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Welcome to the newsletter of NAI's Wild West Region, serving southern California and southern Nevada.
Featured photo:
Anza Borrego Desert State Park, by Allison C. Barnes
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Greetings from the Wild West!
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William Ward once wrote "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." NAI Region 8 is putting our realist coat on and adjusting our sails. Our joint conference workshop with Region 7 is being rescheduled. We still expect to land in Phoenix but not until later this year. Our next newsletter issue will contain an announcement with a detailed conference schedule and more info on our host. So please stay tuned.
In other news, there are many training opportunities, job opportunities, and gatherings on the horizon in our region (Southern California and Clark County in Nevada). Please continue to check out our Facebook page and Newsletter Announcement section for more information. If you have an event or training you would like to share with your region, please contact us.
A focus of 2018 is recognizing our region's interpreters. We are represented in all fields and come from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. Become more involved in your region by utilizing this network and helping people stay connected!
Marissa Llanes
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Important Announcements
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Community Nature Connection is offering Certified Interpretive Guide courses and California Naturalist courses in the Los Angeles area. Sign up here.
Stay connected by visiting www.interpnet.com/8 and if you have a story or destination you would like to share with our readers, please email [email protected].
Be on the lookout for a regional gathering where we explore a topic of interest and follow it with dinner and discussion.
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Destination of the Season: Anza Borrego Desert
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By Allison C. Barnes
State Park Interpreter I
Mt. San Jacinto State Park & Wilderness
CA State Parks
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The author in the Anza Borrego Desert
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The desert - a place that has been depicted through history in so many different lights, from desolate wasteland to colorful paradise. My personal experience with the desert has evolved slowly over time in just the same way. I vaguely remember glimpses of the Mojave Desert when vacationing in Las Vegas as a kid and thinking how terrible it must be to live there. But here I am today, a true convert, a desert lover.
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Ocotillo Bloom |
I was reintroduced to the desert later in life as a geology student and then as a park aide at Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area. Within a week of moving to the quaint hamlet of Borrego Springs, I was four-wheeling my little SUV all across Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Hiking by foot brought me to whimsical geologic formations and lush palm groves. Binoculars helped me spot new birds and desert bighorn sheep high on the varnished mountain slopes. The darkest night skies I had ever seen kindled a passion for astronomy in me. And winter rains first dusted my front porch view with a tinge of white snow, that then soon melted away into a blanket of color as the spring wildflowers bloomed.
Although I now live in the Coachella Valley, I still visit the Anza Borrego Desert on a regular basis to get back to my roots. This past November, California State Parks conducted a training in Borrego Springs specifically for interpreting desert parks. Gloriously warm, sunny weather beckoned us out on field trips to some of my favorite spots. My fellow interpreter remarked on how "in my element" I appeared the whole week of training, and naturally so, I was back in my happy place. If anything was to be taken from this training, it was revealing the beauty of this misunderstood place to us interpreters so that we could instill that passion into our programs to the public.
How could you not enjoy your time spent in this exquisite desert? If simply driving by at highway speeds, your first impression would be of how bleak and desolate it all looks. But the beauty is in the details. It takes sitting quietly at sunset and listening to the expansive silence. It takes camping under the stars on a crisp, windless night. It takes immersing yourself in a slot canyon or under the shade of a massive palm grove to see how much color, texture, and life there really is.
The Anza Borrego Desert satisfies the simplest needs within me. It may not seem glamorous at first glance, but it takes time to grow a love as strong as this.
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Interpreter's Backpack: Walnut Catch Game
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By Stephanie Ambrosia
Senior Park Aide, Malibu Creek State Park
CA State Parks
California State Parks is lucky to have many dedicated volunteers to help spread interpretive knowledge throughout their parks. One such group, the Topanga Docents of Topanga State Park, hosted a series of workshops for building the "Interpreter's Backpack." Veteran craftsman Peter Rice led participants in the creation of a number of objects that mimic native Chumash design, including instruments, toys and game pieces.
An interpreter's backpack contains a variety of objects. For example, many of us will probably carry water, food, first aid supplies, and a map of our site. Additionally, we might include natural, cultural or historical articles that illuminate the uniqueness of our site. Rice's workshops have been very helpful for me as I develop a greater understanding of native Chumash culture and put together a collection of illustrative tools.
Below you will find a simple step-by-step guide for creating your own "Walnut Catcher" toy (a native take on the old ball-in-cup) that you might want to add to your backpack.
Supplies: Willow stick (sanded and tapered at one end); a large acorn cap, a walnut, a leather string, one or two beads (we used fish vertebrae); glue; paint
Step 1: Drill a hole about 2" below the tapered end of your stick; drill holes into the bottom of the acorn cap, and into the walnut.
Step 2: Paint your stick as you like. Red and yellow oxide, white and black are common native colors.
Step 3: Clean your walnut of husk remnants using a sponge or wire brush.
Step 4: Thread the leather string through your stick, using a bead on each side to stabilize it. Attach the walnut on the other end. Use glue to set your knots.
Step 5: Glue the acorn cap to the tapered end of our stick and set it upside down to dry.
Step 6: Catch the walnut!
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Upcoming Trainings and Conferences
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Asilomar State Park/Conference Grounds
Pacific Grove, California
April 30-May 3, 2018
Malibu, CA
April 27-29, 2018
By: American Association for State and Local History
March 26
- May 25, 2018
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| Save the Date |
NAI National Conference
New Orleans, Louisiana
November 27-December 1, 2018
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| Regional Officers |
Director
Amy Lauder Erickson
[email protected]
Deputy Director
Marissa Llanes
[email protected]
Secretary
Kim Seltmann
[email protected]
Treasurer
Kim Casey
[email protected]
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| National Officers |
Jay Miller
President
[email protected]
Theresa Coble
VP for Administration
[email protected]
Todd Bridgewater
VP for Programs
[email protected]
Vicki Basman
Treasurer
[email protected]
Tom Mullin
Secretary
[email protected]
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