Granite Mountains Administrative Collection

This collection encompasses the administrative records of the Jack and Marilyn Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center (SGM). Created mostly by former reserve directors Phillipe Cohen and Cindy Stead Cohen, the collection includes the ten series described below:

The Administrative Series forms the bulk of the collections. Topics include facilities, research, buildings, budgets, policy, and site analysis. Types of documents include correspondence, building plans, drawings, status reports, topographic maps, slides, building plan notebooks, meeting materials, published materials about SGM and related correspondence, pamphlets, brochures, clippings, newsletters, budgets, fundraising documents, legal documents, annual reports, personnel files, applications for research use and correspondence, educational program applications, calendars of research use, user sign-in sheets dating from 1986-97, and release forms. This series also contains historical and geographical documents related to the reserve and surrounding area, including: drawings and maps, chronologies, short memoirs, and notes from caretakers. The files date from 1981-97.

The Management and Planning series covers land acquisitions, planning, and reserve management for the reserve. It includes reports, handouts, correspondence, evaluations, and memoranda. The files date from 1984-95.

The Physical Plant series covers safety procedures and policies, facilities, illegal dumping, and poison control. Types of documents include site charts, correspondence, site inventories, and manuals. The files date from 1981 and 1984-93.

The Research series contains files related to research administration and equipment. It also includes reference materials, such as monitoring data and species lists. Major topics include bighorn sheep, desert tortoise, endangered species generally, and relevant legislation. Types of documents include correspondence, research applications, proposals, bibliographies, management plans, clippings, information on legislation, testimonies, databases of natural diversity and natural areas, field notes and notebooks from 1987-90, maps of the reserve and area, and data collected by researchers. Of particular note are round wheel weather data, materials used to creation a breeding bird atlas, a Bureau of Land Management bird survey dataset, and document from several symposia, including cassette tape recordings of the 1992 East Mojave Desert symposium at UC Riverside. This series is organized by researchers’ names; its materials date from 1984-97 with a few documents dating to 1975.

The Education series includes applications for use of the reserve, notes on programs, and other documentation related to educational programs using SGM’s facilities and resources. The files date from 1992-98.

The Natural Reserve System series documents SGM’s relationship with the system-wide NRS office. It includes: proposals, reports, reserve plans, committee work, correspondence (on planning and workshops), budgets, management documents, annual reports, bibliographies, personnel documents, basic information about the reserves, and grant administration documents. The files date from 1984-97.

The National Park Service (NPS) series includes clippings, correspondence, and copies of legislation. Files date from 1987-97.

The Mojave Desert Ecosystem Initiative series contains clippings and correspondence from 1995-97 related to the title project.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) series documents SGM’s relationship with the BLM. Types of documents include clippings, correspondence (often about Environmental Impact Statements and Reports), agreements between BLM and SGM, reports and publications, and management plans. The files also document BLM activities in the area, and include charts and meeting documents.

The Organizations series includes basic information about organizations working on issues that relate to SGM’s activities. These are subject files and include handouts, pamphlets, and clippings, as well as some notes from conferences attended. The files date from 1986-93.