Scoping is the process of identifying and collecting issues that the planning team will use in the preparation of the management plans.

September 1995

Preparing a management plan for 8 million acres of land with multiple agencies, different management mandates, numerous and varied users and sensitive resources attempting to maintain a foothold is a complex process.  However, like everything, it must have a beginning and an end.  Our beginning occurred in late September 1995 with a series of public scoping workshops held in ten locations throughout the planning area.  Scoping meetings were held in Pasadena, San Bernardino, Barstow, Baker, Needles, Ridgecrest, Independence, Lone Pine, Furnace Creek, and Las Vegas to identify issues and concerns that the team should address in preparing a management plan for the area. 

We are very grateful to those of you who were able to attend the meetings or send in written comments.  We recognize that you took personal time and may have traveled some distance to attend.  We also understand that you did this because each of you has a deep and heartfelt passion for the Mojave Desert.  We truly appreciate your efforts.  Scoping is an ongoing process and we welcome your comments at any time during the process.  Other opportunities for public input will be described later in this newsletter. 

The planning team sorted through the information gathered at the public workshops and prepared this brief summary of planning issues that were heard there.  We assembled the detailed notes and transcribed flip charts in a notebook for reference during the planning effort.  Some statements made at the workshops addressed issues of a more immediate concern or operational nature, and they were passed along to the appropriate land manager for their information. 

Visitor Use and Administration

• The public needs maps showing access, wilderness, desert tortoise critical habitat, land status and hunting areas. 
• Careful consideration should be given to visitor service locations, including analysis of the use of private facilities outside National Park Service (NPS) boundaries to provide certain visitor services.  An evaluation of volunteer use should be included in the plan. 
• Anticipate an increase in the Southern California and Las Vegas populations and prepare for increased use of the area while still providing a quality experience for visitors. 
• Address policy on pets throughout planning area.

 

 

Interpretation 

• Identify the anticipated visitors (including foreign tourists) and identify their needs and expectations while visiting the planning area. 
• The need for visitor information and interpretation services for visitors on the trains that pass through the Preserve should be evaluated. 
• The need for interpretation of significant resources and tours should be evaluated in the plan. 

 

 

Public Safety, Dumps, and Utility Corridors

• Evaluate adequacy of communications, including emergency phones. 
• Address the impacts and regulation of low flying aircraft. 
• The scope of law enforcement, fire management and emergency medical services needs to be addressed . 
• Address the existing and proposed dumps (e.g. Ward Valley, Yucca Mountain and Baker) in and around the planning area and their possible effects upon area resources. 
• Examine the Department of Energy's nuclear waste transportation corridor plans. 
• Evaluate a closed dump in Death Valley National Park for possible effects on existing and planned activities. 
• Describe plans for future utility corridors within the planning area.  If new corridors are planned, then compliance, monitoring and reduction of impacts to adjacent habitat need to be evaluated and discussed. 
• Evaluate adequacy of public sanitation facilities.
• Address user fees and discrepancy between fees and costs of public safety activities such as search and rescue and Medivac services. 

 

 

Socioeconomics 

• A socioeconomic study should be conducted.  It should, at a minimum, examine development activities within and adjacent to the planning area; examine effects of existing and predicted populations, expected economic benefits and costs; and provide an updated visitor profile.
• Evaluate potential concession operations, including jeep tours that could provide access to many people and a concession/permit system permitting access on closed trails. 
• Examine possible land exchanges to consolidate federal lands and recommend boundary adjustments. 
• Evaluate the transfer of Providence Mountains State Park to Mojave National Preserve. 
• Be cognizant of inholders' concerns that the NPS's management policies and potential increases in visitation will effect inholders' property and lifestyles. Evaluate visible light pollution affects on the night sky. 
• Structure plan so that phases can be implemented under different funding levels. 
• Recommend a system for approving, supervising, and coordinating research activities in the planning area. 
• Ensure that each agency's management practices remain faithful to their mission statements.  The needs of foreign tourists should be understood and accommodated in the planning area. 

 

 

Mining 

• Address impacts from operating and abandoned mines in and near the planning area boundaries, reclamation and revegetation plans, and adequacy of existing mitigation measures. 
• Describe how mining plans on valid existing mining claims are processed, with examples of previously approved NPS mining permits.

