Cranston Shelves Ambitious Desert Parkland Measure

Blaming Republican opposition, Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) Tuesday shelved until next year his controversial bill to designate millions of acres of California desert as protected wilderness and parklands.

The bill would have designated 8.4 million acres, much of it in San Bernardino County, as protected wilderness. It also would have created a 1.5-million-acre East Mojave National Park east of Barstow and expand Joshua Tree and Death Valley national monuments, designating both as national parks.

Cranston charged that Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), who is running for governor, orchestrated the parliamentary maneuver that prevented the bill’s approval in committee last month. Wilson has denied strenuously that he is responsible for the maneuver, but he opposes the bill because it sets aside too much land and fails to provide sufficient access to ranchers, miners and off-road vehicles.

The bill might have been rescheduled for debate before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. But Cranston, who said that he fears Republican delaying tactics, withdrew the bill and will resubmit it after the new Congress reconvenes in January.

Committee Chairman J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.) and Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.), chairman of the subcommittee on national parks, promised to push the measure to a vote in committee and on the Senate floor in the new session, Cranston said.

The bill was conceived as a response to the Bureau of Land Management’s 1976 directive to Congress to develop a master plan for federal land management and planning.

Over the last five years, more than 40,000 Californians have written the BLM, testified in about 50 hearings or championed their causes regarding the desert lands policy.

Environmentalists support Cranston’s legislation but it has met stiff opposition from ranchers and miners.

The California Public Employees Retirement System also opposes the legislation, citing its ownership in a corporation that owns large tracts of private lands in the California desert, some of which would be given wilderness status.

Although Cranston’s bill does not preclude military training flights over the land, it does not allow for the broad range of flight training that the Department of Defense would like.

Another less extensive bill introduced by four California congressmen is in a House Interior subcommittee, but is not expected to come up for a vote on the House floor this year. That bill would designate 2.1 million acres of the Southern California desert as wilderness, but would preserve livestock grazing rights and authorize motor vehicle access in some areas.

Cranston’s bill had progressed father than any other desert preservation legislation, including one similar to his own introduced by Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) that also has been on hold since summer.