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Management 88045709 J Qf Lapcl STATEWIDE CALIFORNIA STUDY WILDERNESS REPORT Part 4 ""'^-^ Volume 6 Contains WSA's: CDCA-276through CDCA-373 Dead Mountains Turtle Mountains Orocopia Mountains CDCA-276 CDCA-307 CDCA-344 Piute Mountains Chemehuevi Mountains Chuckwalla Mountains CDCA-288 CDCA-310 CDCA-348 Essex Whipple Mountains Little Chuckwalla Mountains CDCA-288A CDCA-312 CDCA-350 Bigelow Cholta Garden Big Maria Mountains Palo Verde Mountains CDCA-290 CDCA-321 CDCA-352 Sacramento Mountains Rice Valley Indian Pass CDCA-292 CDCA-322 CDCA-355 Stepladder Mountains Palen/McCoy Picacho Peak CDCA-294 CDCA-325 CDCA-355A Coxcomb Mountains Little Picacho Peak Pilot Peal( CDCA-295 CDCA-328 CDCA-356 Old Woman Mountains Eagle Mountains North Algodones Dunes CDCA-299 CDCA-334 CDCA-360 Ship Mountains Pinto Basin South Algodones Dunes CDCA-300 CDCA-334A CDCA-362 Clegtiorn Lalces Pinto Mountains Jacumba CDCA-304 CDCA-335 CDCA-368 Amboy Crater Santa Rosa Mountains Fish Creek Mountains CDCA-304A CDCA-341 CDCA-372 Sheephoie/Cadiz Mecca Hills Coyote Mountains CDCA-305 CDCA-343 CDCA-373 BLM MISSION STATEMENT The Bureau of Land Management is responsible for the balanced management of Public Lands and resources and their various values so that theyare considered in the combination ofuses that takes into account the long-term needs of future generations for renewable and nonrenewable resources. These resources include recreation, range, timber, minerals, watershed, fishandwildlife, wildernessandnatural, scenic, scientific and cultural values. 0' BLM-CA-PT-90-006-8520 .ex C35 U Supplemental information to these reports includes Environmental Documents, Mineral Survey Reports, and maps. To review these supplemental data, or to obtain additional information, please contact: Bureau of Land Management Branch of Wilderness Resources Room 3360 Main Interior Building 18th and C Streets Washington, D.C. 20002 (202) 208-6064 or Bureau of Land Management Branch of Lands and Recreation Federal Building 2800 Cottage Way Sacramento, CA 95825 (916) 978-4730 O^ 4 Printed on Recycled Paper Dead Mountains CDCA 276 . EEftP MJOWmTIK WrrnKRMRFK fTTOPy AREA (W5A) (CDCA-276) 1. THE STUDY AREA. 47,971 acres The Dead Mofuntains WSA is located in eastern San Bernardino County, on the eastern edge of the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) The nearest . cities are Needles, California, 12 miles southeast; and Lauîlin, Nevada, 15 miles northeast. The WSA contains 34,727 acres of public land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of land Management (BIM) 2,887 acres of State , land, and private inholdings totalling 10,357 acres (see Map 1 and Table 1) On the northwest, the WSA boundary is a utility corridor identified in the 1980 Western Regional Corridor Stuc^. The corridor contains a Southern California Edison pcwerline, one and three-quarter miles of which is inside the WSA. The WSA boundary follows the California/Nevada state line on the northeast, a series of section lines rouîly paralleling the administrative boundary of the California Desert Conservation Area on the east forming a cherrystem around a gravel pit and road, a combination of a Southern California Gas Ccsripany pipeline, Interstate 40, Santa Fe Railroad main line, and private land on the south, and a ccaiibination of Piute Wash, private land and a Santa Fe Railroad maintenance road on the west. The study area is dominated by the mountain range for vtiich it is named. The spine of the Dead Mountains runs frcan north to south throu^ the WSA, a jagged, ste^, rust-colored range, crcwned by Jfount Manchester at 3,598 feet. The mountains give way to sweeping bajadas that gradually sl(^)e tcward the Piute Valley on the west, and the Colorado River on the east. The 21,853-acre Dead Ifountains Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is within the WSA, established to recognize and protect the area's significant Native American values. The WSA was studied under Section 603 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLfMA) Four alternatives were analyzed in the Draft and . Final Environmental Inpact Stateaiients (EISs) for the CDCA Plan: protection, use, balanced, and no action; a summary of the area's wilderness Vcilues was included in i^pendix III of the Final EIS. Three different suitability recommendations were analyzed in the EISs: no wilderness and two particd wilderness reccmmendations including 97% and 60% of the WSA as suitable. -2. RECCMIENDATTON AND RATTONAIE acres reccanmended for wilderness 34,727 BIM acres recommended or nonwildemess No wilderness is the reccaranendation for the Dead Mountains WSA. The entire acreage in this WSA is released for uses other than wilderness. This recommendation