Protection for the Mojave Desert

From The Sun, a newspaper serving San Bernardino and the Inland Empire

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, author of the 1994 California Desert Protection Act that upgraded Death Valley and Joshua Tree to national park status and created the Mojave National Preserve, is back with proposed protection for more of the Inland Empire's desert. Last week she introduced legislation to establish two new national monuments and to set aside nearly 1.5 million acres of public land for preservation.

The centerpiece of the California Desert Protection Act of 2010 would be the Mojave Trails National Monument of some 941,000 acres, including 266,000 acres of former railroad easements along historic Route 66 between Ludlow and Needles. Existing recreatonal uses, including hunting and rock collecting, would be maintained.

The act would also establish the Sand to Snow National Monument, about 134,000 acres stretching from the desert floor in Coachella Valley to the peak of Mount San Gorgonio, including Big Morongo Canyon and Whitewater Canyon. It would give Wild and Scenic River protection to Deep Creek, Whitewater River, and two other streams, add nearly 74,000 acres to the national parks and preserve, and designate five new wilderness areas.

But that's not all. The legislation also would designate as permanent four existing off-roading areas. It would streamline the federal permitting process for wind and solar energy projects in the desert on both public and private land. And it would permit construction of transmission lines on existing utility rights of way.

"I strongly believe that conservation, renewable energy development and recreation can and must co-exist in the California desert," Feinstein said. "This legislation strikes a careful balance between these sometimes competing concerns."

And so it does, no less than we would expect from one of the more balanced members of the U.S. Senate. Feinstein and her staff worked with desert stakeholders--environmental groups, energy companies, off-roaders, Native American tribes, the military--to arrive at a bill that would serve as many of their interests as possible.

Among the supporters of Feinstein's bill are just about every desert conservation group, Edison International and Cogentrix Energy, the Route 66 Preservation Foundation, the Coachella Valley Association of Governments, and the cities of San Bernardino, Hesperia, Barstow, Yucaipa, Desert Hot Springs, Indio and Palm Springs.

Visitors spend more than $230 million annually on outdoor recreation in the California desert, and Death Valley and Joshua Tree draw nearly 3 million visitors a year.

We think Feinstein's legislation will be good for tourism, recreation, and renewable energy in the desert--and for the desert itself.

Check out my new eBook, Snowbird Guide to Camping and Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts.