Report from the Desert Research Station CLUI Outpost in The Mojave
CLUI Desert Research Station, out past Barstow.
CLUI photo
Work progresses at the CLUI’s Desert Research
Station, located near the city of Barstow
in the heart of the High Desert. Recently, improvements to the
perimeter were completed, including security signage, and a designated
visitor parking area. An additional perimeter fence was constructed
around the entire property, to keep the desert tortoises off the
DRS land, as the tortoise is a sensitive, threatened species,
and could be harmed by vehicles and other activities on the grounds
of the DRS. Following the specifications of the Bureau
of Land Management, which requested that the fence be installed,
the fence is composed of 1⁄4 inch wire mesh, and extends
18 inches below ground, and 30 inches above ground. Any tortoises
already on site have been given notice.
Inside the new DRS support unit building, a kitchen, bathroom,
bedroom, office, utility room, and reading room support activities
of DRS researchers working on site and in the area.
The periodical reading room.
CLUI photo
The periodical reading room is developing, with
the assistance of the Prelinger
Archives of San Francisco, and CLUI associate Mark Curtin
of Texas. There is now a nearly complete set of the Annals of
the Association of American Geographers, (later known as the American
Geographical Society) 1947 to 1982, and the last few years of
Aviation Week and Space Technology, Ground Engineering, and Oil
and Gas Journal. A growing video library is available to resident
researchers. Videos include The Story of the Colorado Aqueduct,
Fractured Patterns: The Story of the BLM, and Secret City: A History
of the Navy at China Lake.
Field sessions this season included a class from the Otis College
of Design. After a briefing at the DRS, the class visited sites
in the region on a tour conducted by Matthew Coolidge of the CLUI.
Site visits were made to the solar power plants, the PG&E
“Erin Brokovich” compressor station at Hinkley, the
Calico Early Man archeological site, the solar-power-plant-turned-into-gamma-ray-observatory,
and Peggy Sue’s diner.
Moritz Fehr, Heidi Blais, Ron Clark, and
Chris Csikszentmihalyi, among the many who have put in time at
the DRS this last season.
CLUI photos
Research projects at the DRS this season included
a low altitude aerial reconnaissance vehicle, created and operated
by Chris Csikszentmihalyi of the Computing
Culture Group at MITs Media Lab. Small-scale testing was conducted
at the DRS, while a full size model was tested and flown at nearby
Harper Dry Lake, joining other historic aircraft R&D projects
conducted there such as Northrop’s flying wing, and Howard
Hughes’ D-2, a precurser to his YF-11 high altitude surveillance
plane which he crash landed into Beverly Hills.
New trees, native to the region, were planted at the DRS to provide
shade and to provide habitat for wildlife. Trees include cottonwoods
(Populus fremontii), desert willows (Chilopsis linearis), and
Blue Palo Verde (Cercidium floridium). An irrigation system was
installed, with the assistance of Deena Capparelli, co-director
of the Moisture Project,
to water the new trees, and to begin experiments with irrigation
elsewhere on the grounds.
The new Pond Exhibit Unit in
testing phase.
CLUI photo
The preparation for the transition of the original
DRS building into a regional Landscape Information Center continues,
with some of the improvements to the grounds being related to
this venue change activity. Eventually, the DRS will be housed
out of the new office unit on site, and will share the grounds
and the display space with the Information Center. The new Pond
Exhibit Unit was leveled and secured, and a small boat was brought
out to provide access to the display space when the pond is finally
filled. The walking trail is being laid out and points of interest
are being constructed along the trail route. A special “landscape
perception modification tunnel” is being designed to provide
a suitable transition from the interior of the information center
to the exterior interpretive grounds.
The office (and FM radio installation) in
the new support unit building.
CLUI photo by Steve Rowell
A small FM transmitter has been installed that
broadcasts to receivers located at different points around the
grounds of the DRS, enabling researchers that are in residence
to have aural continuity while they move around the property,
should they need it. The default transmission, played when researchers
are absent or engaged in other tasks, is a recording of the inaugural
speech of the lecture series of the Long
Now Foundation, an organization based in the Bay Area that
promotes long-term thinking in research endeavors, and human planning
in general, goals that are shared by the CLUI. The speech was
given in 2003 by Long Now board member Brian Eno, and it can be
heard audibly at low levels at selected points on the grounds
of the DRS. An ambient sound, available to anyone who stops to
listen.
Researchers will continue to visit and work at the DRS, while
CLUI-led improvements to the site will continue through the next
year.
