West Mojave Plan FEIR/S - Desert Managers Group

The California Desert Protection Act, at Title I for BLM Wilderness, provides formotorized vehicle access for (1) fish and wildlife management activities by appropriate Stateagencies and (2) law enforcement. At Title VII, the CDPA establishes explicit federal waterrights, allows access for Indian religious purposes, and provides mandates and procedures foracquiring State and private inholdings.Wilderness areas include important habitat of several West Mojave species of concern.Foremost among these are the bighorn sheep, prairie falcon, and golden eagle. The majority ofthe known golden eagle and prairie falcon nest sites are within Wilderness. Desert tortoises arefound at the edges of several wilderness areas, such as the Newberry Mountains and RodmanMountains.Five of the 17 Wilderness Areas are encompassed or partially encompassed withincritical tortoise habitat. These include the Rodman Mountains, Newberry Mountains, BlackMountain, Grass Valley and portions of Golden Valley wilderness areas. The overlap ofwilderness areas with critical habitat for other species is not yet determined, but the acreage isestimated to be small.3.1.1.4 Land Tenure Adjustment ProgramIn January 1991, BLM adopted a “Western Mojave Land Tenure Adjustment Program,”(LTA Program) developed jointly with Edwards Air Force Base and the County of San Bernardino.The purpose of the LTA program was to address potential conflicts surrounding the development ofprivate lands adjacent to public lands and beneath airspace utilized by EAFB. The agencies wereconcerned (1) that such development could impact the management of natural resources on adjacentpublic lands, and (2) that Air Force use of airspace above high-density residential developments onprivate land could lead to public noise and safety complaints.To prevent these conflicts from arising, the LTA Program proposed a voluntary landacquisition program based on the exchange of scattered parcels of public lands near urban centers forprivate inholdings in more remote areas. The LTA Program identified Consolidation Zones whereexchange-based land acquisition would be focused, Disposal Zones composed of scattered publicland parcels to use as an “exchange base”, and Retention Zones, wherein the current land ownershippattern would be maintained.The 1991 Record of Decision indicated BLM’s intent to dispose 105,000 acres of publicland, acquire 255,000 acres and retain 417,000 acres. Of the 672,000 acres of public lands either tobe retained or acquired, 620,000 would be classified as “Multiple Use Class L”, and 52,000 acreswould be classified as “Multiple Use Class M”; no unclassified lands would remain within the LTAproject area. By mid-2001, BLM had acquired 61,247 acres within the LTA project area. Thesewere obtained through exchanges for public lands within the Disposal Zone, such as mineralizedpublic lands in and adjacent to the U. S. Borax mine at Boron. (Bureau of Land Management,Annual Report to Edwards Air Force Base, August 15, 2001.)Chapter 3 3-10