Rand Mountains 2010-2011
Project Leader: Natalie R. Wilson Project Dates: Sept. 28, 2010 to May 17, 2011 Email: nwilson@thesca.org Phone: 760-608-2256 Address: 300 S. Richmond Ave, Ridgecrest, CA 93555
Sarah Brown
Herro! My name's Sarah Brown and I'm from a beautiful piece of heaven called West Chester, Ohio. I'll admit to being 22 years old but I prefer to be 10 years old. Just ending my four year stint at the cornfields of Bowling Green State University getting a degree in Ecology and Conservation Biology, I'm ready to get out into the world, and especially out of Ohio for a bit to experience something new. I've never been involved with the SCA before, so I'm extremely excited to get out to California and experience the uniqueness and beauty that is the desert. I've always been extremely passionate about the environment, all ecosystems, and what our impact is on this crazy land we live on. Bring it on, desert!
Jordan Albright
Hi, I'm Jordan Albright. I spent this past summer on an SCA trail corps in Oregon and had such a wonderful time that I decided to look for another program to do conservation work this fall. I love any excuse to play outside. Though I currently call Virginia home, I lived in California for a while growing up and am excited to get to know another part of the west coast. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to do DRC -- to learn about an unfamiliar ecosystem and natural history and the culture of the area, and to get to live and work closely with a new group of people.
Jack Fahey
I was born at the age of twenty six when I left my home town in rural New Hampshire and hiked the Appalachian Trail. The next year I spent the summer and fall of aught nine as a member of SCA Wildcorps in northern California. After moving to Madison, Wisconsin to experience the culture and cuisine of America's heart(attack)land, I found I was eager to continue doing good work for this good, bad and ugly Land that I Love. Hence my return, at the age of two, to the great state of CA to live with strange people and make the world a marginally better place.
Rand Mountains
The Rand Mountains extend about 15 miles from California City in the southwest to Randsburg in the northeast. Fremont Valley lies along the northeastern edge of the mountains. The whole management area covers about 40,000 acres and encompasses the Desert Tortoise Natural Area and the Western Rand Mountains Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). The Desert Tortoise is a federally listed endangered species that inhabits the rocky foothills, bajadas and valley floors of the Mojave Desert.
The Mojave Desert is the driest of the North American deserts. Summer is hot and dry with a remote possibility of monsoon-type rains. Winter can bring sub-zero temperatures in the mountains. It’s in this season that Pacific storms can overwhelm the Sierra Nevada and bring rain and snow to the area. Wind is a constant, though it peaks in the spring with gusts often topping 50mph. The major indicator species for the Mojave is the Joshua tree, an overgrown, Seussian member of the yucca family.
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Natalie R. Wilson - Project Leader
Howdy,
I was a crew member on the first crew of the modern DRC back in 2003. We worked in the Rand Mountains as well as northeastern California. After that I was distracted by other field jobs: trail in Minnesota, bunnies in Pennsylvania, birds in the San Francisco bay area, weasels in the Sierra Nevada. I returned to the DRC in 2009 to lead the 6th Rands crew. And I’m back for another season. I feel incredibly lucky to be back with the DRC doing the work I love with the people I love for the land that I love.
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| Schedule - DRAFT |
| Pictures |
| Rand Mountains |
| Sophia Good |
| Jesten Canniff |
| Marchetti, Mike |
| Sarah Brown |
| Jordan Albright |
| Jack Fahey |
| Natalie R. Wilson - Project Leader |
