1956 R.J. Paul Journal Mojave River, 1400-1450 ft., Afton, San Bernardino Co., Calif. December 26, 1956 Wife, Imogene, and I left Ventura this morning and arrived at Afton at about 2:30 PM. The area is changed somewhat from its aspect when we were here last spring. There is a rather large construction camp along the railroad about 1/2 mile west of Afton and just opposite our camp (with the Lewis) of last spring. The dirt road running parallel to and between the river and the railroad which formerly ended just a few yards beyond our old campsite has been extended downstream (east) to the point where the river bends to the south and the railroad crosses it and enters a tunnel. This is about 1/2 mile from our old campsite. The purpose of the railroad construction camp is to repair the tunnel and thus is considerable vehicle traffic along the road between the camp and the tunnel and the camp and the highway. The former plank bridge of the road crossing the Mojave River between Afton and the highway has been replaced by an earth fill containing pipe culverts for the stream to pass through. The main effects of the construction camp are increased human activity (and disturbance to fauna) in the area around the camp which includes mainly the rather dense screwbean thicket in which we camped last spring and in which we collected scrub jays and an Oriole among others; and the actual destruction of habitat including part of the screwbean thicket