Hiking "Coast to Cactus"

-from Anne C Morgan, Head Curator

Canyoneers Stacey and Rochelle with Ramses

As the weather cools and the season for enjoying the outdoors begins, thoughts turn towards hiking, camping, and exploring the wonderfully diverse region that is Southern California.  Yesterday 25 people came out to the Desert Museum for a book talk to get ready for the season.

San Diego Natural History Museum Canyoneers Rochelle Gaudette and Stacy Vielma came out to talk about hiking, some of their experiences out on the trails, and the new book written by Canyoneers and published by Sunbelt Publications Coast to Cactus The Canyoneer Trail Guide to San Diego Outdoors.  "The book is more than just another hiking guide" said Rochelle "it's like having a virtual Canyoneer with you when you can't join us on hikes."  The book looks at the range of habitats found in San Diego County and over 500 species of plants, birds, mammals, reptiles and more that call the area home, as well as natural and cultural features you might find.

Frank & Lidia looking at plant samples

Visitors got to handle samples of local plants and try to identify them.  Some, like the brittle bush, were well known to locals, while other plants looked so similar that the group had to compare them closely before figuring out what was what.  Chamise, buckwheat, Lemonadeberry, Toyon and others were looked at not only for plant comparisons but also to explore what drought adaptations different plants had developed.

"There is no shortage of fun on our hikes" Stacey told the audience. "We encourage people to examine the world and learn about the ecosystems." Whether you are joining the Canyoneer hikes or going out with your own group there are endless things to discover about the natural world around us, from the coast to the desert.

Coast to Cactus book supplements hiking, & San Diego Natural History Museum exhibit

Coast to Cactus exhibit at NAT

Night of the Tortoises

-from the Head Curator

One of the perks of being a member of the Imperial Valley Desert Museum Society are the members-only events we occasionally hold.  Last night we held our first members-only Evening with an Expert event of the season.  David Lamfrom, Director of the California Desert and Wildlife Programs with the National Parks Conservation Association; wildlife photographer; conservation advocate; and president of the Mojave National Preserve Conservancy, came out to speak about desert tortoises and a youth program he did called Tortoises Through the Lens.

David Lamfrom signed copies of Tortoises Through the Lens after his talk

"As long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by animals: wanting to know what their lives are like, and how I could help them" Lamfrom said.  His passion and enthusiasm for the desert, protecting it, and exposing others to it, came through in every moment of his talk.  He described how, as a native of Southern Florida, he was fascinated by the beauty of the very different landscape of the California deserts- and how he was shocked by locals who not only saw no beauty in where they lived, but couldn't wait to leave it.  In 2008 he was in the first class to win a National Audubon Society Toyota TogetherGreen Fellowship and began to connect children to the desert through photography.  This became Tortoises Through the Lens: a program where kids were given cameras and taken out into the Mojave Desert to discover what they thought mattered.  After a meeting with a small tortoise, the group was hooked.  The result has been a whole new generation of "desert rats", advocating for the desert, the desert tortoises, and their habitats.  The students' photography became Tortoises Through the Lens, a book "of their eighteen-month adventure to seek out, photograph, and learn about the desert tortoises and the harsh land that they inhabit."

Marcie Rodriguez, Edgar Bernal Sevilla, Robin Dodge, David Lamfrom
& Dr. Robert Wishner with Ramses

After the talk, members shared stories about tortoises they had known as pets, as well as their experiences in the desert.  Lamfrom's experience of kids not being able to wait until they could move away was familiar to everyone in the room.  "We're not taught to love our desert" Marcie Rodriguez, IVDM Education Co-ordinator agreed with Lamfrom.  "I didn't know how amazing this place was until I came to the museum.  Now there's a place for people with a passion to come and learn and share ideas and advocate.  It's my goal to make sure no Imperial Valley student feels the way I did about growing up in the Valley."

