Nature Preserve Thrives in Arid Mojave

Big Morongo Canyon Preserve is not a secret in the strictest sense. It’s just a block off a state highway, sits on public land and has its own Web site.

But many people whipping by on California 62, 1 million of them a year on their way to Joshua Tree National Park, don’t know that here in the vast, arid Mojave is a willow-scented canyon where water runs year-round and tree frogs sing so loudly they can drown out a conversation.

This time of year, the preserve is a teeming stopover for more than 250 kinds of birds. And with them comes the one group of visitors that has no trouble finding this desert oasis.

Bird watchers like Bruce Cox have long known that the haven 25 miles from downtown Palm Springs is a prime spot to see the vermilion flycatcher, summer tanager and yellow warbler, to name just a few.

“We come here every year because we always see birds we haven’t seen before and because it’s such an experience to follow a stream through this lush environment surrounded by desert,” said Cox, a 66-year-old retired engineer from Phoenix.

The 29,000-acre preserve is one of the few remaining desert wetlands on the Pacific Migration Flyway, the bird superhighway between the tropics and the Arctic. Anyone who has ever driven across the desert, eyeing a dropping gas gauge and counting on the sign that promises a gas station miles ahead, can understand the importance of the preserve to migrating birds.

“These birds are completely out of gas when they make it here,” said Dee Zeller, who lives at the preserve with his wife, Betty, and leads weekly bird walks. “This is where they refuel.”

On a recent day, 20 visitors, literally up with the birds, showed up for Zeller’s 8 a.m. outing.

The group traveled quietly, breathing in the damp air, making gentle note of watercress growing in a stream and a shiny stinkbug crossing the trail. The only hint of rowdiness came when Zeller pointed out a tiny bird carrying nesting material.

“The common bushtit has something in its mouth!” several people said excitedly.

In the past two years, the number of visitors to the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve has doubled from the usual 1,500 a year.

Naturalists say that’s probably a reflection of the increased popularity of bird watching nationwide. Birding is the nation’s fastest growing form of outdoor recreation, with more than 62 million people taking part, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife survey.

Another draw is the preserve’s new boardwalk, which will encircle the marsh when it is completed later this year.

The boardwalk, made of recycled plastic garbage bags, is wheelchair accessible and more environmentally sensitive than the one that burned down six years ago.

The old trail was made of compressed wood that leeched chemicals into the water. It was low, blocking the streams, and cut across the marsh. The new boardwalk is on pilings to let the water move freely. It skirts the edge of the water, leaving a bigger piece of ecosystem intact.

Robin Kobaly, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management biologist and the preserve’s manager, stood watching as a crew hammered on the final leg of the $181,000 boardwalk.

Kobaly grew up in Morongo Valley and has explored the spring-fed canyon since she was a 6-year-old crawling through the mud, catching frogs and snakes on what was then a local rancher’s property.

Now her biggest fear is that her childhood haunt may be harmed by improvements to a trail less traveled.

“I’m in a big conflict. If we develop safe, accessible trails, will it attract so many people it hurts what we’re trying to protect? But on the other hand, if we keep people out, this magical spot loses the ability to inspire a reverence for plants and wildlife,” Kobaly said. “Every day I ask myself whether I’m doing the right thing by a place I love.”

The preserve’s Web site is at www.bigmorongo.org.