U.S. to Acquire 62,000 Acres of Desert for Conservation

Completing a massive land-buying program, more than 62,000 acres of former railroad parcels from the Salton Sea to the Colorado River will be handed over to the public for preservation within a week.

The transfer of title from Catellus Development Corp. to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will cap five years of politically arduous bargaining by private donors to save the vast checkerboard of tracts that are home to bighorn sheep and desert tortoises, sand dunes, extinct volcanoes, ancient petroglyphs and wave upon wave of mountain ranges.

The effort was shepherded by the Wildlands Conservancy, a private nonprofit group that connects private donations with public funds for major conservation purchases. During a tour of sandstone bluffs tucked between the Chocolate Mountains and the Salton Sea, Wildlands Conservancy Executive Director David Myers expressed relief that this deal was done.

“There used to be signs posted at freeway offramps across the Mojave that said ‘Available for Development,’ ” he said. “We got a lot of that land for $80 an acre and handed it over to the federal government. I’d say that’s a pretty good deal.”

Linda Hansen, manager of the Bureau of Land Management’s California Desert District, which now has jurisdiction over the lands, called it “a great accomplishment that will always be there for future generations.”

Elden Hughes, chairman of the Sierra Club’s California Desert Committee, said he aims to “encourage folks to go out and see it, walk it, drive it, photograph it.”

To promote westward expansion, Congress in 1864 gave the railroad industry alternating sections of land in a 50-mile swath through what are now the Mojave National Preserve, Joshua Tree National Park and other desert lands.

Catellus, formerly the real estate arm of Southern Pacific Railroad, owned more than 800,000 acres scattered across the Mojave in 640-acre blocks. It hoped to sell them for mineral development and private getaways.

Fearing the sales would cripple public recreational access to huge portions of pristine desert, the Wildlands Conservancy and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) began negotiating to buy the land on the government’s behalf.

But an initial agreement struck between Feinstein and Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) unraveled quickly, partly because it was contingent on allowing the expansion of the army’s sprawling desert training center at Ft. Irwin.

“Supporting the Ft. Irwin expansion would have meant ruining critical desert tortoise habitat in a pristine area,” Myers recalled. “Wildlands Conservancy has never done anything with a downside to the environment.”

The battle between tanks and tortoises was eventually resolved when the Wildlands Conservancy, which has raised $46.6 million to complete the purchase, chose to have all Catellus lands adjacent to Ft. Irwin withdrawn from the deal.

The 62,000 acres that Catellus owned in Imperial County was the last of four major transfers under the final agreement hammered out in 1999.

John Bezzant, vice president of management at Catellus, said that although the land was ultimately sold for significantly less than its appraised value, “we feel this series of transactions worked out best for us and the United States of America.”

“What makes this deal different from any other involving purchases of wilderness is that it was funded with private donations, and then given to the public,” he added. “The conservation group ought to get a pat on the back for that.”

Feinstein did not argue.

“I am very pleased that the Wildlands Conservancy will be completing their last major phase of desert land acquisitions,” Feinstein said. “This marks the culmination of a long process to preserve and protect one of North America’s great treasures.”

Bringing his four-wheel drive Toyota to an abrupt stop on a remote dirt road fronting a gleaming ancient lava flow in the Newberry Mountains Wilderness near Barstow, Myers shouted, “The way to know the desert is to get out.... Let’s go for a walk.”

Moments later, he and Hughes were striding toward a lone mountain bluebird that was flitting from smoke tree to creosote bush in a dry wash pocked with six species of cactus.

“Look at this landscape: It’s like being on some other planet,” Myers said, turning full circle on his heels.

“And imagine this: The acquisition of the Catellus land connects 24 wilderness areas that would otherwise have been islands in the sand,” he said. “All we need now is a good rain to bring up some wildflowers.”