The Los Angeles Times published a comprehensive article on the status of tortoises in Joshua Tree National Park. The reduction in numbers over past decades, and especially the deaths of a number of female tortoises in the southern area of the Park in recent years is of concern. The scientists interviewed share data and hypotheses about the current and future status of the Park icon. 

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.  

August 5, 2015 - a Red-Letter Day!   MBCA along with thousands of supporters are celebrating the California Fish and Game Commission's vote to enact a statewide ban on bobcat trapping.  Many MBCA supporters wrote letters and the number of letters in support of the statewide ban was over 25,000, which certainly helped sway the vote.  Thank you!

Here are links to some of the articles describing the victory:

Hi Desert Star (Stacy Moore)

KCET ReWild (Chris Clarke)

Los Angeles Times (Louis Sahagun)

Sacramento Bee (Alexei Koseff)

ON JULY 16, 2015, MBCA sent the Commission a formal comment letter in support of Option 2 (statewide trapping ban) over Option 1, noting that if the Commission doesn't support a ban, they must add dozens of bobcat trapping buffer zones in protected areas around the state.  

ON JULY 8, 2015, Project Bobcat issued an Action Alert asking supporters to send one more round of letters in support of a statewide ban on bobcat trapping.  Additional evidence of support for a ban is needed because of an unexpected change in the membership of the Commission; two of the ban supporters have been replaced!  Please help by reading the Action Alert and acting on the request for comments if you can - by Friday, July 31, at Noon.

Here is a summary report of the most recent Commission meeting on June 11 in Sacramento (from the Project Bobcat Facebook page), which was attended by a number of Morongo Basin residents: