West Mojave Plan FEIR/S - Desert Managers Group

• Red Rock Canyon State Park: This 14,489-acre (22.6 mi 2 )state park is located in thewest-central portion of the known range. No grazing is allowed. There are centralizedlocations accommodating an unknown number of visitors each year, and remaining areasthat are only accessible to foot traffic. The park is situated adjacent to the Dove SpringsOpen Area, and is therefore vulnerable to impacts from OHV traffic. Managementactions have recently been implemented to minimize OHV impacts in the park.• Saddleback Butte State Park: This 2,795-acre (4.4 mi 2 ) state park is located within theknown range near its south-central boundary. The entire site is fenced, which minimizesdirect impacts associated with OHV activity and grazing, both of which are prevalent inthe region (LaRue, 2002 unpublished data). The community of Lake Los Angeles occursseveral miles to the south, and individual residences are immediately adjacent to the eastand north. Dogs and cats are both likely to affect any squirrels that may occur.• Desert Tortoise Research Natural Area: The 25,695-acre (40-mi 2 ) DTNA iscooperatively managed by the BLM and the Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee (DTPC)for desert tortoise conservation, which should also benefit the MGS. For example, DTPChas conducted an aggressive land acquisition program to acquire private inholdings. TheDTNA is completely fenced. The fence precludes sheep grazing, which is prevalent onthe surrounding lands. Occasional OHV trespass occurs when the fence is cut, but this isgenerally limited to one or several passes by the perpetrator. Sign count data indicate thattortoises within the fenced area are reproducing, but few subadult tortoises were observedin the larger, surrounding region. This suggests that the tortoise population receivesprotection within the fence that would also extend to the MGS, which like the tortoise, isexposed to extreme levels of sheep grazing and cross-country OHV travel outside thefence.• BLM Wilderness Areas: As shown in Table M-11 (Appendix M), there are a total of 18wilderness areas within then WMPA, which encompass 430 mi 2 within the MGS range.Six wilderness areas (274 mi 2 ) are fully within the range, five (478 mi 2 total) are partiallywithin the range (156 mi 2 are inside), and seven (604 mi 2 ) are fully outside the range.One (Malpais Mesa) is outside the WMPA, but partially within the range. Althoughthese areas are designated roadless areas, vehicle trespass occurs, some areas (GoldenValley) are sheep grazed, etc. Other uses, such as agriculture, urban development, etc.are precluded (see discussion in tortoise section for characteristics of these wildernessareas and impacts that continue to occur).Other BLM Special Management Areas: The 1980 CDCA Plan established threemanagement areas for MGS: Rose Valley Western Mojave Crucial Habitat, and SuperiorValley. The CDCA Plan also identified Crucial Habitat for the MGS, which occurred within thethree MGS management areas and in two others as well: DTNA and Sierra-Mojave-TehachapiEcotone (see Table M-10, Appendix M). Cumulatively, these five areas encompassed about773,000 acres (1,208 mi 2 ), or about 16% of the 7,691 mi 2 range of the entire MGS range. TheCDCA Plan’s wildlife element identified management objectives, planned actions andimplementation needs, which are also given in Appendix M.Chapter 3 3-168