Lone Pine Gem & Mineral Society Newsletter

March 2008

Mt. Whitney framed by arch in Alabama Hills


See the Granite section for Linda's musings on granite

Photo by Linda Jeffries

Messages From Our President

Dues

If you haven't paid your dues for 2008 yet, this will be your last newsletter
and you will be dropped from the roster. Dues are $20.00 per person for all
those 18 and over and $10.00 for younger rockhounds. You can send your dues
to the membership chairmain: Jim Grandgeorge @ P.O.Box 977, Lone Pine, CA, 93545.

Volunteers needed

Your club still needs your help. We need the following positions filled:

• CFMS director
• Meeting place chairman
• Donations chairman

If you need more details about these positions, contact Francis.

Meeting Place

The cost of holding our meeting at the Lo-Inyo Elementary School Library has
gone up from $100 per year to $30 per meeting. It was suggested at our last
meeting that we research another meeting site. Any volunteers for the job??

Wilderness areas/government land grabs/road closures

You ain't seen nothing yet. Ever heard of the wildlands project? One of the
goals of this project is to set aside approximately 50% of the United States
as "wildlands", where no human can enter. How can they do this? Two of the main
methods are control of the water and take land out of private ownership. They
have already started. And there is much more. Does this scare you? It should.
This information came to me from John Martin, the Public Lands Advisory Committee(PLAC)
chair for the CFMS. He can be reached at smartin@antelcom.net.

See the More about the Wildlands Project section for research into these claims.

Shop Nite News

Brought to you by our crack reporter, Jeanette Nutcher.

On February 4th Ray Ramirez, Cliff and Jeanette Nutcher, and Francis Pedneau
arrived at 4:00 at the Club shop for a pre-shop night cleanup. After starting
a nice fire in the wood burner, Ray, Jeanette and Cliff under the expert supervision
of Francis managed to scrape off the sludge and thoroughly clean and lubricate
the 2 rock saws. These will need to be cleaned regularly according to amount
of use and we are now ready to train a new crew. Volunteers encouraged! We also
scraped and swept up a mini landslide that had accumulated from a leak in the
packed mud walls of the building. By 7:00 PM no one had shown up to actually
use the shop so we adjourned to the warmth of our homes to watch Super Tuesday
election results.



Next shop night will be Tuesday, March 4th @7:00. Now's the time to start cuttin'
and polishin'! Let's get a crowd! We'll meet at McDonald's for dinner at 6:00.

LPGMS Lending Library

More from Jeanette.

Ray suggested this during the Shop Cleanup. Why not start loaning out books
from our club collection which is currently in an old box at the shop? Jeanette
has a wheeled crate/cart to donate which we could store them in and bring the
cart to meetings and shop night. If you have rock related books you'd like to
donate bring them to the March meeting. Jeanette volunteers to be in charge
of this. We could even bring the "Bookmobile" along on field trips
for our out of area members. Feedback appreciated.

Granite and the virtues of not being a 19 year old co-ed

By Linda Jeffries, who is not revealing her current age

As a liberal arts major, I had to select a science course in my sophomore year
at college. I chose geology. At the age of 19, I found geology only mildly interesting.
As part of the course, our geology lab went on a field trip. I am ashamed to
admit I don’t even remember where we went and what we saw. But I brought
home a rock, a decomposed piece of granite. It stayed in my room for many years.
It wasn’t much to see, but occasionally I would pick it up and examine
this decaying piece of stone and marvel how water and air could reduce a rock
to crumbles.

Now that we have moved to Lone Pine California, granite surrounds me. The famous
arch in the Alabama Hills is also decomposing granite, weathered by wind, water,
freezing, and thawing. Its orange hue is about the same color as my rock was. The sinuous
curves of the arch frame Mt. Whitney, the pinnacle of the Sierra Nevada. Like
the arch and my rock, the Sierra are composed of granite. The spires of Mt Whitney
and the surrounding peaks, carved by ice, are not decomposing in the same way
however.

It was once thought that the Alabama Hills were the remnants of an ancient
mountain range. Now we know that they are the same age as the Sierra and really
just a part of that range. The difference between the orange and brown hues
of the Alabama Hills and the pristine gray of the higher peaks occurs mainly
because the Alabama Hills have a warmer climate, existing on the edge of the
Mojave Desert. Weathering proceeds at a faster pace.

When I was 19, I didn’t comprehend that my decaying little rock was the
same stuff that formed rounded, sensuous arches and mighty mountain ranges.
Now that I know, I can see the beauty in the stuff that makes up our planet
earth. I'm glad I'm not 19 any more.

More technical stuff about granite

Granite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with at least 65% silica.
Quartz, plagioclase feldspar and potassium feldspar make up most of the rock
and give it a fairly light color. Granite has more potassium feldspar than plagioclase
feldspar. Usually it contains biotite, but it also may have hornblende.

