October/November 2001

The theme for the 2002 Conference will be: “Vanadates and Phosphates.” The featured speakers will be:

v Dr. Bill Wise; "Vanadium minerals: Part 1. Introduction and Classification", and

In addition to the invited speakers, I am encouraging others to present short contributed talks (slide shows) that may, or may not, be related to the Conference theme. We would like to have an idea in advance about the topic of your slide show so that we can schedule adequate time and try to organize the talks. There will be a sign-up form in the registration package for this purpose.

The registration package will be mailed in early December, as part of the December issue of MicroBits.

For the October meeting, bring in specimens from recent field trips or other material that you have been working on.

In addition, Anne Seminaris has indicated that she is willing to lead a repeat field trip to the Glen Avon Quarries after our October meeting. The weather this time should, hopefully, be more pleasant, so bring your old clothes and collecting tools if you are interested.

For the Meeting

For the October 20 meeting, bring your lunch and scopes, and any specimens you have from recent field trips. Doors open at 11:00 AM. Just a reminder - the building in which we meet does not have air conditioning, but fans will be in operation. Weather should be more temperate for this meeting. Also, take note that there will be another field trip to the Glen Avon Quarries following the meeting (as in Paul’s message, above).

Following is the web site for SCMM:

http://www.mineralsocal.org

Then click on Southern California Micromineral-ogists in the upper right hand corner.

We will be posting the MicroBits on this site as well as the MSSC Bulletin, and perhaps the So. California California Friends of Mineralogy bulletin.

Juanita Curtis is back to good health following her recent surgery, and went traveling to visit with family members she hadn’t seen in years, and some she’d never met at all. She’s back volunteering at the L.A. County Museum of Natural History, and mentoring a young woman who also volunteers there. Sounds like Juanita is going full steam ahead, and, as Julie puts it, “Don’t get in her way!”

Juanita talks to Peggy Gross down in New Mexico about once a month. She tells us that Peggy is doing well and would love to hear from some of you. Her main complaint – “There’s no one to talk minerals with.”

Milton Speckels enjoyed a visit with Julie and Juanita last month, and would like to receive mail from some of his other micro-mineral friends.

We understand that Ann Croad is not doing well, and that Fred would probably appreciate some notes of encouragement. Cards for Ann, currently in a nursing home, should also be sent to Fred.

A simple note or card can do so much to lift the spirits of those unable to get out and about. Please take a few moments from your busy schedules to drop a line to help cheer up these good friends. (You will find their addresses in the Roster.)

(Let your Editor know if there are others who need a bit of Sunshine headed their way.)

The following article appeared in the October 2001 issue of the CFMS Newsletter:

In The April 2000 issue of this Newsletter, we printed a story about the approval by the Inter-national Mineralogical Association of a new mineral named “Juanitaite”, discovered over 30 years ago by Juanita Curtis, our first CFMS Executive Secre-tary. She has received the Golden Bear Award and has been a Scholarship Honoree.

Just this past week, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County issued a press release regard-ing the approval of the new mineral name, with the headliner, “MUSEUM VOLUNTEER FINALLY RECOG-

NIZED FOR A NEW MINERAL SHE DISCOVERED 30 YEARS AGO.” Juanita and her daughter, Julie, are volunteers in the Mineral Sciences Department of the Museum, and the press release was a way of publicizing the achievement of one of their volunteers.

What followed was extremely gratifying for Juanita—the article appeared in several L.A. area newspapers, and she was interviewed for a segment on a Channel 2 (CBS) TV news program.

(Editor’s note: And to this belated press and TV recognition, we say, “Amen”. Furthermore, Julie tells me that she and Juanita will bring their combination TV/VCR to the meeting on the 20^th, and show the tape of the TV segment mentioned in the article.) v

"There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect."

"Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes."

