First take on the California Desert Protection Act of 2010
Dianne Feinstein introduces her much-ballyhooed desert protection bill in the Senate today. Some desert activists have been working with her staff to craft the bill, working under a pledge of confidentiality. Other activists (myself included) have been waiting a bit impatiently for details. We’re still waiting for some of them, including specifics as to the actual tracts of land added to National Parks and the Preserve, etc.
The below is based on a note from Ryan Henson of the California Wilderness Coalition. I’m monitoring thomas.gov for text of the bill and will share that as it becomes available.
On the upside, the bill:
- establishes the 941,413-acre Mojave Trails National Monument in eastern San Bernardino County along the southern boundary of the Mojave National Preserve
- designates the 133,524-acre Sand to Snow National Monument that stretches between Joshua Tree National Park on the east and the highcountry of the San Gorgonio Wilderness in the San Bernardino National Forest to the west
- adds three areas encompassing 173,861 acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System, including the Avawatz Mountains Wilderness (86,614 acres), Great Falls Basin Wilderness (7,871 acres) and Soda Mountains Wilderness (79,376 acres)
- enlarges four existing wilderness areas by 172,247 acres, including the Death Valley National Park Wilderness (90,152 acres), Golden Valley Wilderness (21,633 acres), Kingston Range Wilderness (53,321 acres) and San Gorgonio Wilderness (7,141 acres)
- establishes the 75,575-acre Vinagre Wash Special Management Area in Imperial County where many ecologically and culturally sensitive areas would be protected from development and vehicle use, including 48,699 acres that would essentially be managed as wilderness
- enlarges Death Valley National Park by 40,740 acres, Mojave National Preserve by 29,246 acres and Joshua Tree National Park by 2,904 acres
- adds over 70 miles (22,400 acres) of stream to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System along the Amargosa River, Deep Creek, Surprise Canyon and the Whitewater River
- permanently prohibits the staking of new mining claims on approximately 10,000 acres of land sacred to the Quechan Tribe in Imperial County
- mandates the study and protection of a cultural trail and the features associated with it along the Colorado River that is sacred to several tribes
- makes it more difficult for developers to excessively exploit groundwater in or near the Mojave National Preserve
- transfers a 994-acre Bureau of Land Management holding in San Diego County to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and require the state to manage the land as wilderness
- protects land from development that has been donated to or acquired by the federal government for conservation purposes and
- requires the Department of the Interior to study the future impacts of climate change on the California desert, to mitigate these impacts and to identify and protect important wildlife migration corridors in the region.
On the downside, the bill
- withdraws protection from 33,571 acres of the Soda Mountains Wilderness Study Area
- withdraws protection from the 84,400-acre Cady Mountains Wilderness Study Area (however, all but 5,500 acres of the area will be included in the Mojave Trails National Monument)
- facilitates the transfer of isolated parcels of state-owned land that are surrounded by desert wilderness areas and parks in exchange for federal assets, potentially including parcels of federal land
- turns five existing administratively-designated off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreation areas into legislatively-designated OHV areas and requires the Secretary of the Interior to study the possibility of expanding them (though my DPC colleague Terry Weiner points out that this increases the likelihood of actual management plans for these areas to mitigate current damage)
- allows the expansion of a small airport in Imperial County.
Other parts of the bill not yet released involve energy development in the desert, and conservationists are quite concerned about those provisions.
I’ll report more as I get it.
Comments
What I want to know is who is making money on this legislation? Does the gov. have to buy any land to be included in these areas? From whom?
Got a reporter out there that asked that question?
Wow, I didn’t even know this was in the works. Quite a few changes to current land administration. Thanks for sharing, looking forward to seeing how it all works out.
I think the bill on the surface is a good one. Of particular interest to me is the 90,00 acres of land to be designated “Wilderness” in Death Valley National Park. I love wilderness, but I do not want to loose any of our beloved backcountry roads.
Here is link to the New York Times which has some interesting discussion about the bill.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/business/energy-environment/22solar.html?_r=1
I’ve heard and read a lot of negative comments about the California Desert Protection Act of 2010 from Rockhounds in the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies Newsletter.
But, when you look at the Bill Summary of Senator Dianne Feinstein’s California Desert Protection Act of 2010, you’ll read this.
“Maintains existing recreation uses, including hunting, vehicular travel on existing open roads and trails, grazing, camping, horseback riding, rock collecting, etc.”
So, Why the negative comments if vehicular travel on existing open roads & trails and rock collecting is not threatened?
Look for yourself in this link.
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=NewsRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=b3cb1c7d-5056-8059-7644-b14713dcc1a5&IsPrint=true
Does anyone have any FACTUAL information?
Both National Monument designations in the bill contain the following language:
The management plan [for the new National Monument] shall include provisions that
authorize the continued recreational uses of the Monument (including hiking, camping, hunting, mountain biking, sightseeing, off highway vehicle recreation on designated routes, rockhounding, and horseback riding), if the recreational uses are consistent with this section and any other applicable law
The bill also creates advisory panels for each monument, and requires that one of the seats on each panel be occupied by a representative of the rockhounding community.
I put a copy of the bill here (PDF) so people can see for themselves.
http://faultline.org/files/CDPA2010.pdf
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