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Abstract
The California Desert Protection Act of 1994 was the largest park and wilderness legislation passed in the Lower 48 States since the Wilderness Act of 1964. It designated three national parks and 69 Bureau of Land Management wilderness areas. The California Desert and Wilderness Restoration Project is working to restore and revitalize these lands through a public/private partnership. The Project utilizes Student Conservation Association crews to inventory, to remove and rehabilitate unauthorized vehicle ways, to restore important wildlife habitats, and to help maintain popular hiking trails and other recreational infrastructure. Since 2000, hundreds of miles of unauthorized vehicle ways in wilderness have been removed and rehabilitated by utilizing techniques such as decompaction, scarifying/pitting, recontouring, erosion control, vertical mulching, vegetative restoration, boundary signing, and placement of vehicle barriers. These efforts have decreased the visual and environmental impacts of vehicle ways, restored wildlife habitat and native plant communities, and reduced the illegal use of motorized vehicles within wilderness boundaries at a significant cost savings.
Parent Publication
Keywords
wilderness,
biodiversity,
protected areas,
economics,
subsistence,
tourism,
traditional knowledge,
community involvement,
policy,
stewardship,
education,
spiritual values
Citation
Abbe, J. Dan. 2007. Wilderness restoration: Bureau of Land Management and the Student Conservation Association in the California Desert District. In: Watson, Alan; Sproull, Janet; Dean, Liese, comps. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress symposium; September 30-October 6, 2005; Anchorage, AK. Proceedings RMRS-P-49. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 526-529