will be inplemented in a manner vAiich will use all practical means to avoid or minimize environmental inpacts. The Balanced Alternative is the environmentally preferable alternative as outlined in the CDCA Plan and further explained in the California Wilderness Study Overview. The no-wilderness reccsmmendation is based on the following rationale: (1) the landforms and ecosystem of the Dead Mountains are already well r^resented in other areas reccxtimended for wilderness designation; (2) the special features of this WSA can be protected throu^ ACEC management; (3) d^xDsits of saleable minerals such as sand, gravel, and rip-rap rock that are abundant within the WSA, are strategically located for several uses, and could not be extracted in the event of wilderness designation; and (4) wilderness designation would potentially conflict with develc^xnent of future energy and conraunications transmission facilities. Ihe Dead Mountains WSA is typical of the tapograptiy and vegetation displayed in the surrounding mountains and valleys. Nearby VKAs reccsnmended for wilderness designation display the same physical and biological resources found within this VSA. There are 14 BLM study areas reccanmended for wilderness designation within 50 miles of the Dead Mountains WSA. These 14 areas possess very high quality wilderness values, and provide a good r^resentative sairple of the Mojave and Great Basin Deserts in their wild state. There are approximately 30 miles of routes of travel including primitive ways, washes and other unmaintained routes of access v^ch will remain available for vehicular use. Other than its inportance fream a cultural resource and Native American perspective, the VKA offers no unique features. An area of 21,853 acres encompassing the inportant archeological sites and the areas of special significance to the Mdtiave and Chemehuevi tribes was designated an ACEC in 1980. The ACEC Plan guides management efforts, assuring that prcper protection measures will be stipulated as part of any consunptive resource uses that may be authorized. The ACEC Plan assures the future integrity of these inportant sites without wilderness designation. Because of the Dead Mountains proximity to the Colorado River, portions of the range have been used as a source of rip-rap for flood control projects. Currently the Bureau of Reclamation operates a five-acre quarry site in an area that has been cherrystemmed out of the east side of the WSA. The Bureau of Reclamation has ej^ressed an interest in additional sites on the east face of the Dead ^fountains. The VISA is also adjacent to the mainline of the Santa Fe Railroad. The railroad has expressed a need to utilize both the mountains and adjacent bajadas within the WSA as sources of rock for flood control develcpnents, as well as a need for vehicular access in portions of the VKA for access for flood control and derailment work. The north boundary of the WSA is within an energy and utility transmission corridor designated in the 1980 Western Regional Corridor Study. This corridor presently contains an electrical powerline, a portion of vAiich is actually inside the VKA. Wilderness designation could constrain the placement of future facilities within the corridor. TABLE 1 - Land Status and Acreage Summary of the Study Area Within Wilderness Study Area Acres BUM (surface and subsurface) 34,727 Split Estate (ELM surface only) Iriholdings State 2,887 Private 10,357 Ttotal 47,971 Within the Recoanmended Wilderness Boundary Acres BIM (within WSA) BIM (outside WSA) Split Estate (within WSA) Split Estate (outside WSA) Total BIM Land Recommended for Wilderness Inholdings State Private Within the Area Not Reccanmended for Wilderness Acres BLM (surface and subsurface) 34,727 Split Estate (BIM surface only) Total BIM Land Not Reccramended for Wilderness 34,727 3. CRITERIA CONSIDERED IN DEVEIDPING THE WILDERNESS REOCMffiNDATIONS A. Wilderness Characteristics 1. Naturalness Ihe area has been affected primarily by natural ; forces, with man's iirprint substantially unnoticeable within the WSA as a ôle. Due to the area's rugged terrain and limited vehicle access, inpacts frcan past human activity are primarily temporary routes of travel in larger sand washes, and small isolated prospects. An abandoned way in the northern portion of the VISA is reverting to a natural condition. The most evident alteration to naturalness is at the northwest edge of the WSA, vyîere about one and three-quarter miles of a major powerline is inside the stuc^ area. T12N T IN 1 T N 1 1 ION 7 T 10N T9N R20E R21E R2 IE R22E RECOMMENDED FOR NONE SPLIT ESTATE WILDERNESS RECOMMENDED FOR STATE NONWILDERNESS LAND OUTSIDE WSA VTy RECOMMENDED FOR PRIVATE WILDERNESS Dead Mountains Proposal X CDCA-276 MAP-1 MILES JUNE.1988