuing the work onthe invertebrate collection.

The Kidwell invertebrate collection was iden-tified this past season by two experts, AstridMontiel and N. Scott Rugh. Now that we knowwhat is in that collection, the following steps inthe curation sequence are in the process of be-ing carried out. All descriptive informationabout the specimens and the localities from hasbeen entered into the database.

Now labels, which are placed inside the box-es that hold specimens, are being printed andemplaced. For years those labels have been handwritten, introducing innumerable typographicerrors and creating many challenges to thosereading them. Labels printed by computer andpresenting information from the database arevery easy to read, are fully informative and typo-graphic errors are greatly reduced.

This is a huge, complex project, with about3,500 labels to be printed and placed. While thevolunteers are doing this, they are also checkingthe specimens in the trays to be certain that thedata on the labels matches objects in the trays.

Senior Park Aide Arnie Mroz led several fieldtrips to investigatee some slightly off-topic ques-tions and localities, especially regarding rocks,minerals, metamorphic and recently depositedsediments. The trips goals included searches formetamorphic rocks containing possible cono-donts (early vertebrates), zircons (ancient min-erals used to determine sources of sediments),unusual rock types and recent flooding and sedi-mentation processes.

The Desert Research Symposium at Zzyzx inApril, showcased an important ABDSP fossil. Inaddition to writing an article for the BorregoSun, Paleontology Society Volunteer Sue Ves-

cera presented a talk at the symposium on the"terror bird." Excerpts from the Borrego Sunarticle follow.

A fossil bird beak found in Anza-BorregoDesert State Park in the 1960s has recentlybeen re-identified as belonging to a terrorbird, six-foot-tall, flightless bird with a massivehead and large beak in the family Phorusrhaci-dae. The birds roamed in South America from62 to about 2 million years ago. It appears thatduring the Great American Biotic Interchange,when the Isthmus of Panama closed and joinedthe two continents, terror birds moved to

North America.Terror bird specimens from a genus iden-tified as Titaniswallerihave been found only inthe Gulf coast areas of Florida and Texas. NowCalifornia can be added to their territory. Thebeak is part of the collection of fossils found inABDSP and housed in the Districts Stout Re-search Center.

In 1972 paleontologist Hildegard Howardassigned the beak to Teratornithidae, a familyof large condor-like birds. Since 2004 the beak

was on loan to bird paleontologist Robert M.Chandler from Georgia College in Milledgeville,Georgia, who has worked with the Gulf coastTitanisspecimens. From his examination of thebeak he concluded it was that of a phorusrha-cid. Since Titanisis the only genus of that familyknown in North America, Chandler has calledit aTitanisbeak.

In 2012 Chandler communicated his find-ings to George T. Jefferson, District Paleontol-ogist Emeritus. The beaks new identification

and its implications are the subject of a scien-tific paper that was delivered at the 27th Annu-al Desert Symposium held at the CaliforniaState Universitys Desert Studies Center inZzyzx. The paper was written by George andco-authored by Robert M. Chandler, Paleontol-ogy Society Volunteer Lowell Lindsay and me.

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Name your favorite


Page 15

Michael Guberek is a winning liar (cont.)

Photo by Diana LindsayPaleontology Society Volunteer Michael Gu-berek holds the prop he used in his taleabout finding Peg Legs Gold at the annualPeg Leg Liars contest April 1. Michael re-ceived second place.

Placing Titanisin California represents a

significant extension of its habitat range; in addi-tion, dated at 3.7 million years old, the beakmay be the oldest Titanisspecimen in the UnitedStates, and the presence of the terror bird sup-ports the idea that during the Pliocene Epochthe paleoenvironment of this area was tropical.

On a lighter note, Paleontology Society Vol-unteer Michael Guberek won second place atthe annual Peg Leg Liars Contest in BorregoSprings. He presented a yarn about a mammothfind that covered a pot of gold.

Volunteer Ron Pavlu has worked for the lasttwo years on the fossil land tortoise taken outof the field in 2011. He has meticulously cleanedand preserved the fossil singlehandedly. Alt-hough several volunteers could assist in the pro-ject, the intricate detail required to remove thesedimentary matrix (surrounding sand, clay andother non-bone matter) from the, sometimesvery fragmentary, bone is best performed by asingle, dedicated individual. It is very difficult todistinguish the matrix from the bone of the car-

apace and skeleton. Only with consistent workon the specimen can one become aware of thedifferences. Ron recently submitted a report onthe progress of 'Shelly' the tortoise.

In his latest report, Ron writes, Well, after163 hours invested in Shelly, I am pleased toannounce that I have gone full circle. Lookingdown from the top, one can see a ring of tat-tered bone outlining the oval shape of the cara-pace. For those who may not know, I have re-covered an insect shell/case from one of the

many holes that have been bored into Shelly.We do not have it identified as of this writ-ing. Most importantly the front peripheralbones (these are short and flared out and upgiving the shell its sports car look) are not thefrom the top of the neck that have crushedsideways and down, but are actually the periph-erals that start from that side and progress to

the top of the neck. They are where they be-long. I have made bone connection proving thisto be the case.

As Ron is working on the carapace he takesdetailed measurements and photographs todocument his progress. He and District Paleon-tologist Lyn Murray are documenting the de-composition of the shell to learn how it brokedown and became partially dispersed prior toburial. The top of Shellys shell broke loose andwas displaced from the main shell, sliding sever-al feet down-slope, prior to final burial.

Curtis White is working on this secondblock of shell. It is composed of various piecesof bony carapace, as well as the dermal ossicles(protective bony armor in the skin) that cov-ered a limb bone. It is delicate work to sepa-rate bone elements or fragments that are en-cased in the matrix without disturbing onesnext to it.

Hopefully, Shelley will provide new infor-mation about the decomposition of fossil turtleshells, which will be informative to the generalscientific paleontology community.


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Colorado Desert District200 Palm Canyon DriveBorrego Springs, CA 92004

TRACKS

TRACKS Colorado Desert District Newsletter

Dan Falat, District Superintendent Colorado Desert DistrictLeslie Bellah, TRACKS Editor Borrego Springs, CA 92004

(760) 767-4037 Fax: (760) 767-3427E-mail: [email protected]

Anza-Borrego Sector............Kathy Dice, SuperintendentAnza-Borrego Desert State ParkMontane Sector.....Ray Lennox and Brent Hufford Management Team;

Dan Falat, Law Enforcement/Public Safety ManagementCuyamaca Rancho State ParkPalomar Mountain State Park

Salton Sea Sector.......Kathy Dice, Acting SuperintendentIndio Hills PalmsPicacho State Recreation AreaSalton Sea State Recreation Area

tracks - july 2013

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