New outdoor test panels encourage visitors to explore the lives of desert tortoises

The Value of Membership-or, having more fun at the Museum

-from the Curator

Author Nicholas Clapp and his wife Bonnie at an Evening with an Expert

The value of membership at a museum, zoo, or any institution comes in many forms.  There's the positive feeling of supporting a group you believe strongly is important to help.  Often there are perks like behind the scenes tours, discounted admission, special member events, newsletters, etc.

Special member events, called FriendRaisers, are one of the perks of being a member at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum.  These events range from behind the scenes looks at making an exhibit to our popular series of Evenings with an Expert. All funds raised during our FriendRaisers go towards the Desert Museum's Endowment Fund, which is being matched 3:1 by a National Endowment of the Humanities Challenge Grant through 2019.  The goal of the Endowment is to raise enough money to fund two permanent professional staff positions at the museum. 

Last night, 32 members attended an Evening with an Expert FriendRaiser and listened to a fascinating talk by documentarian and author Nicholas Clapp.  Clapp discussed shamanism in Southern California, which he researched for his new book, Old Magic: Lives of Desert Shamans, published by Sunbelt Publications.

Old Magic: Lives of the Desert Shamans- Nicholas Clapp

The evening was enjoyed by all.  Members got to see the newest additions to the Museum's permanent exhibit, mix and mingle with the author and other members- forming new friendships that inspired one member to say " I feel like I've found another daughter". Clapp's talk gave everyone a new appreciation for the hard lives of desert shamans, their work and their world.  He answered questions and signed books after the talk.

Interested in becoming a member of the Imperial Valley Desert Museum Society? Click here to find out more and join today!

Members gathered to talk books, museums, the desert, and everything in between

Book Review: Desert Bighorn Sheep: Wilderness Icon

-from the Curator

Welcome to what will (hopefully) become a regular part of our blogging- book reviews! Our staff hopes to mix in reviews of books focusing on local interest topics with our blogs on events, exhibits, and other cool stuff happening out at the Desert Museum.

Desert Bighorn Sheep: Wilderness Icon

Mark C. Jorgensen, photographs by Jeff Young.

Sunbelt Publications, 2015

This new book offers a glimpse into the lives of the elusive desert bighorn sheep: their habits, their social lives, and their natural habitats.  It is written for the general reader in a casual and engaging writing style that contains enormous amounts of fascinating information without feeling like a science lecture. I was particularly interested in the inclusions at the end of the book, where Jorgensen discusses sheep conservation and the current status of the sheep in the U.S. and Mexico in regions they traditionally call home.  This included not only their current numbers, but conservation efforts, hunting restrictions, challenges they face- such as the inclusion of non-native plant species in their habitat, and successes like Arizona's highway overpasses, allowing sheep to successfully travel from one location to another without crossing highways. Mark Jorgensen, who has served as a state park ranger, resource ecologist, and superintendent of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in his 36-year career in California State Parks and has spent 5 decades studying desert bighorn sheep, is clearly dedicated to sharing his love for and understanding of these amazing animals.

The truly unique aspect of this book, however, are the incredible photographs taken by Jeff Young. Young has been an avid photographer for over 40 years and since 2008 has focused on desert bighorn sheep.  There are over 200 photographs in the book, including rarely photographed behaviors such as the "taunting" and posturing of sheep before they battle.  The photographs make you feel as if you are right there, hearing the clash of horns, or the scrape of rocks as a sheep makes a seemingly impossible headlong dive down a cliff.  Some images, like one looking down at a ram balancing all four hooves on a small rocky peak, make you wonder not only how the sheep can do that- but how Jeff was able to take such an incredible shot! Action shots of jumping sheep show more clearly than words their amazing dexterity in seemingly impossible rocky landscapes. I was especially struck by images of the sheep in the red sandstone region of Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, where the red backgrounds seems to glow, highlighting the sheep instead of allowing them to blend in as they do in our local Sonoran Desert. And I defy anyone not to grin at images of newborn lambs exploring their new world.    

Desert Bighorn Sheep: Wilderness Icon is the perfect book for nature lovers and photography lovers of all ages, and a must-have for those living in the regions the sheep continue to call home.