Volume 65Issue 2Spring 2020

T E L E S C O P E death valley natural history association dvnha.org

Acco

un

tability

We hope this newsletter finds you and your loved ones safe and well. We have to say that last year was an incredible one. Death Valley National Park saw record visitation and with the passage of the Dingle Act—the largest National Park in the lower 48 states got a little bigger. There was a 35 day government shutdown and we did our best to help our agency partners through it. Our aid increased by nearly 30% compared to the year before and we wouldn’t have been able to do so much without your generosity.

Everyone who works with public lands knows the challenges that Mother Nature can bring, but this is a new one for us. Right now there’s no visitors to serve, or buildings to fix, and for Death Valley this is allergy season. The wildflowers which are usually a huge draw for visitors—just have to be experienced by those of us that live here right now. Every sneeze sends me running into the desert, but I haven’t run out of toilet paper yet!

Right now, under guidance from the CDC, both Death Valley National Park and Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge have had to make the call to close again, this time for the safety of visitors and staff. So, as we work our way through this medically induced time-out, we have time to reflect on our mission and how we can best help our agency partners to protect resources and the people who visit our public lands for the long run.

All of us here at DVNHA want to assure you that we will get through this. We continue to work with our partners remotely to finish the projects that can be finished and prepare to work on the ones that have to be put on hold. Restricted funds are set aside for their originally intended project uses even though timeframes may change. We continue to plan for what the situation will look like for our partners on the other side of this and we move forward with our plans to make DVNHA more robust in the face of these new challenges. Death Valley National Park and Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge will still be here in 100 years, and so will we! We all hope visitation will return soon and we look forward to getting back to our normal brand of catastrophes.

We know that all of you who have missed this spring in the Death Valley area can’t wait to get your “Desert Fix”. Things are rough for everyone right now, but that light at the end of the tunnel is the beautiful blue sky of Death Valley and we look forward to reaching it with you soon.

From the Director By David Blacker, Executive DirectorDVNHA

The single biggest contribution our supporters assisted with was keeping the Furnace CreekVisitor Center open during the December 2018 - January 2019 Government Shutdown.

Much needed information and facilities stayed available for visitors during one of thebusiest times of year.

1. .

2 dvnha.org death valley natural history association T E L E S C O P E

Mission

Vision

ValuesPreserving and interpreting the natural

and cultural resourcesof the Death Valley

region in cooperation with our government

partners: Death Valley National

Park and Ash Meadows National

Wildlife Refuge.

Inspiring a passion forDeath Valley and

Ash Meadows

E d u c a t i o n

P r e se r va t i o n

P a r t n e r s h i p

Ac c o u nt a b i l i t y

Aid to Death Valley National Park: $480,846• $289,881 - Staff related expenses• $56,866 - Donation to Death Valley National

Park (keeping Visitor Center open during government shutdown)

• $33,746 - Furnace Creek 2020 Interp Interns• $12,351 - Resources Intern• $11,590- Scotty’s Castle Historic Preservation

& flood relief• $10,437 - R.O.C.K.S. Education Intern• $10,802 - Death Valley R.O.C.K.S.

Transportation Grants to Schools• $9,988 - Devils Hole Recovery Support• $7,961 - DVNHA general overhead expenses• $6,863 - Jr. Ranger Intern• $5,373 - Backcountry Sign Project• $5,225 - Dark Sky Fest support• $5,000 - Free Publications (printing of new

Jr. Ranger Book)• $4,109 - 25th Anniversary of Death Valley

National Park Support • $3,879 - Devils Hole Workshop Aid• $2,000 - Audio Descriptions for NPS Videos• $1,527 - Wilderness Restoration

• $1,220 - Training support for DVNP• $1,197 - Science Fund• $600 - Donations of inventory• $231 - NPR Radio Tower

Aid to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge: $50,652• $45,145 - DVNHA staff related expenses• $3,000 - Plants of Ash Meadows pre-press

publication expense• $1,125 - Volunteer stipends• $1,018 - DVNHA general overhead expenses• $364- Training and education support for AMNWR

DVNHA’s financial information is published online for public disclosure. To view please visit: guidestar.org/profile/95-2083126

Accountability2019 IN REVIEW—You helped provide $531,498 in aid to Death Valley National Park and Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge from Oct. 1, 2018 - Sept. 31, 2019. Visitation has more than doubled in the past ten years! A record 1,740,945 people visited Death Valley National Park. Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge had visitation of 42,653 with almost 16,000 people taking advantage of the resources available at the visitor center. DVNHA provided 16,640 hours of service to 113,000+ visitors at all locations plus 7,079 hours of educational programming. In addition to special projects we fund, we provided interns that worked directly with Death Valley National Park and paid for 2020 in advance so that the NPS could receive matched funding.

TELESCOPEVolume 65, Issue 2

Who We Are:Executive CommitteeKimber MooreBoard ChairNathan FrancisBoard Vice-ChairTerry FeinbergTreasurerWilliam Walton Secretary

Board MembersWynne BentiJohn KopczynskiBob LehmannTom MoritzDan O’BrienAdministrative StaffDavid BlackerExecutive DirectorSandra Andrus-SheetOffice Manager/Accounts ReceivableGeneil WhiteDevelopment Director Memberships/Telescope EditorDanielle WoodSpecial Projects Development AssistantRenee RuslerField Institute Director

WarehouseWesley Massey, Warehouse ManagerBill Pelkey

BookstoreJustin Baldino, Bookstore ManagerTony BrunoAdrian GonzalezAnika PerryNathan Wabbel, Accounts Payable

Serena Revere Ash Meadows Visitor Services

Newsletter DesignKimber Moore Design

T E L E S C O P E death valley natural history association dvnha.org 3

-A year to remember-

Students explored this land of extremes with park rangers and educational internsprovided by DVNHA. The Death Valley R.O.C.K.S. education program served

2,080 students from 30 schools through 24 in-person classroom visits and35 field trips to Death Valley National Park. Additionally, the Junior Ranger

Program was able to serve 1,400 participants!

We helped Death Valley National Park put on the Devils Hole Workshop, a

valuable dissemination of first-hand scientific research pertaining to thesurvival of the endangered Devils Hole pupfish. The Devils Hole Dive Team were

recognized for their many years of volunteer service and participants receivedpretty cool swag. Proceeds from this event benefitted the Devils Hole Fund!

DVNHA produced the first ever

comprehensive guide to plants found atAsh Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

thanks to author Larry Lodwick, many hours of volunteer proofreaders, and free design work

completed by, Kimber Moore,DVNHA's newly elected Board Chair.

Thanks to a grant from the Fund for People in Parks, new entrance signs willreplace older signs on backcountry roads. This is difficult to keep up with

when your Park is 3.4 million acres and designated 93% wilderness!New signs should be installed this year.

Top Rung Tower Chimes & Organ Service competed repairs to the Scotty's Castle chimes tower so that it will be fully

functional upon reopening the historic district.

Our 2020 Conferencehas been rescheduled.

We hope you can join usWednesday - Friday

October 28-30, 2020!

Find out more, register, and pay at:dvnha.org

NON PROFIT

US POSTAGE PA I D

DEATH VALLEY, CA

PERMIT NO. 3

PO Box 188 Death Valley, CA 92328

www.facebook.com/DVNHA dvnha.org 1-800-478-8564

Inspiring a passion for Death Valley National Park and Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

Science Conference

2 0 2 0Forget about June,

JOIN US on the new date: October 28 - 30th

-Rescheduled-

The 15% DVNHA early bird member discount invitation has been extended

to August 31st.

Need your discount code resent?Please contact:

memberships@dvnha.org.