Borderlands & Security Impacts, Enforcement & Compliance, Public Lands and Access, Public Lands Policy & Management

Department of the Interior Transfers Public Land to Navy to Close Border Security Gaps

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

760 acres in San Diego and Imperial counties will be transferred to the Navy for a three-year National Defense Area to support border security and reduce illegal-use impacts.

Let’s start with this: I’m not a fan of the government – federal or state – transferring public lands out of public hands. EVER.

The Interior Department is handing roughly 760 acres of public land in San Diego and Imperial counties to the Navy for a three-year transfer to establish a National Defense Area in support of border security operations. The designated area stretches from the western edge of the Otay Mountain Wilderness to about a mile west of the California–Arizona line, a corridor officials say sees heavy illegal crossing activity and the attendant strain on the landscape. Continue reading →

Activities, Adventures, Bureau of Land Management, California, National Parks

Head for the Dark Night Sky: Catch the Geminids Meteor Show in California

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

The sky over California puts on one of its best displays this weekend. From desert flats to high mountain vistas, the Geminid meteor shower peaks between December 13 and 14 — and under the right conditions, it’s the year’s most spectacular meteor show. Get away from town lights and clouds, and you’ll see fast, bright streaks and the occasional fireball that make a late night worth it.

The Geminids run roughly from December 1 to 21, with peak activity from December 13 to 14. Plan to be settled in by about 10 p.m.; the waning crescent moon doesn’t rise until roughly 2 a.m., which gives several moon-free hours when the faint stuff is visible. The stream is debris from asteroid 3200 Phaethon and, under dark skies, rates can hit 60–120 meteors per hour. NASA calls the Geminids one of the most powerful and spectacular annual showers. Continue reading →

Bureau of Land Management, California, U.S. Forest Service

One Dollar, One Tree: BLM Cuts Permits to $1 for Trees and Firewood

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

Bureau of Land Management opens cutting areas and drops personal-use permits to $1 to deliver holiday savings and reduce hazardous fuels.

Across BLM public lands this winter, the Interior Department has turned a holiday chore into a practical win. The Bureau of Land Management’s “One Dollar, One Tree“ action makes gathering a Christmas tree or personal-use firewood inexpensive while directing work into overstocked stands that need thinning.

Effective immediately for the 2025–2026 winter season, the BLM has cut personal-use permits for Christmas trees and firewood to $1 per tree or per cord through January 31, 2026. The agency is opening new cutting areas in overstocked woodlands, with priority given to locations near communities, military bases, tribal areas, and rural counties. Household limits are raised in many places — up to 10 cords of firewood and up to three Christmas trees — and caps can be relaxed where resources allow. The department projects the combined programs will deliver nearly $10 million in holiday savings to families while helping reduce hazardous fuels on public lands. Continue reading →

Activities, California, Hikes, National Parks

100th Annual Trek to the Nation’s Christmas Tree

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell
This month, Grant Grove in Kings Canyon will host the 100th Annual Trek to the Nation’s Christmas Tree. On December 14, assembling at 2 p.m. with the official ceremony beginning at 2:30 p.m. The event honors the General Grant Tree, the long-lived, enormous, and officially recognized “Nation’s Christmas Tree.” December 14 is also a free entrance day at Sequoia and Kings Canyon, so Grant Grove will see heavier foot traffic and limited parking. 
 
The General Grant Tree stands roughly 268 feet tall and is among the world’s oldest living trees — an apt living symbol for a national observance. President Calvin Coolidge designated it the Nation’s Christmas Tree on April 28, 1926. Congress later named it a National Shrine under Public Law 441 on March 29, 1956, and Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz dedicated the tree on November 11, 1956, as a perpetual shrine honoring the nation’s armed forces. Those layers of designation give the site ecological, historical, and commemorative weight.

Continue reading →

California, National Parks, News, Outdoors

Lake Manly Returns — Record Fall Rain Shuts Roads in Death Valley

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

A string of storms this fall left Death Valley doing what it rarely does: collecting rainwater.

The National Weather Service says this was the wettest fall on record for the park — September through November totaled 2.41 inches — and November itself set a new mark at 1.76 inches, topping the old November record of 1.70 inches from 1923. That’s more rain than the valley typically sees in a year, and at Badwater Basin — 282 feet below sea level — the runoff pooled into a shallow, walkable lake people are calling Lake Manly. It’s small and shoe-top shallow in most spots, much less dramatic than the lake that followed Hurricane Hilary in 2024, and it sits about a mile from the Badwater parking lot. The storms hit hard: sections of pavement were buried or scoured away after the November 15 storm, and more rain on November 18 produced additional flooding and closures.

Continue reading →