Backers of Desert Protection Claim Break in Impasse

Proclaiming a breakthrough in the longstanding impasse over federal protection of the California deserts, Reps. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) and Richard Lehman (D-Sanger) Wednesday unveiled compromise legislation that reduces proposed park and wilderness areas by 250,000 acres from a plan that has languished in Congress since 1987.

Similar to a Senate measure by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), the compromise is scheduled to be examined at a July 30 hearing by Lehman’s Interior and Insular Affairs subcommittee on general oversight and California desert lands. The authors said that they have a commitment from Interior Chairman George Miller (D-Martinez) to have the bill ready for action by the House later this year.

“This, I believe, is a tremendous package,” Levine said. “We have left all the key elements intact while at the same time making significant accommodation for legitimate problems that were brought to our attention. As a result, the desert’s day in Congress, I believe, is at hand.”

But such enthusiasm was not universal. Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) warned that the bill is “still a long way from what most people would consider an acceptable compromise.” Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) protested that he and his colleagues from desert congressional districts had been left in the dark about the new proposal.

The bill would designate 77 wilderness areas totaling 4.4 million acres, create a 3.3-million-acre Death Valley National Park, an 800,000-acre Joshua Tree National Park and a 1.5-million-acre Mojave National Monument, which would be managed by the National Park Service.

Besides reducing wilderness areas from 81 to 77 and cutting the park and wilderness areas by 250,000 acres, the compromise makes several notable changes from the Senate bill, which has been supported by environmentalists but bitterly opposed by utilities, mining interests, ranchers and motorcycling enthusiasts.

Livestock grazing would be phased out over 25 rather than 1 to 10 years, and utility rights of way and the Interstate 15 corridor would be excluded from the plan, as would 74,000 acres used by off-road vehicles. Language that would have restricted military training flights and use of the China Lake Naval Weapons Center and the Chocolate Mountains aerial gunnery range was dropped “pending further discussion with the military.”

Even before the compromise, environmentalists considered the outlook for desert protection legislation to have brightened distinctly this year.

Seymour put the subject among his legislative priorities when he succeeded then-Sen. Pete Wilson.