| | | | Nature, Connectivity and Credit:
A Bilingual Latino Conservation Week Event in Downtown Bishop, July 15, to Improve Access to Nature for Underrepresented Communities! | | | |  | This spring, I read an article in The Inyo Register about Death Valley National Park's plan to go "cashless" beginning June 1. Soon after that, I found out this is a trend among our national parks. It saddened me to think of low-income, unbanked individuals and families who would have to face yet another barrier—besides lack of affordability, distance and lack of transportation, and little to no experience—in accessing the great outdoors. Fortunately, because we live in a truly caring community in the Eastern Sierra, Friends of the Inyo was quickly able to get the invaluable support of AltaOne Federal Credit Union, Cerro Coso Community College, the National Park Service, local weekly newspapers El Sol de la Sierra and The Sierra Reader, and other organizations, to put together Naturaleza, Conectividad y Crédito/Nature, Connectivity and Credit as our 2023 Latino Conservation Week outreach event to help Inyo and Mono residents in light of the ever-more-ubiquitous digitalization of our financial transactions, reservation systems, and more. | | | | | | The idea behind Nature, Connectivity and Credit is to have local Latino and other underrepresented community members come and learn about credit, apply for a credit or debit card account with AltaOne, get hands-on assistance on navigating national park websites and the National Park Service app, and obtain information on a whole range of other resources to improve their quality of life, such as how to recreate responsibly in nature, how to strengthen their home against wildfires, how to recycle waste properly, how to enroll at Cerro Coso Community College, how to find local jobs, and more. We are looking forward to a truly fun, yet practical event. Bishop Mayor Pro Tem Jose Garcia, our city's first ever Latino Councilman, will deliver some heartfelt words of encouragement, and...There will be FREE TACOS—2 each to the first 200 attendees to the event, which is scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. on Sat., July 15, at the AltaOne Bishop Branch parking lot, at 462 N. Main Street downtown. Tell your amigos! | | | | | | | | Help us share this information with your Eastern Sierra friends and neighbors who are unbanked and could benefit from this outreach. ¡Gracias! | | | | | | | | | | Also in this issue of The Juniper: -
FOI in the news! We will share links so you can see how Friends of the Inyo has been making headlines. -
Events galore! Our Summer Trail Ambassadors have been let loose on Eastern Sierra trails, which they are repairing and maintaining during the week so they can lead the public on interpretive hikes on weekends! Sign up for one or more of several interpretive hikes available this month—they're FREE! And if giving back through volunteering is more your gig, we have half-day front country, as well as multi-day backcountry volunteer stewardship events through which you can show Mother Nature your love. -
Our anti-mining front! See all that we and our conservation partners have been doing to counter mining threats to Conglomerate Mesa in Southern Inyo County, Hot Creek in Southern Mono County, and Ash Meadows in the Amargosa Valley, Nevada. Also, take advantage of an opportunity to get involved in mining opposition by giving to support Friends of the Inyo's anti-mining campaigns. -
"Friendsraising!" Help us grow our circle of Friends...of the Inyo! by turning your friends and loved ones on to our mission: To protect and care for the land and water of the Eastern Sierra. A wider support base means more folks involved in conservation. -
And more! Remember: When scrolling through our newsletter, you might come across a message at the bottom that says [Message clipped] and/or the hyperlink "View Entire Message." Be sure to click on the link to keep reading, as more news will be displayed. This is done to prevent bandwidth issues in e-mail delivery. Thank you. | | | | Happy reading—and if you like what you read, happy sharing! Sincerely, Louis (Lou) Medina
Communications and Philanthropy Director
Louis@friendsoftheinyo.org | | | | | | Read our contributed column, Friends of Our Lands, about our Latino Conservation Week event: *************** Read Policy Associate, Desert Lands Campaign Manager Kayla Browne's contributed piece in the latest issue of the Desert Report (DesertReport.org) titled: The Desert Report is a respected Sierra Club publication focusing on the deserts of California and Nevada. *************** Summer Events: But...Why not get FOI Event News straight from the source?! The following section has more detailed information about all that is coming up on our Events Calendar. | | | | | | | | Following are our FREE Interpretive Hikes in July: These hikes are led by our team of eager and knowledgeable Trail Ambassadors: Returning Senior TA Jean Redle, plus first-timers Brian Bosak, Logan Hamilton, Kelly Kish and Colt Russell. The team receives direction and encouragement from FOI Stewardship Director Lindsay Butcher, rightmost in the photo below taken earlier this summer with the Trail Ambassadors. Learn more about each of them on the Staff and Board page of our website. Find your passion! Click on the link for the hike that interests you, and you will be taken to the event page on our calendar where you will find more specific meeting time, parking, what-to-bring, and other details, and where you will also need to RSVP by filling out a waiver form for safety reasons. If giving back through Volunteering is more your passion... Check out these multi-day (backcountry) and half-day (front country) opportunities in July and August! Please be sure to read the descriptions of our Volunteer events, especially the multi-day backcountry events which are physically demanding and where backpacking experience is preferred, and, just like for the educational hikes, fill out the sign-up form and waiver, which is required for safety reasons. More events will be added to our Events Calendar as summer progresses, so be sure to check it out often. See you on the trails! | | | | | | | | | | | | Following is an update on Friends of the Inyo's most recent efforts to prevent mining from spoiling such inimitable Eastern Sierra landscapes as Hot Creek/Long Valley, and Conglomerate Mesa, as well as to help our friends at the Amargosa Conservancy, across the California-Nevada border, protect Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. We appreciate the support of our Tribal and conservation partners, diverse stakeholders, and YOU in the good fight to keep our Eastern Sierra and adjacent desert lands and waters from being spoiled by extractive industries. | | | | Gold Mining 101 On June 14, Friends of the Inyo hosted a community workshop called 'Gold Mining 101' at the Owens Valley Paiute Shoshone Cultural Center in Bishop. The workshop, which was attended by close to 40 people, was expertly led by our friends from Earthworks and Great Basin Resource Watch. These partners have generously shared their PowerPoint presentation with us, which we now share with our readers, so that everyone can have important data and talking points for the next time we "rally the troops" in opposition to the mining threats the Eastern Sierra is facing. Depending on bandwidth, the file could take a few minutes to download. | | | | | | | | Conglomerate Mesa Coalition's Newsletter As announced in the last issue of The Juniper, the Conglomerate Mesa Coalition's Newsletter is back after a long hiatus! It has undergone a major refresh with a new look and a new name, Inyo to Coso, which reflects our commitment to protecting the lands surrounding Conglomerate Mesa—including from mining threats—from the Inyo Mountains to the Coso Mountains. Thank you for reading, sharing, and supporting Inyo to Coso. We urge you to use the buttons below to check it out and subscribe, so you can stay up to date with the Coalition's efforts to protect these precious lands in Southern Inyo County. | |  | | | | | | |  | The Amargosa Conservancy is asking for help with an Action Alert to save Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge from exploratory drilling for lithium by Canadian company Rover Metals. Hmmm... Why does that story sound uncannily familiar to us here in the Eastern Sierra? Oh, it must be because some of our public lands are also under threat from foreign mining companies. Unlike California, however, in Nevada the Bureau of Land Management has no discretion to deny exploration projects or require a full environmental review. PUBLIC PRESSURE IS THE ONLY RECOURSE! Please click on the button below to access Amargosa Conservancy's Action Alert and follow the instructions to raise your voice and urge federal officials to save Ash Meadows from exploratory mining. Mason Voehl, the Amargosa Conservancy's Executive Director, wrote in an email to Friends of the Inyo and other partners, "Our petition has exceeded 1,000 signatures, thanks to many of you. We will need to continue to mount public support now more than ever, so please consider resharing it through your networks as appropriate." Time is of the essence, he said, as Rover Metals has indicated that it plans to commence drilling in mid-July as part of its "Let's Go Lithium" project. LET'S HELP A FRIEND IN NEED! PLEASE ADD YOUR NAME TO THE PETITION TODAY TO HELP THE AMARGOSA CONSERVANCY SAVE ASH MEADOWS! Thank you! | | | | | | | | #NoHotCreekMine! Other friends