| Say "wilderness" and certain images
come to mind: mountains, forests, waterfalls, lakes, streams, deer, pack mules.
The Impressions are green and cool and pleasant. Say "desert" and the vision is
sand, wind, endless barren waste, emptiness. It is hot, brown and oppressive.
But there is such a thing as desert wilderness. There are spectacular granite
peaks in the California desert, waterfalls and vast carpets of wildflowers. The
desert is home to multitudes of plants and animals including the tortoise and
bighorn sheep, the Joshua tree and the creosote bush. Everyone knows the desert for its searing, inescapable heat, but there also are freezing temperatures and snowfall On the whole, the desert climate generally is mild. Silence and spaciousness are essential Ingredients of the wilderness experience. Both abound in the desert. Southern California contains 25 million acres of desert within a day's drive of the coastal metropolitan complex and its 13 million residents. Rarely visited by most, the California Desert is destined to become a major recreational playground. Californians and the Congress have an opportunity to plan for that day and to provide key portions of the desert, a distinctly fragile environment, with the protection it should have so it can properly be appreciated and enjoyed by future generations. That goal would be achieved by the California Desert Protection Act sponsored by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.). The bill would expand Death Valley and Joshua Tree national monuments and elevate them to national park status. A new 1.5-million-acre Mojave National Park would be created in the undeveloped region east of Barstow between Interstate Routes 10 and 40, the roads to |
Las Vegas and Needles.
About half of the Mojave and Joshua Tree parks would be set aside as wilderness
areas, as would much of the expanded 3.4-million-acre Death Valley park (by
contrast, Yellowstone Park covers 2.2 million acres). There would be about 4.5
million acres of wilderness outside the parks. The protected areas would
incorporate a number of important archeological, geologic and paleontological
sites. Supporters of the Cranston bill, including environmental groups involved in the California Desert Protection League, say the measure would not impinge on existing mining and grazing rights, most known significant mineral deposits or the most popular off-road vehicle areas. Virtually all the land now is owned by the federal government and controlled by the Bureau of Land Management. Any private lands would be incorporated only through land exchanges, not purchase. "We want this to be a no-cost bill," a Cranston aide said. The concept has merit and deserves support. The extensive amount of wilderness proposed will be controversial, but opponents will have ample opportunity to testify at hearings in the months to come. No roads, motorized travel or permanent structures are permitted in wilderness areas. The fragility of the desert is demonstrated by the surviving gouges in the land of the tanks of Gen. George Patton's Third Army, which trained in portions of the proposed Mojave park for the invasion of North Africa in 1942. But the desert is so vast and seemingly hostile and impregnable, it tends to be ignored or taken for granted. The growing population shift into Riverside and San Bernardino counties should be a sign that now is not too soon to plan for its protection. |