The Pandora Rose Environmental Activism Collection documents the work of the Mountain Defense League (MDL) for its three decade existence, and Pandora Rose's work as president of the MDL from 2003 to 2008. The majority of the collection consists of records from a variety of federal, state and private organizations including legal documents, legislation, newsletters, annotated maps, brochures, general plans, soil surveys, environmental surveys and reports.  The MDL worked in conjunction with several federal agencies, most notably the Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. The collection is divided into two major series: Office Files and Environmental Research Files. The Environmental Research Files series is divided into five sub-series: Local Environmental Projects, General Plans, National Forests, Soil Surveys, and Publications.

The Mountain Defense League (MDL) is a small non-profit organization that worked in San Diego County to preserve the natural environment often threatened by developers. In particular, the fights against developers on Middle Peak, Mt. Laguna, and Palomar Mountain were some of the MDL's most successful fights. The MDL was created in 1973 in direct response to action taken by developers at Middle Peak in the Cuyamaca Mountains. The league was a small, grass roots organization in which members of the local community had the opportunity to work together to protect San Diego County's natural landscapes. The founder and director, Byron Lindsley Jr., understood the limited resources of the group, and helped the MDL to pick and choose different areas and projects for its attention.

24.32 linear ft

The copyright interests in some of these materials have been transferred to or belong to San Diego State University. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections means that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. Requests for permission to publish must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. Permissions is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish.  Materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.

This collection is open for research.