we are working closely with in the anti-mining front are the No Hot Creek Mine crew and Stellar Brew. Consider attending an upcoming FREE showing of the short local film, "Sunrise Gold," followed by a community conversation, as we gear up to oppose exploratory drilling by KORE Mining at Hot Creek, which is expected to begin in September. Friends of the Inyo, together with the Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Watersheds Project and the Sierra Club, is appealing a lower court decision handed down earlier this year to allow the drilling to go forward. It is the opinion of Friends of the Inyo that the project is unlawful. The U.S. Forest Service concluded that no harm would be done by the project following a cursory review known as a "categorical exclusion" (i.e., where it is deemed that neither an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement is required); but such reviews are usually reserved for minor federal projects, like rebuilding hiking trails or repaving parking lots. At Hot Creek, the survival of endangered fish the Owens Tui Chub and a dwindling population of Bi-State Sage Grouse are at stake. Come to Stellar Brew and strategize with like-minded conservationists from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 29! See details in the flier below. | | | | | | | | Many of our readers most likely received our mid-year funding appeal in late June, asking for monetary support for our anti-mining campaigns. We include it here again and ask that you consider making a donation today to this important work using the button below, so that the Eastern Sierra won't need to be haunted yet again by the destructive ghosts of mining. Thank you. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Do you know what "LORP" means? If you live in the Eastern Sierra, this acronym is of much importance. But you may never know what it stands for if you don't read the latest issue of Every Last Drop, the Official E-Newsletter of the Keep Long Valley Green Coalition. Happy reading - and if you like what you read...Happy sharing! | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | Have you subscribed yet? The second edition of the resurrected quarterly Bodie Hills Conservation Partnership E-Newsletter (following a long hiatus) was published earlier this spring! Read it here to keep up with all things Bodie Hills. You can also sign up to receive it in your e-mail inbox FREE using the button below. In between newsletters, keep up with Bodie Hills news on social media: The Bodie Hills Conservation Partnership (BHCP) has launched an Instagram, @bodiehills, this year to augment its social media following on Facebook and Twitter. | | | | | | | | | |  | Want to support Friends of the Inyo? Consider making a donation online today!
Or keep reading below to learn more about our ongoing Help Us Grow Our Circle of Friends...of the Inyo! campaign by purchasing a membership for a friend or loved one. It makes a great gift! Thank you for your generous support. | | | | | | | |  | Support Friends of the Inyo by Turning Your Friends and Loved Ones on to Our Mission: To Protect and Care for the Land and Water of the Eastern Sierra! As we mentioned in the January 2023 issue of The Juniper, Friends of the Inyo is on a "Friendsraising" campaign through the end of this decade, to at least double our membership rolls. The logic behind this campaign is as follows: - “30 x 30” (read “Thirty by Thirty”) is a movement at the global, national, and state/regional levels that aims to designate 30% of all lands and waters as protected areas by the year 2030 (in other words, by the end of the current decade).
- With your help, we believe we can basically double our membership to 2,030 in the eight full years between now and the end of 2030 (or even sooner)! Why increase our membership? Because: More Friends of the Inyo = More Conservation Warriors = More people actively working to meet California's 30 x 30 goals by the end-of-the-decade timeline.
Help us by sharing our Donations Options page with your friends and networks, so they can choose the best way to engage philanthropically with Friends of the Inyo. Use the button below to learn about all the creative ways you and your friends can make a difference through giving. Or you can simply consider gifting a friend or loved one an FOI membership! Thank you! | | | | | | Friends of the Inyo appreciates the following organizations and local businesses for their generous monetary sponsorship of our programs: | | | | | | | | Inyo Mono Alpine County
Cattlemen’s Association | |  | | | | | | | Remember to update the address to our new location: Friends of the Inyo
621 W. Line St., Suite 201
Bishop, CA 93514 FriendsoftheInyo.org | | | | Like and follow us on social media: | | | | | | |
