Giant Rock, CA - Our first #storiesandstewardship event created in collaboration with the BLM, Blightsites.org & TrashFreeEarth.org concentrated on the area directly around the storied boulder outside of Landers, CA. With the help of volunteers from as far away as San Jose, we removed over 130 pounds of debris from the BLM site while host Karyl Newman shared stories from ongoing research about the historic location. Waste from this effort was recycled and reused as creative material for an eco-scenography experiment for the summer youth theatre program at the Hi-Desert Nature Museum in Yucca Valley, CA.
Giant Rock - Back to the boulder with the BLM and Blightsites.org for another placekeeping #storiesandstewardship cleanup where there's always more to done. Host Karyl Newman shared stories about Frank Critzer, the creator of the Giant Rock airport and first known 'tenant' under the rock, from a private collection she studied in September. The vortex is 285 pounds of litter - lighter!
Giant Rock - An abandoned camp inspired a community to come together for another large-scale placekeeping event across five miles in the public lands surrounding Giant Rock. The Landers Community Association, the Mojave Desert Land Trust, the BLM and Blightsites.org, gathered 6.69 TONS of trash on Saturday, September 9th.
Please explore our #storiesandstewardship #aftermap where there's always more to done and the aliens won't beam it up. Thank you to all the organizers and volunteers. Until next time...
This year at Giant Rock, we concentrated on the areas close. We carefully sifted sand to remove glass from the area between the where the boulder split. Bartow BLM was able to power wash some grafitti, prioritizing the most offensive. This would not have been possible without coordination by Judith Lafoon and the generosity of Chris Gubler, the nearest accesible water source. As our work wound down around noon, we were surpised by a group gathered for a ceremony in the vortex, the newly cleared space between the break.
Back to Giant Rock for Public Lands Day, hoping for an experimental interpretative installation based on Positional Project research.
A preponderance of pandemic related obstacles prevented a community cleanup this year, yet we persisted. A community member reported post burn pallet nails and a small group of us went out on the winter solstice to gather and materials were reused by artists.
FOLLOW US