In truth, little of the granite we see around us in Owens Valley is true granite.
The term "granite" is used very liberally. It might be more accurate
to describe the rock in the Sierra and Alabama Hills as granitic rock. Granitic
is general term for intrusive igneous rocks that look similar to granite but
may range in composition from quartz-diorite to granite. All granitic rocks
are light colored; feldspar and quartz are visible in hand specimens. A common
type of granitic rock we see in our area is granodiorite. Granodiorite is an
intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but it contains more plagioclase
than potassium feldspar. It usually contains abundant biotite mica and hornblende,
giving it a darker appearance than true granite. Mica may be present in well-formed
hexagonal crystals, and hornblende may appear as needle-like crystals. Much of the Sierra is granodiorite and quartz diorite.

Another common type we see is biotite monzogranite. Usually monzogranites are felsic, meaning more than 70% of the rock is composed of quartz. The Alabama Hills are mostly monzogranite.

More on the Wildlands Project

Dana Jeffries looked into the claims made by John Martin of the Public Lands
Advisory Committee chair for the CFMS. This is what he found.

I have found numerous places that make the statement that one of the
goals of this project is to set aside approximately 50% of the United States
as "wildlands", where no human can enter. Unfortunately they don't back up the statement. They do take quotes out of context to patch together this statement, giving a very false impression.

I examined the Wildlands Project statements and they are focused on creating migration routes by linking wilderness areas, parks (national, state, local), BLM lands, farm and ranch lands, and green belt areas of cities to create these. Do they support attempts to create wilderness areas? Sure. Because they're trying to restore a more natural wildlife.

The Wildlands Project is working to create bridges and tunnels to provide pathways across the barriers. They're working with ranchers and farmers to secure additional funding for them so that they aren't forced by the economy to sell their lands to developers allowing the land to continue to act as natural pathways for animals.

The original background of the statement referenced above, not even a Wildlands Project statement, is that the natural pathways should have about half of the area in wildlands area. That part has been chopped off by 4x4 and land privacy groups to induce fear and make it sound like their goal is to set aside half of the US in wilderness.

The basic elements of a Wildlands Network Design are these:

• core wild areas, truly wild areas where natural processes are allowed to
  function normally wildlife linkages
• areas of shared use by humans and wildlife that allow wide-ranging species
  and others the room they need to find food, woo a mate, and travel safely
  across the land
• stewardship lands, areas that surround and buffer core wild areas and wildlife
  linkages, in which sustainable economic activities help to promote thriving
  local communities.

The definition of core wild areas is wilderness, parks, BLM, etc. The definition
of wildlife linkages is farms, ranches, green belts etc. The definition of stewardship
lands includes common economic activities like mining, oil, etc.

Q: Will protected areas in wildlands networks be off-limits to humans?

A: No. New or existing federally-protected areas within Wildlands Network Designs
will always be accessible to humans for a wide range of activities including
hiking, primitive camping, nature study, photography, and wildlife viewing.
Sustainable hunting and fishing opportunities will also remain available where
permitted under existing laws.

Dana: I do note an absence of reference to roads and vehicles.

The following questions and answers come from the Wildlands Project.

Q: Will the Wildlands Project remove people or businesses from private property?

A: No. Private landowners and businesses may voluntarily decide to alter management
or ownership of sensitive lands based on available options and incentives. As
a private, non-profit organization, the Wildlands Project has no authority to
condemn or otherwise remove from ownership any private lands. Negative economic
influences, such as rising costs of agricultural production and pressures from
developers to sell private lands, pose a much greater threat to private land
ownership. It is the goal of the Wildlands Project to assist private land owners
in maintaining ownership through a focus on positive incentives and policies
which further good stewardship of private property. This approach encourages
continuation of traditional uses while at the same time providing a common sense
solution for protecting native species.

Upcoming events

• Club meeting night: March 3rd, Monday, at Lo-Inyo Elementary School at 6:30
  pm. Join us for dinner at the Bonanza at 5:15.
• Shop night: March 4th, Tuesday starting at 7:00 pm. Join us at MacDonald's
  at 6:00 for dinner.
• March field trip: To be determined at the March 3rd meeting. Editor's
  notes: I'll send out information about the field trip to all those on the
  email list once we have a plan. If you're not on our email list and can't
  make the meeting, you can call Ray at 760-872-0624 for March field trip information.

Contact numbers

• President: Francis Pedneau - 760-876-4319
• Vice President: Ray Ramirez - 760-872-0624
• Show Chairman: Jeff Lines - 760-872-6597
• Newsletter editor: Linda Jeffries - 760-876-1009; linda at lpgms.org