Dear EcoArt Friends,

Over the past four decades, I’ve developed a deep love for Joshua Tree National Park, where I’ve spent countless hours hiking, photographing, camping and enjoying the star studded night sky, and now live in its vicinity. The Park’s stunning landscapes, spectacular vistas, and unusual plants, animals and rock formations are the source of inspiration for countless artists like myself. As you know, my artwork has long focused on environmental issues and I have serious concerns about the air pollution in the park and surrounding region.

I’m requesting your help today to improve Joshua Tree National Park’s air quality which is among the worst of the national parks in the nation in terms of certain types of pollution like smog. The state of the air in Joshua Tree National Park isn’t the fault of the National Park Service- significant amounts blow in from the Inland Empire and Greater Los Angeles area.

We now have a unique opportunity to improve air quality because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is revising the Regional Haze Rule (RHR), which directs States like California to create a road map for ensuring that air in select parks and wilderness areas, including Joshua Tree, is made clean, clear and healthy for visitors. The beauty of strengthening the RHR, which focuses on eliminating pollution causing haze which obstructs scenic vistas, is that setting standards to improve visibility also removes pollutants that damage the lungs of visitors and people who live in communities surrounding the park.

Please reply (email me at sank@csusb.edu) as soon as possible if you wish your name to be added to the attached letter about the Regional Haze Rule (RHR) to be sent to the EPA. Include the following in your email reply: your name, title, type of artist and city where you live in your email reply. (Ex. Sant Khalsa, Visual Artist and Professor of Art Emerita, Joshua Tree, CA.)

Thank you for taking action and sharing my concern for Joshua Tree National Park!

Warmest regards,

Sant Khalsa