Following our meeting in August, Anne Seminaris led a field trip to the nearby Glen Avon Quarries. Even though it was an uncommonly hot day, about ten people participated. Fortunately, we found a route that allowed us to drive almost to the first small quarry of the three. I had been there many years ago on an MSSC field trip led by Mel Larsen and so remembered a little about what to expect. These quarries have not been worked in a long time and everything is overgrown and dirty. At first they do not appear promising but, in fact, they are pretty interesting.

The first and southernmost quarry, also the smallest, is totally in recrystallized limestone. In the coarser parts where the calcite rombs get up to about an inch across, there are regions containing nice micros of golden brown phlogopite. In the finer grained dark appearing calcite there are regions with nice graphite micros. I remember Mel mentioning that chrondrodite might be found here, but I was unable to locate any myself. However, Anne sent me a small pink crystal she found on the nearby dump that has good cleavage and only shows magnesium and silicon in the SEM, so it might be that.

The walls of the two larger quarries are largely calc-silicate rock, and I spent the bulk of my time with that. Below the middle quarry I broke up a rock that contained numerous cinnamon brown garnets to about half and inch, but mostly smaller.

In the northern quarry I worked an area of the north wall that appeared to be a very dirty, porous plagioclase and brought home several chunks. They required a lot of cleaning and trimming, but proved to be quite interesting. It appears that at one time this rock was an intergrowth of diopside and plagioclase with minor sphene and zircon. As the temperature dropped in the fluid rich environment, diopside became unstable and was largely leached out. Later still, actinolite, axinite, and apatite were deposited in the resulting cavities. After much cleaning, I recovered nice micros of all the minerals mentioned from these pieces. The axinites are especially well developed.

Even though we worked in slow motion because of the heat, I think everybody found something of interest. About 5:30, though, we all decided we had had all the fun we could stand for one day and retired to a nearby Mexican restaurant recommended by Anne for food, refreshment and conversation. Now I am ready to go back to Glen Avon and try it again soon.

(Ed. Note: It’s happening sooner than you’d think – following the October 20 meeting!)

37th Annual Pacific Micromount Conference

Plans for the 2002 Conference are building. The theme will be “Vanadates and Phosphates”. The dates of February 1, 2 and 3 have been set, and the San Bernardino County Museum of Natural History has been reserved. The format will parallel that of this past Conference. That is, we’ll start on Friday afternoon and go till 9:00 p.m. There will be a potluck dinner that night and a featured speaker.

Saturday will run 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. There will be featured speakers, and sub sandwiches for lunch. Julie and Ann will prepare our in-house lasagna dinner at a very reasonable cost, (something we missed this past year). The con-ference will conclude Saturday night.

Sunday morning there will be a field trip, desti-nation to be announced.

As plans progress, we’ll post them in MicroBits. Registration information will be in the December issue.

Reserve the dates on your calendar now.

By Steve Ivie, Chairman, Field Trip - South

I read the article in the CFMS newsletter this month from Dick Pankey regarding the identification of our collecting areas, and I agree that it is a very good idea. We need to identify the areas where we collect to better protect their availability.

The article also said that a BLM representative stated that the BLM does not intend to further restrict our collecting areas. I see mixed messages coming from the BLM. For many months, the BLM has been having meetings to decide the fate of OUR DESERT. Because of a lawsuit filed against the BLM by the Sierra Club and others to enforce the Endangered Species Act, the BLM is actively pursuing a proposed closure of the majority of the roads that we use to get to our collecting areas.

They call this “the development of a vehicle access network on BLM lands”. The irony of that state-ment is that there IS an established network of roads in the desert, and what they are doing is closing that network. They have nothing but closures in all the maps I have reviewed, and not a single new road.

Of course they don’t plan to further restrict our collecting areas. We can still collect in them after walking many miles each way in the desert! Clever way to close an area—it’s still open, but you just can’t get to it.

