Center for Biological Diversity
BECAUSE LIFE IS GOOD

Protecting endangered species and wild places through
science, policy, education, and environmental law.

NEWS RELEASE: for immediate release Monday, November 17, 2003


Desert Art Show Highlights Public Lands -- Tour Hits 29 Palms Starting December 8
Photos by L.A.'s Andrew Harvey of Algodones Dunes, scenic wildlands turned 'Mad Max'


Contact: Andrew Harvey, Photographer 310.450.1414
Daniel R. Patterson, Desert Ecologist 520.623.5252 x 306
More Information: Algodones Dunes

CALIFORNIA DESERT -- Conservationists have teamed up with talented Los Angeles-based photographer Andrew Harvey to create a visually stunning and fascinating photographic exhibition exploring the Sonoran Desert's Algodones Sand Dunes (near Yuma and the Imperial Valley). This traveling photographic exhibit hits the high Mojave desert town of 29 Palms December 8 -- January 31, 2004 after popular stops in Los Angeles, Yuma, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, El Centro, Tucson and Palm Desert. It is a dynamic combination of art and education. The exhibit engages the public in a memorable visual experience while inviting them to learn more about the natural history of the Algodones Dunes, the importance of preserving the diversity of animals and plants that depend on this fragile ecosystem, and the looming threat to our environment posed by the increased use of off-road vehicles on desert public lands.

The Algodones Dunes Photographic Tour is important and timely, as the U.S. Dept. of Interior - Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is updating their management plan for the dunes. The Bush administration is speeding toward opening 50,000 acres now closed to off-road vehicles, gravely threatening this unique and fragile Sonoran Desert habitat. Turning off-road vehicles loose on these wildlands would make the dunes more dangerous and inaccessible for other visitors, worsen air pollution, overload law enforcement and medical services, and would further jeopardize endangered species that live only at the Algodones Dunes -- surviving no other place on Earth.

This is a rare and important opportunity in both cities to view a photographic exhibit with breathtaking visual imagery that also raises public awareness of an immediate environmental threat.

Your opportunity to explore this exhibit of a rare, extraordinarily beautiful, and biologically important piece of the American landscape is in:

29 PALMS
29 Palms Inn
73950 Inn Ave. (off National Park Dr.)
29 Palms CA 92277
760.367.3505
www.29palmsinn.com

View a slide show with Andrew Harvey's photographs of the Algodones Sand Dunes: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/Programs/deserts/algodones/slide1.html

Learn more about the Algodones Sand Dunes: www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/goldenstate/cdca/algodones.html

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