Saving the Mojave Desert from a Corporate Water Grab - Cadiz Inc.
Presented by John Monsen and Chris Clark
Please join John Monsen and Chris Clark for an important timely program at the December 4 meeting of the Sierra Club San Gorgonio Chapter. The meeting starts at 7:30 p. m. at the San Bernardino County Museum, 2014 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands.
A private corporation, Cadiz Inc., plans to drain water from under public lands in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree National Park and sell it to the highest bidder.
New scientific research has confirmed that this dangerous project promises to dry up critical springs that desert life depends on. One such is Bonanza Springs, “One of the few natural watering areas for wildlife within the Mojave Desert,” according to the Bureau of Land Management, which has designated the springs as a “Watchable Wildlife Habitat.”. It is tucked into a beautiful, small canyon of yellow and white limestone.
Cadiz Inc. itself has a dubious corporate history that dates back two decades. Two years ago, they placed their own attorney on the Trump transition team which subsequently lifted the requirement of a federal environmental review for the Cadiz desert water mining scheme. In late August their army of lobbyists helped defeat a proposed state law that would have subjected the project to additional state environmental review. Can anything stop the Cadiz juggernaut?
During this presentation you will learn more about the majesty of the Mojave Desert and as its fragility – as well as the history of Cadiz and efforts to stop it -- from Chris Clarke, California Desert Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). He will also fill us in on the latest scientific research. John Monsen, NPCA consultant and long-time Sierra Club organizer, will provide an update on efforts to stop the project, covering the prospects for state legislation in 2019 and how we can educate our local water districts about the risk of signing up for Cadiz water and the damage the Cadiz water grab will cause.
John Monsen is the principal at JFM Consulting, a company dedicated to protecting our public lands for all to appreciate. John was the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Sierra Club's Angeles Chapter in 2017 for his work in helping to establish San Gabriel Mountains National Monument (SGMNM).
He is currently working with the National Parks Conservation Association to stop the Cadiz Mojave Desert water grab and to conduct base-building in the 45 Congressional District (R-Knight) for Nature for All with the goal of getting Knight to oppose terrible public lands legislation (HR 3990) that would attack our national monuments.
John was a member of the Sierra Club National Field Staff in Los Angeles 2003-2010 where he was instrumental in founding the highly regarded San Gabriel Mountains Forever Campaign that merged public lands and social justice issues in a coalition that included diverse community groups.
John is Vice-Chair of the Angeles Chapter Political Committee, Chair of its Forest Committee and a member of its Water Committee. John was formerly Chair of the California Nevada Regional Conservation Committee and a member of the State Legislative Committee.
He has extensive management and governmental affairs experience in the telecommunications industry prior to his environmental work. He earned a BA in Comparative Culture and an MA Social Sciences at UC Irvine where he was founding editor of the campus newspaper, the New University. He is an avid traveler, hiker, peak-bagger and backpacker with a particular fondness for Joshua Tree and Death Valley NPs, the Sierras and the Rockies, Utah, and the San Gabriel Mountains. Backpacking in the (now former) Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument many decades ago changed this life and his relationship with public land.