Just in the last week or two, I received an E-mail regarding another such closure of sorts, and the following text is from the BLM’s website. “The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has issued a proposed order to temporarily close to camping approximately 25,600 acres of public land east of the Imperial Sand Dunes in Imperial County to protect desert tortoise habitat. The area would not be closed to vehicles traveling on existing routes.”

“BLM is implementing the closures as part of a settlement agreement reached in response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility regarding the Endangered Species Act.”

What this means is that the BLM is already making concessions to the above groups while they are still having meetings to supposedly discuss the public opposition to the road closures.

I attended one of the meetings in Ridgecrest, hosted by the BLM, to discuss the closures in the Randsburg, El Paso and Newbury Springs areas.

I decided to go because I wanted to better under-stand how the issues of closures were being handled. Another reason was that the BLM sent the meeting notifications so they arrived the day before the meeting. This short notice, combined with a meeting that starts at 6 p.m., 170 miles from my house, I felt would lower attendance and, as such, would not be properly represented.

At the meeting, I was greeted by many other groups fighting these closures including the Ranchers Association, Off Road Racing Association, 4 wheeler groups, horse riding groups, bird watchers and private citizens. Worried handicapped individuals also expressed their fears that closing routes would effectively prevent them from visiting old favorite sites. Even some local cities hired lawyers to represent them in these closures.

As others took turns speaking, I listened to many who had checked the road closures on the maps. Some of the comments were that 1) The BLM shows keeping open existing paved roads; 2) they show closing a route that is passable in exchange for keeping open a parallel route which is impassable by vehicle, 3) they show keeping open a creek bed but closing the road next to it.

The reason is that the BLM has not checked these roads themselves, but are relying on aerial photos to decide which roads to close. At the meeting I mentioned that I was from the CFMS. Many thanked me for coming, as they were hoping we would get involved. It appears that we have not had any representation in these meetings. Brad Tanas, the President of the Del Air Rockhounds Club attended the meeting with me. We were the only rockhound voices.

I asked what would be a safe distance to walk in the desert without endangering one’s health. I also told them that as I get older, I find it harder to walk long distances in the desert. I am only in my forties, so what about our seniors? Don’t they have a right to use this desert? Without road access, it is effectively closed.

The general feeling I got from those with whom I talked is that the BLM is caving in to the lawsuit and these meetings are merely formality. No matter what is said, they will close the areas. But what if there are more voices to say that we care? There are definitely enough voices coming from the environmentalists. I am not one with much free time, and like you, I can’t attend all these meetings no matter how much I care.

However, you don’t have to go to the meetings in order to try to save your hobby. Call the number for the Barstow BLM office or the “West Mojave Team” at 1-909-697-5294 and request to be placed on the list to receive maps of ALL the areas currently under review, and also those scheduled for future review. These maps show all the proposed road closures. These maps are sent to you free of charge. Then respond in writing to the BLM, voicing opinion on the closings to Bureau of Land management, Attn: West Mojave Planning Team, 6221 Box Springs Blvd., Riverside, CA. 92507. One of the BLM websites that gives latest updates is

If you want to review the maps and pick out specific areas that need to remain open, do so, or you can simply voice your feelings on these closures in general.

What we can’t do is be silent, or we will lose by not objecting. These are our public lands and we have rights to access them. We make very little impact on the desert, and denying us access is just not right.

A common saying I hear is that they want to pre-serve the desert for future generations. Which generation will get to sleep under the moon in the desert and walk through the sands, admire side-winders, rabbits and roadrunners and, of course, collect some of its beauty in the form of rocks and minerals? My sons, his sons?

Each of us must take individual actions by either getting involved, or simply sending a letter stating your position or feelings on these proposed closures. If they do not hear from many of us, then when this is over we will find that it is too late, and our collecting areas will be locked away. Once closed it will be a much harder, if not impossible, fight to get them reopened.

President’s Message

For the Meeting

By Steve Ivie, Chairman, Field Trip - South