DESERT PEAKS SECTION NEWSLETTER #40 ANGELES CHAPTER - SIERRA CLUB June 29, 1955 Dear Desert Peakers: It's time to get out another edition of the NEWSLETTER and review Desert Peaks Section events of the past two months. We try to put out the NEWSLETTER once a month if there is enough news material available. But fortunately, this being an informal sort of news sheet, we are not bothered by that editorial bugbear known as the deadline. How long this carefree existence will continue is anybody's guess. The NEWSLETTER got its start in 1950 when Bill Henderson was Chairman of the DPS. Since then, each succeeding Chairman has carried on the job. Our staff consists of the Chairman, as editor and art director, Dorothy Cutler, who does the fine job of typing and mimeographing; and Dan Thrapp of the Conservation Committee, who will conduct a conservation column from the desert angle. Many people can see no connection between conservation and the desert. They think the desert is big enough to take care of itself. They have only to look around and see the vast areas being gobbled up by the Armed Services and closed to the public, scientific projects sprouting on the peaks, uranium hunters running hog-wild, real estate and mining interests, litterbugs and vandals, all adding up to human erosion on a big scale. Let's not forget that the desert wastelands are wilderness too, with a beauty and charm all its own. Let's have your comments and suggestions regarding this column. How about contributing items or columns? We're grateful to Dan for his interest in the DPS and herewith present the first column. CONSERVATION FOR DESERT PEAKSby Dan L Thrapp It would seem to the unskilled observer, as you and I are often called, that the Desert Peaker would have less reason to be interested in conservation than anybody. This is because, the same unskilled observer might opine, the desert peakers go the farthest the fastest, and seek out the least "contaminated" areas for their play. But that is exactly why they should - and so many actually do pitch in on this thing. We are now after the rest of you. It takes no Socrates to conclude that remote areas of this country are getting less remote and fewer by the season, almost by the day. I can recall spending three months in the southern Utah canyon country and seeing no one but myself and my horses in that period. That was B.U. - Before Uranium - however. Now my horses probably couldn't find a place to graze without hanging up on a jeep carcass. And the same malady,uraniumitis, is scarring big areas of our own desert country. But it's not only uranium. People are flocking to the desert for many reasons today. It all adds up to the fact that even the most out-of-the-way corners of our country are being visited more often now than ever before, and if we are going to preserve any part of them as a playground for ourselves and others like us, it behooves us to get on the ball. There is no formula for "conservation," which to many seems a horrid word. Problems come up every day and each problem is differcnt and each has to be dealt with on its own terms. But all of these problems are interrelated, so that if you win on single point some-

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