Feinstein’s Desert Bill

Covering 25 million acres, the California desert contains some of the most outstanding scenic, cultural, ecological, scientific and recreational resources in the nation. There are towering sand dunes, extinct volcanoes, 90 mountain ranges, the world’s largest Joshua tree forest, and more than 100,000 archeological sites. The Mojave offers the best wildlife habitats in the entire California desert. The East Mojave is a national treasure, situated at the juncture of three different ecosystems: the Sonoran Desert, the higher elevation Mojave Desert, and the Great Basin.

The finest of these California desert resources need and deserve protection. That is why I am sponsoring the California Desert Protection Act.

Dave Cavena, in a recent Commentary (Feb. 14), assumes that the only threat to the fragile California desert lands is off-road vehicles and that the Bureau of Land Management will provide the needed protection through enforcement. He is wrong on both accounts.

The California desert is threatened by piecemeal development on all fronts--from off-road vehicle usage to open pit mining to proposals for hazardous waste sites.

The California Desert Protection Act would save the special places in the California desert from these threats. It would set aside 4 million acres of roadless lands as wilderness and transfer 3 million acres to the National Park Service--1.3 million acres to be added to Death Valley, 234,000 to be added to Joshua Tree, and 1.5 million acres to be designated the Mojave National Park.

Contrary to what has been written, national parks are not closed to motorized vehicles. In fact, Yosemite National Park has an abundance of automobiles.

The California Desert Protection Act is probably the most accessible park and wilderness bill ever developed. Eighty-five percent of the land proposed for wilderness is within three miles of a road or jeep trail. A total of more than 33,000 miles of road and primitive routes are unaffected by the legislation, including more than 18,000 miles of primitive, unmaintained routes.

On the issue of BLM enforcement, the agency has had years to show it can protect the California desert. Unfortunately, the agency has not provided that protection as has been well documented by both the General Accounting Office and the inspector general of the Department of Interior. It’s time to provide statutory protection.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN

D-Calif.