Mojave Final EIS & GMP

Death Valley Final EIS & GMP

Mojave NP

 

UPDATE (JUNE 22, 2001):

The National Park Service (NPS) has prepared abbreviated Final Environmental Impact Statements (FEIS) and General Management Plans (GMP) for Mojave National Preserve in California, and Death Valley National Park in California and Nevada. Mojave is a relatively new 1.6 million-acre unit of the National Park System, established by Congress on October 31, 1994, by the California Desert Protection Act. Death Valley was expanded by the CDPA in 1994 to become the largest park unit in the conterminous United States at 3.3 million acres. These abbreviated FEISs address factual revisions and minor updates to the Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statements and General Management Plans, that were released for public review in September 2000. These documents also respond to substantive public comments received on the revised drafts.

These planning documents and environmental impact statements were prepared as components of the Northern and Eastern Mojave Planning Effort (NEMO), a coordinated interagency project involving the NPS, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Since initiation of this planning effort in 1995, over 40 public meetings have been held on the NPS plans, beginning with public and agency scoping meetings in mid 1995. Alternative scoping meetings were held throughout the planning area in April 1997. Initial draft EISs/GMPs were released in September 1998 for over 120 days of public review. Eleven public meetings were held to listen to public comments. Following extensive revisions to these initial drafts the NPS decided to release revised drafts in September 2000 to provide for additional public review and input. These revised documents were made available for 90 days of public review, during which eleven additional public meetings were held.

These General Management Plans (GMP) will serve as the initial overall management strategy for Mojave and Death Valley over the next 10–15 years. Development activities or site-specific implemen-tation plans will be prepared separately and undergo additional impact analysis and public review.

These documents are being made available for public information for 30 days following the publication of a notice of filing by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Federal Register. This is expected to occur near the end of June. The park will post an announcement on the park’s website as soon as the date of publication of this notice has been determined. This "no action period" will end 30 days after publication of this notice of filing by EPA.

Copies of the documents are automatically being mailed to agencies, libraries, organizations and individuals that provided written comments on the revised drafts last fall. These documents should arrive by the end of June. Copies are also available upon request by calling the appropriate park number listed below.

Copies are also available for public review at each park headquarters, as well as at many public libraries and federal offices in southern California and southern Nevada. A complete list of these libraries and offices is included with this letter for your information. In addition, the documents are also posted on the Internet at:

Mojave National Preserve www.nps.gov/moja

Death Valley National Park www.nps.gov/deva

Questions or concerns on the abbreviated FEIS may be directed to the appropriate park at the address listed below:

At the end of the 30 day no action period, all written comments received will be considered by the agency in preparing a Record of Decision. The official responsible for the final decision is John J. Reynolds, Regional Director, Pacific West Region.

LIST OF FEDERAL OFFICES

Copies of the documents are available for public review at both park headquarters, as well as the following federal offices in California and southern Nevada.
 

National Park Service Offices Mojave National Preserve Headquarters Office 222 E. Main St., Suite 202 Barstow, CA Baker Information Center 72157 Baker Blvd. Baker, CA Needles Information Center 707 W. Broadway Needles, CA Death Valley National Park Headquarters Office Furnace Creek, CA Beatty Ranger Station State Highway 374 307 North Main St. Beatty, NV Shoshone Ranger Station State Highway 127 Shoshone, CA Joshua Tree National Park Headquarters Office 74485 National Monument Drive Twentynine Palms, CA Lake Mead National Recreation Area Headquarters Office 601 Nevada Highway Boulder City, NV Pacific West Regional Office Partnerships and Planning 600 Harrison St., 6th floor San Francisco, CA

Bureau of Land Management Offices Barstow Field Office 2601 Barstow Road Barstow, CA Needles Field Office 101 W. Spikes Road Needles, CA Ridgecrest Field Office 300 S. Richmond Road Ridgecrest, CA Tonopah Field Office 1553 S. Main St. Tonopah, NV Las Vegas District Office Vegas Drive Las Vegas, NV California Desert District 6221 Box Springs Blvd. Riverside, CA U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Offices Ventura Field Office 2493 Portola Road, Suite B Ventura, CA Interagency Offices Lone Pine Interagency Visitor Center Highway 395, 2 miles south of Lone Pine Lone Pine, CA

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LIST OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES Copies of the documents are also available for public review at the following public libraries: California Libraries Angeles Mesa Library 2700 W. 52nd. St. Los Angeles, CA Balboa Library 100 E. Balboa Blvd. Balboa, CA California State Universities Long Beach Library 1250 Bellflower Blvd. Long Beach, CA Northridge Oviatt Library 18111 Nordhoff St. Northridge, CA Inyo County Libraries Bishop, CA 210 Academy Ave. Death Valley, CA 1 Simms Circle, Cow Creek Independence, CA Lone Pine, CA Washington and Bush Streets Napa City/County Library 580 Coombs St. Napa, CA Pasadena Public Library 285 E. Walnut St. Pasadena, CA Ridgecrest Library 131 E. Las Flores Ridgecrest, CA Sacramento Central Library 828 I St. Sacramento, CA San Bernardino County Libraries: Administration 104 Fourth St. San Bernardino, CA Barstow Branch 304 E. Buena Vista Needles Branch 111 Bailey Victorville Branch 15011 Circle Dr.

