clean up Indian Wells Valley and Searles Valley. The volunteers collected 3000 cubic yards of litter and 50 car bodies. Their work also included clean-up along 60 miles of road and 14 dumps. A Ridgecrest paper said, "This clean-up was better planned and coordinated than the invasion of Normandy." This was sponsored by CORL, California Outdoor Recreation League and included 49 member clubs. CORL AGAINST PRESERVATIONISTS: A new information brochure about CORL commenting on their coals states: "The Great California Desert is composed of 13 million acres but the space that you may use to "roam" is rapidly dwindling due to pressures being exerted by those strict preservationists who advocate population zero and who are advocating that we should save natural resources. Natural resources are being saved at the total expense of mankind. As FULL CIRCLE CONSERVATIONISTS we will work to save both man and nature." At the recent Recreation Vehicle Show at Dodger Stadium, my wife and I asked CORL rep what they meant by "full circle conservationists" and how did they figure that saving resources meant destruction of man. They answered that only by opening up all public lands and all resources to intensive use can man be saved. They claimed that by preserving resources and wilderness areas, man is dooming himself to destruction. The resources are put there for us to use. The rep claimed that if ORVs couldn't roam where they wanted, man would be cooped up and become insane. They claim they are for using all resources in order that man will preserve his sanity and health and only by use can we survive. Their motto is "Public Land for Public Use," Some of CORL's objectives are highly commendable, but they get off-kilter on the use or the objective of unrestrictive use of ORVs. But they are a powerful group in California and perceive the Sierra Club as an enemy re: ORV use. BLM BUILDS NEW CAMPGROUNDS: BLM has recently installed campgrounds in the New York Mountain area - two of them, one at Mid Hills and one at Hole-in-the-rock, another at Corn Springs in the Chuckwalla Mountains, and another in the Imperial Sand Dunes. DESERT PEAK SECTION SCORE-CARD IN DESERT PROTECTION: Of 135 letters sent out as a survey of proposed desert wilderness areas last spring, 13 answers were received - 6 were from DPS-ers. Of 24 Desert Study trips scheduled for the Desert Protective Committee, approx. 8 DPS-ers (at the most) have volunteered to help and to lead. Not 8 trips, mind you, but 8 people. At the Oct. meeting, 2 people came up and offered to write letters on the Cabeza--Prieta Game Range. After the desert pupfish show and the explanation of water projects that could dry up all water in Death Valley, only one person came up and expressed concern. Hopefully more people wrote letters to their senators. No one has sent in a check to me for the Desert Fishes Council. If the DPS is aiming for a low profile with the BLM, you've just batted 1000. If, as a recent editorial in the Newsletter explained, you don't want to get serious about the "ecology thing" you have been successful. However, we feel that you underestimate the power and pressure that those who want to keep all lands open and who do not want to set aside any desert wilderness areas have. The ORV people, the rockhounds, the miners, cattle-grazers all mean business. And we continue to wallow in our hot bed of apathy. There seems no way to reach desert peakers - either intellectually or emotionally. The simple fact remains - we cannot win conservation battles, we will not save desert areas unless everyone helps. We need your times your energy, your talents, research capabilities, your money. Of almost 20000 members of the club in the chapter, only two dozen are involved in Desert protection - and hardly any of those are DPS-ers. I can only close with the question: "If you don't give a damn about conservation and saving the desert, what in the heck are you doing in the SIERRA CLUB?"

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