California Desert Protection Act Reintroduced

Levine Bill Attracts 47 Cosponsors

A large chunk of California's congressional delegation renewed the effort to set aside major portions of the state's desert lands as wilderness and national parks. The California Desert Protection Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Mel Levine (D) and in the Senate by Sen. Alan Cranston (D), has been cosponsored by 20 of California's 45 House members, as well as 27 other representatives - including House Interior Committee Chair Morris Udall (D.AZ) and 12 committee members. Calling the California Desert "a wilderness treasure," and "a living museum which has made time stand still," Levine stressed the priority that desert protection has for environmentalists. In his remarks upon the introduction of H.P.. 780, he warned that the desert "has been seriously damaged in recent years and now faces an imminent threat from careless development, troubling mismanagement, and reckless recreational use.." He added that "Too often we find that mining claims go unreclaimed, that regulations to protect the desert go unenforced and that a reckless minority of ORV'ers go unchecked as they veer from designated play areas and roads destroying pristine wildlands." The legislation, H.R. 780 and S.11, would designate 81 wilderness areas encompassing 4.5 million acres. It would also expand Joshua Tree and Death Valley national monuments and upgrade them to national parks, and create a new 1.5-million-acre Mojave National Park; roughly two-thirds of the proposed national park system additions would be designated and protected as wilderness. Although based on bills that stalled in Congress last year (see NNR. July 18, 1988), the legislation by Cranston and Levine incorporates several changes, including provisions that authorize the continued military use of about 1.3 million acres of desert lands and military over flights over some desert lands; facilitate land exchanges between the federal government and private interests; and guarantee the continued access to park and wilderness areas by Native Americans. Levine and Cranston also made a series of minor boundary modifications designed to insure that the legislation does not interfere with existing or appropriate uses of the desert, a response to objections that slowed and at last killed the progress of last year's desert bill. "We feel strongly that this Congress should vote to save what remains of the special wonders in the California Desert," says Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Fischer. "This bill is the ticket to one of the last spectacular places of the Old West - an entire ecosystem, its full complement of wildlife and unique geographical features still intact." Contact: Debbie Sease, Sierra Club Washington Representative, (202) 547-1141

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