Palm Springs’ Backdrop Gets a Boost

A 440-square-mile sweep of rugged desert and mountains in Southern California appears headed for greater protection as part of a conservation initiative late in the Clinton administration.

The land in the proposed Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument forms the postcard backdrop for Palm Springs, rising from the desert floor to the top of 10,000-foot Mt. San Jacinto.

Home to the endangered peninsular bighorn sheep and the threatened desert slender salamander, it is a place of sheer cliffs and deep canyons that shelter oases of lakes.

“It’s a very, very dramatic landscape,” said Bill Havert, executive director of the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, which campaigned for the plan.

Much of the land already is protected by federal or state government, but declaring it a national monument--one step shy of national park status--would offer permanent protection for the land rather than the current administrative management, which could change. Depending on how legislation is crafted, monument status could restrict access, construction and development such as mining.

Opposed by developers who plan three golf courses plus hotels and condominiums within the proposed boundary, and viewed warily by Palm Springs officials for the same reason, the proposal got a jump start in November from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.

Babbitt announced a push to give national monument status to 12 environmentally sensitive and threatened areas nationwide. In California, the areas include Santa Rosa-San Jacinto, the Carrizo Plain at the southwest end of the San Joaquin Valley, the Otay Mountains east of San Diego and uninhabited rocks and islands off the coast.

When Clinton created the Grand Staircase-Escalante monument in Utah three years ago, critics called the deal a federal “land grab.” The prospect of a similar move in the Santa Rosas is prompting action in Congress, where opponents might have a better chance to win concessions.

Rep. Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs) held a public hearing on the plan Tuesday and announced the next day that she would submit a bill early next year to create the monument.

“If the president hadn’t talked about waving his magic wand, this might have taken a slower pace,” Bono said. “It would have taken years.”

The monument would include the present Santa Rosa Mountains National Scenic Area, part of the San Bernardino National Forest, the state’s San Jacinto Wilderness Area and part of the reservation of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.

It would stretch from the edge of Palm Springs to the top of Mt. San Jacinto, known to visitors as the site of a cable gondola ride that carries thousands of tourists each year to a vista point.

Because it covers such a range of elevations, the proposed national monument has five distinct climate zones, from desert to pine forest and arctic pine at the summit, said Havert of the conservancy group.

Hiking and horseback trails cross the hills, offering spectacular views.

“I enjoy coming here, riding my bike and getting away from the rat race in the city,” said Ann Johnson, a 31-year-old Indio resident, drinking water after a recent ride.

Interior Department officials cleared an early hurdle for a monument by negotiating a management agreement with the Agua Caliente.

The tribal council at first worried that the federal government could more easily seize their land if the scenic area became a monument, said Richard Milanovich, council chairman. But after reaching a management agreement in October, he said, the tribe was satisfied.

What bothers some Palm Springs officials and developers is the threat to development of private land on the western edge of the city along Palm Canyon Drive. Since 1993, the city has approved plans for three major projects, each with a golf course and a hotel or condominiums on private land at the foot of the mountains--inside the proposed monument boundary.

One of the developers, Mark Bragg, president of Shadowrock Development Corp., said he hopes a compromise can be negotiated to allow his project to go ahead. If not, he’ll go to court.

“We will legally fight dictatorship wherever we encounter it,” Bragg said.

Bono said she believes the developers can be accommodated, either by redrawing the boundary around the private land or allowing limited construction within the monument boundaries.

“I wouldn’t want to do something that would stop progress, as far as the city has determined it to be,” she said.

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Monumental Plans

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is proposing national monuments at a dozen sites in the West:

California:

* The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains near Palm Springs in Southern California.

* The Carrizo Plain in the Central Valley.

* The Otay Mountains east of San Diego.

* Thousands of uninhabited rocks and islands off the California and Oregon coasts.

Arizona:

* The Shivwits Plateau, a half-million acres north of the Grand Canyon.

* Perry Mesa with prehistoric Indian ruins near Prescott.

* La Cienega Creek, protecting riparian habitat near Tucson.

Colorado:

* Expansion of the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction.

* Anasazi Indian ruins near Cortez.

Montana:

* The Missouri Breaks canyonland along 140 miles of the Missouri River.

Oregon:

* Steens Mountain in southeast Oregon, a desert-glacial area discussed as a monument for 50 years.

* Soda Mountain in southern Oregon.