The Hunt for PMV - Mohawk Dunes
On 3/16/05, Art Phillips, his assistant Danielle, Jerry, and I walked
some of the Mohawk Dunes that are in the film Jerry showed us at our last
gathering in Ontario. The filmed seems to indicate that the PMV were present
in 1993, but that could be due to editing errors. With these pictures
and others, I hope to be able to compare the mountian range to be certain.
As you may know, they and the Mohawk Dunes are part of the Yuma Marine
Corps bombing range. Access is by permit only and only during certain
months. The area is closed March 15 through July for an endangered species
in that area - Pronghorn Elk. Del Maslen, the Range Warden, went the extra
mile to get us in and gave us the complete tour that took us places we
would not have been able to find on our own in just one day. Jan Lawson,
the USMC archeologist for the area, joined us.
The Mohawk dunes are heavily vegetated and not prime PMV habitat. We did
not find any PMV or the plants that normally grow in the same area as
PMV.
Del and Art will coordinate efforts to gain entry into another part of
the range that Art believes is a good prospect just north of the border.
But this may have to be in the fall because of intensified training scheduled
over the next few weeks.
The search continues - let's hope for another wet year next season.
