Pictures not included in the book (all photos by Howard Wilshire except as indicated.)
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1. 1942 tank track left, 1964 track right, California, April 1985.
Mojave Desert, south of Needles, CA. Tracks are especially persistent on desert pavement surfaces, but compressional effects also remain for decades, even where the tracks are no longer visible.
2. Abandoned 5-acre ranchette, Mojave Desert, California, May 1977.
Created in 1938 in response to the 1930s depression, the Small Tract Act of 1938 designated 457,000 federal acres for disposal. The southern California desert is dotted with failed developments—originally just bulldozed grids of “streets” boxing land parcels. Getting title to a 5-acre parcel required building a small shack, but staying in it defeated most of the owners. This Act was repealed in 1976.
3. Abandoned ranch house, Highway 58, California, September 2003.
4. Abandoned yacht clubhouse, Salton Sea, California, October 1989. Showing undercutting of structure by wave action (left side).
5. Acid mine drainage, abandoned Friday-Loudan Mine, Shasta Co. California, September 1993. (Photo by D. D. Trent)
6. Single pass of tank in 1942 inhibits annual plant growth 40 years after it was made, south end of Turtle Mountains, California, April 1983.
7. Borax Mine, approximately 1.5 miles long, ¾ miles wide, 700 feet deep. Boron, California, May 1999.
8. Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, April 1989.
9. Center pivot irrigation, south of Farmington, New Mexico, July 1990. This irrigation method led to widespread destruction of wind breaks.
10. Centralized photovoltaic solar power plant, Carizzo Plains, California, July 1985.
11. Cheatgrass invasion of overgrazed land, east of St. George, Utah, May 1997.
12. Coast redwoods, California, August 2001.
13. Drop in level of Lake Mead, caused by drought beginning in late 1999, persisting at least through 2006.
14. Erosion and sediment burial of dryland crop, Highway 58 east of Paso Robles, California, January 1978.
15. Erosion in abandoned windfarm, north of Mojave, California, June 2001.
16. Erosion of offroad vehicle trails on either side of juniper caused deep erosion exposing the roots of the 30-foot tree. Within a year the tree had blown down. West of Reno, Nevada, May 1978.
17. Failing yucca transplants on Kern River gas pipeline, Clark Mountains, California, March 2003.
18. Forest clearing for vineyard planting, Sonoma County, California.
19. Satellite image of Jonah gas field, Wyoming, 1986. All Jonah images courtesy John F. Amos, SkyTruth (satellite images and digital mapping for environmental protection, education and advocacy)
20. Jonah gas field, Wyoming, 1999
21. Jonah gas field, Wyoming, 2001
22. Jonah gas field, Wyoming, 2002
23. Leaves on water, King Range, California, August 1988.
24. Mesquite, cactus invasion of grazed land, San Angelo, Texas, April 2000.
25. Mine wastes burying landscape, Yerington, Nevada, May 1978. Note small hill barely emerges in center of tailings. This is a Superfund site as the waste is contaminating groundwater.
26. Mine wastes fill main drainage channel west of Tonopah, Nevada, May 2001.
27. Mojave asters, Mojave Desert, California, May 1998.
28. Oil contamination of stream, Lost Hills, California, May 1979.
29. Oil development mars Red Rock plateau, southeastern Utah, September 2002. Such developments are marginal producers (“strippers”); pump runs on propane, so energy efficiency is debatable.
30. Oil well waste pit, unlined and abandoned. Southeastern Utah, September 2002.
31. Map of off-road vehicle trails in Wilderness Study Area, southeastern Utah. (Redrock Wilderness Newsletter, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Redrock Wilderness vol. 17, Spring 2000.)
32. Yesterday’s energy, Nevada, March 1980.
33. Pinyon pine and junipers squashed by seismic thumper trucks, southeastern Utah, September 2002.
34. Primroses and desert lily, east Dale Dry Lake, Mojave Desert, California, April 1983.
35. Map showing locations of radioactive waste dumps in U.S. Modified from U.S. General Accounting Office, GAO/RCED-00-64 (2000). [PDF]
36. Roads in remote subdivision, Stagecoach Trails 40-acre “ranch” development. Equally spaced left-right roads not visible in this photo. Dutch Flat west of Hualapai Mountains, Arizona, April 2003.
37. Angel Trail, Wayne Co., Utah, an example of an inappropriate RS 2477 highway claim. (Photo by Gordon Swenson, courtesy Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.)
38. Sex in the wild, Anza Borrego State Park, California, April 1998.
39. Pictographs, Sinbad country, Utah April 2000.
40. Residual subsurface soil deformation caused by single pass of a tank in 1942. Desert Training Center, California. (Photo by Doug Prose, February 1982.)
41. Road building in steep terrain, Tehachapi Mountains windfarm, California, March 1985.