 

 

Springs, Water Rights and Air Quality 

• Restoration of numerous springs is needed (e.g. Marl Springs) to make them suitable for wildlife. 
• Consider the possible effects of BLM and NPS activities and regional developments (e.g. Stateline and Yucca Mountain) on water quality and quantity and vegetation. 
• Address Department of the Interior leadership needed in resolving water issues, including adjudication. 
• Address water resource issues (e.g. potential conflict of federal management objectives for Ash Meadows area) .
• Address deteriorating air quality within the planning area. 

 

 

Access 

• The plan needs to address the issue of access related to valid existing rights, permitted uses, general recreation and maintenance of facilities such as range improvements, wildlife guzzlers, communications sites, private lands, etc. 
• Mojave Road and the Heritage Trail should remain open. 
• Clarify and discuss legal and physical requirements for private landowner access to inholdings in the Preserve. 
• Consider the deletion, addition, maintenance, paving and overuse of roads throughout the planning area. 
• Address possible wilderness boundary modifications to allow vehicle passage through closed sections of the Heritage Trail.
• Address the plans for general aviation and airports in the planning area. 
• Consider Amtrak service at Kelso. 
• Ivanpah Dry Lake should not be open for vehicles because it is a beautiful area. 
• The Death Valley National Park's west side should have more access roads.

 

 

Military 

• Address concerns about low level military aircraft overflights and fuel dumping by aircraft. 

 

 

Discuss impacts of Fort Irwin's proposed expansion on the planning area. 

Wilderness, Camping, Non-Motorized Trails and Recreation 

• Examine wilderness boundaries and access for possible adjustments. 
• Address wilderness management guidelines and regulations regarding the maintenance and installation of big game and small game guzzlers in wilderness areas. 
• Non-wilderness areas should remain open for multiple use and alternative areas should be provided for recreation opportunities no longer permitted in wilderness areas. 
• Establish firewood and campfire policies. 
• Look at campground location, numbers and the policies on group, handicapped, backcountry and roadside camping. 
• Address the management policies and clothing optional policy at the Saline Valley Hot Springs (numerous written comments received supporting existing policy). 
• Address the adequacy of trailhead parking (especially for wilderness areas), the number and length of trails, the maintenance of trails, and the need for single or multiple trails for bicycles, hikers and equestrians. 
• Address various recreation opportunities, including hang-gliding, trail bicycles and rockhounding. 
• Consider establishing carrying capacities and a planning area wide permitting system for heavily used areas. 
• Address management issues regarding tour buses in the Preserve. 

 

 

Biological Resources, Hunting and Grazing 

• Address the NPS policy regarding guzzlers, recognizing the countless hours of volunteer work to install and maintain them, but also the implications of maintaining populations of wildlife artificially.
• Address possible decline of Death Valley's bighorn sheep and possibility that increased tourism will cause more adverse impacts to sheep and tortoise. 
• Examine wild horse and burro management within planning area and each of its subunits and determine appropriate management policies for each area. 
• Examine the hunting issue including access, visitor safety, elimination of trapping and non-game hunting and the importance of quail and chukar habitat. 
• Address the issue of recreational shooting/plinking in the Preserve. 
• Evaluate resource issue conflicts between grazing and wildlife habitat. 
• Address grazing levels and long-term grazing management. 
• Recognize that dolomite formations host many endemic plants. 
• Address the recovery objectives for the desert tortoise established in the recovery plan. 
• Recognize Death Valley's two new listed plants and address possible special management needs. 
• Consider options for controlling exotic species (tamarisk and others). 
• Address impacts of mining on endangered bats.

 

 

Cultural Resources and Native Americans 

• Address Native American participation in the planning process. 
• Consider the Mojave, Chemehuevi, and Timbisha-Shoshone tribal values. 
• Address cultural resources management issues (e.g. trace trails, rock art, military and mining sites) and establish policies for their preservation, protection, interpretation and appropriateness of revealing their location. 
• Examine how parts of the planning area should be managed for their (Native American) spiritual values. 
• Address possible hunting/religious conflicts.
• Address whether archeological sites be identified and interpreted for educational value or locations kept secret to protect resources. 
• The identification, interpretation and possible restoration of some culturally significant resources (e.g. Tidewater Tonopah Railroad, Death Valley mine structures, military sites, WPA guzzler sites, trails, cultural landscapes and Dinosaur Trackway) should be addressed within plan. 
• Some cultural elements of the desert should be restored, such as certain features along Historic Route 66. 
• Examine the potential use of Kelso Depot as a visitor center for the preserve.