A place we watch

Mojave National Preserve

Timing

Nothing is open on this one today. It is a place the Corps keeps an eye on, so we see the paperwork the day it lands.

What is worth photographing here

Go to the Joshua tree forest on the preserve side closest to the Clark Mountain Range. Shoot wide views with the mountains in frame, then close shots of the biggest, oldest Joshua trees and any dead standing ones.

Why we watch it

Joshua tree forests, volcanic cinder cones, and 1.6 million acres of remote Mojave desert that the mining industry has never stopped trying to crack open. The Preserve was nearly killed in committee before it was born. Now rare earth mineral proposals would industrialize one of the last wild landscapes in Southern California.

How to record it so it counts

01Stand in the patch of forest the document names. Agencies mark these with a numbered tag, a sign or colored flagging tied to a tree; photograph it if you find one, and don’t touch it.
02Pick the five largest trees within about 20 meters of where you stand. Photograph each with a person, a trekking pole or a tape in the frame for scale.
03If you have a tape, measure each trunk around at chest height and write the number down. Circumference in inches is fine; we convert.
04Photograph the canopy straight up, and any standing dead trees (snags) and big downed logs.
05Turn slowly and take a photo every quarter turn: four photos, one 360.
06Write one paragraph: what the stand looks like to you, in your own words.

What would count

A scale reference in the frame. A wide shot of big trees proves little; a tape does.
The measurement, written down, beside the photo it belongs to.
That marker somewhere in your set of photos, so nobody can argue you were in the wrong patch of woods.

All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide

Nothing to answer yet

Nobody is asking you to go here today. We watch this place so that the day a decision opens on it, the people who already know it hear the same week. If you are out here anyway, what you photograph now is worth more later than anything taken after the paperwork lands.

Before you go

Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.