San Francisco Public Library 100 Larkin St. San Francisco, CA Shasta County Library 1855 Shasta St. Redding, CA Tecopa Branch Library Tecopa, CA University of California, Davis Shields Library 100 Northwest Quad Davis, CA University of California, Irvine Main Library Building 102, off Pereira Dr. Irvine, CA Nevada Libraries Amargosa Valley Public Library 829 E. Farm Rd. Amargosa, NV Beatty Library Corner of 4th and Ward Beatty, NV Boulder City Library 539 California Ave. Boulder City, NV Clark County Library 1401 East Flamingo Las Vegas, NV Henderson Public Library 280 S. Water St. Henderson, NV Las Vegas Public Library 833 N. Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas, NV Pahrump Library Calvada Blvd. (south of Hwy. 160) Pahrump, NV Sunrise Public Library 5400 Harris Ave. Las Vegas, NV University of Nevada, Las Vegas James R. Dickinson Library 4505 Maryland Parkway Las Vegas, NV Arizona Libraries Mohave County Library 219 North 4th St. Kingman, AZ University of Arizona Main Library 1510 E. University Blvd. Tuscon, AZ

The National Park Service released draft general management plans and environmental impact statements for Death Valley and Mojave in September 1998, initially for a 90-day public review, but ultimately extended to a total of 127 days. Following analysis of hundreds of written comments on the NPS draft environmental impact statements, the National Park Service decided to amend the draft plans and issue revised draft environmental impact statements.

The Bureau of Land Management held additional scoping meetings in the fall of 1998 to consider the range of issues to be addressed specific to BLM lands, and the range of alternatives to address each issue.  Analysis began in early 1999, and a proposed California Desert Conservation Area Plan amendment and draft environmental impact statement are being prepared.

The Bureau of Land Management has been working in the Northern and Eastern Mojave planning area of the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) to address four goals:

• Consideration of public lands health standards for adoption within the planning area, and guidelines for uses if needed (guidelines must be identified for range land management);
• Threatened and endangered species conservation and protection;
• Consideration of changes required or needed to the CDCA Plan as a result of the passage of California Desert Protection Act;
• Consideration of disposal of lands based on new Bureau policy on landfills.

OBTAINING DOCUMENTS FOR REVIEW:

If you may be interested in reviewing any of the draft plans, there will be several ways this can occur:

• Review an electronic version on the Internet at this website.
• Receive a CD-ROM containing the Mojave and Death Valley documents.
• Review the documents at a local library or agency office.
• Receive printed copies of one or all the documents.

To request a printed copy of the Mojave and / or Death Valley plan or a CD-ROM write to:
 

The NEMO Planning Effort

The NEMO planning effort was created with the passage of the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA) of 1994.  The Act redesignated Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Monuments as national parks, created Mojave National Preserve (formerly East Mojave National Scenic Area) now administered by the National Park Service (NPS), and created wilderness areas on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. 

For two years the NPS and BLM have been working together on scoping issues and writing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.  By the time the document was nearly 800 pages, the sgencies decided to, instead, prepare three separate DEISs: 1 for Mojave NP, 1 for Death Valley NP, and 1 for BLM lands within the NEMO boundary.  The BLM DEIS will amend the California Desert Conservation Area Plan.  The NPS will also prepare a General Management Plan for Mojave NP and an amendment to the existing General Management Plan for Death Valley NP.  Joshua Tree National Park (JOTR) is not included in this plan but the West Mojave Plan (WMP) and the Northern and Eastern Colorado Planning Effort (NECO) are planning for JOTR.

The NEMO Planning Area

The planning area consists of 7.7 million acres of the Mojave Desert located in southeastern California including Death Valley NP (3.3 million acres), Mojave NP (1.6 million acres), BLM land (2.4 million acres), and the "Nevada triangle" of Death Valley.  The 1991 Agreement on Biological Diversity (part of the California Cooperative Ecosystem Management Planning Effort) established the boundaries for the various planning areas. 
Click here to read more about the planning area

Cooperating Agencies Include:

Federal:  Bureau of Indian Affairs, Army National Training Center (Ft. Irwin), China Lake Naval Weapons Center, Army Corp of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, and Inyo National Forest

State: California Department of Fish and Game, California State Parks, California Department of Transportation, State Lands Commissions, California State Historic Preservation Office, Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, San Bernardino, Inyo, and Mono counties (CA), Clark, Nye, and Esmeralda counties (NV)

Native American Tribal Councils: Timbisha Shoshone, Mojave, and Chemehuevi