The Department of the Interior recently announced the latest step in the process of adding about 20,000 acres to Joshua Tree National Park. The "Eagle Mountain Boundary Study" began about two years ago and the current action moves another step toward final action. 

The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) presented its Huell Howser Best in Blue Award to the Joshua Basin Water District on December 1, 2016, for its innovative outreach program encouraging the public to plant water-saving native plants.

Among its outreach efforts, JBWD created a water wise demonstration garden that is valuable for Morongo Basin residents to see mature plants arranged in a variety of desert garden arrangements.  JBWD has been a supporter of MBCA's Desert-Wise Living Series and we are pleased to see their outreach efforts honored.

A valuable source of information for waste and recycling issues is the San Bernardino County Solid Waste Management page.

Thanks also to the Town of Yucca Valley for this list of Morongo Basin recycling centers.

On January 22, 2016, MBCA submitted a detailed comment letter to the BLM about the proposed changes to the West Mojave Plan (WEMO), arguing against the Plan Amendment, particularly the preferred Alternative 3, as it "threatens our quality of life, property values, tourism economics, and public land conservation values by legalizing OHV riding on thousands of miles of dirt roads throughout our Morongo Basin and other area communities in the West Mojave."  Further, the letter demonstrates how the BLM's plan flies in the face of the federal Small Tract Act with its intent to provide a comfortable framework for residential desert communities.

MBCA, as part of a coalition of 7 other organizations and scientists, has sent a detailed Environmental Assessment Comment Letter to the BLM State Director Jerome Perez opposing the Eagle Crest Pumped Storage project and requesting a full Environmental Impact Study (EIS) instead of the planned and less comprehensive Environmental Assessment (EA) on the Transmission Line. It provides a thorough and detailed record of all the stages of insufficient analysis that have been completed for this project.  

• Eagle Mountain Still at Risk
• Send Email to BLM by Nov. 6