NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: September 29, 2005 CDDNews90
Contact: Pam Hansen @ 760-862-9984 or Frank Mowry @ 760-251-4822

Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Celebrates Fifth Anniversary

The public is cordially invited to participate in celebration activities commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument on Saturday, Oct. 22 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the monument visitor center, located at 51-500 Highway 74 in Palm Desert, California. All activities are free to the public.

Festivities will begin 8:30 a.m. with the announcement of the Palm Springs Life magazine sponsored photography contest winner. An exhibit of the entries also will be on display. Then at 8:45 a.m. Smokey Bear will be on-hand for the cutting of a national monument anniversary cake.

The U.S. Forest Service 'Wildfire Education Mobile Exhibit' will offer valuable wildfire safety tips and demonstrations. The Coachella Valley Watercolor Society Field Mice plein air artists will be displaying their talents, and painting on site. Also scheduled is a special signing for the new children's book "A Monument to Treasure," that will include a display of illustrations from the book. Nature illustrators Sue Adams and Diane Versteeg will display their art, and "Voices of the Monument," the Emmy award winning documentary of the national monument will be shown continuously throughout the day.

Additional hands-on arts and nature activities will include presentations by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Cultural Museum, Caliso Learning, Friends of the Desert Mountains, Idyllwild Nature Center, the Natural Science Collaborative, members of the Riverside County Desert Sheriff's Search and Rescue Unit. There will also be displays of live animals from The Living Desert, a Technicolor butterfly enclosure, and the S.C.R.A.P. Gallery. Refreshments and coffee will be provided by Starbucks Green Team and the Friends of the Desert Mountains.

The visitor center's Bobcat Bookstore will be open and features a great selection of books on the environment and outdoor recreation , and a new national monument poster featuring the winning entry in the Palm Springs Life photography contest will be available free to the public.

For additional information about the monument's fifth year anniversary celebration and activities call the visitor center at (760) 862-9984.

-BLM-

Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains National Monument
51-500 Highway 74, Palm Desert, CA 92201
Phone 760-862-9984, Fax 760-862-9240