DESCRIPTION OF DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK

DESCRIPTION OF DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK

Death Valley National Monument was established by presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act of 1906, on February 11, 1933 (Proclamation No. 2028). The original monument contained approximately 1,601,800 acres. Supplementary proclamations in March 1937 (No. 2228) and January 1952 (No. 2961) increased the monument’s acreage to 2,067,793 acres. The Monument was subsequently enlarged and changed to Death Valley National Park by Congressional action on October 31, 1994, with the passage of the California Desert Protection Act (16 U.S.C. 410aaa-83). Approximately 1.3 million acres of new lands were added, bringing the total acreage of the new park to about 3,396,192 acres. Nearly 95% of the park was designated as wilderness by that same act. Death Valley National Park is the largest national park unit outside of Alaska. The vast majority of its lands are located in the California counties of Inyo and San Bernardino, but a small portion of the park is located in the Nevada counties of Nye and Esmeralda. California State Highway 190 crosses the park east to west, and Highway 95 parallels the park north to south on the park’s eastern boundary. 

Death Valley National Park is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and one of the hottest places in the world. It is also a vast geological museum, containing examples of most of the earth’s geologic eras. Here, plant and animal species, some of which occur nowhere else in the world, have adapted to the harsh desert environment. Humans have adjusted to these severe conditions, as evidenced by extensive archeological sites; historical sites related to successive waves of prospectors; miners, and homesteaders; present-day residences of native Americans; and the current resort developments and active mines.

Perhaps the park’s greatest assets today are the clear air, vast open spaces that stretch toward distant horizons, and the overwhelming silence. Approximately 1.2 million people a year (1997 numbers) come to Death Valley to experience the stark and lonely vastness of the valley; the panorama of rugged canyons and mountains; the pleasures of the dry, moderate winter climate; the challenge of the hot, arid summer; the relief of the cooler mountains; and the reminders of frontier and Native American ways of life.

Death Valley National Park includes most of Death Valley, a 156-mile-long north/south-trending trough that formed between two major block-faulted mountain ranges: the Amargosa Range on the east and the Panamint Range on the west. Telescope Peak, the highest peak in the park and in the Panamint Mountains, rises 11,049 feet above sea level and lies only 15 miles from the lowest point in the United States in the Badwater Basin salt pan, 282 feet below sea level. The California Desert Protection Act added the Saline, Eureka, northern Panamint Valley and Greenwater valleys to the park.

The diversity of Death Valley’s plant communities result partly from the region’s location in the Mojave Desert, a zone of tension and overlap between the Great Basin Desert to the north and the Sonoran Desert to the south (Kearney and Peebles 1960). This location, combined with the great relief found within the park, from 282 feet below sea level to 11,049 feet above sea level, supports vegetation typical of three biotic life zones: the lower Sonoran, the Canadian, and the Arctic/Alpine in portions of the Panamint Range (Jepson 1923; Storer and Usinger 1968). Based on Munz and Keck (1968) classifications, seven plant communities can be categorized within these life zones, each characterized by dominant vegetation and representative of three vegetation types: scrub, desert woodland, and coniferous forest. Microhabitats further subdivide some communities into zones, especially on the valley floor.

Death Valley National Park and the adjacent desert support a variety of wildlife species, including 51 species of native mammals, two species of exotic mammals, 307 species of birds, 36 species of reptiles, three species of amphibians, and five species and one subspecies of native fishes (Hansen 1972 and 1973; Landye 1973). Small mammals are more numerous than large mammals, such as desert bighorn, coyote, bobcat, mountain lion, and mule deer. Mule deer are present in the pinyon/juniper associations of the Grapevine, Cottonwood, and Panamint mountains.

Many historic properties exist within the park. Most of those meeting the national register criteria for significance and integrity have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Most of the sites contain structures or other tangible remains of the activities that took place there. Death Valley National Park is unique because it displays a continuum of mining activities from at least the 1860s to the present day. Many historic mining resources are of particular significance either because similar resources are not found elsewhere within the national park system or because they are in a better state of preservation than examples found elsewhere.
 

DESCRIPTION OF MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE

Mojave National Preserve is a vast expanse of desert lands that represents a combination of Great Basin, Sonoran and Mojave desert ecosystems. This combination allows a visitor to experience a wide variety of desert plant life in combinations that exist nowhere else in the United States in such close proximity.

Located in southern California, the desert area is a land of mountain ranges, sand dunes, great mesas and extinct volcanoes. The preserve contains several diverse mountain ranges, the Kelso dune system, dry lake beds and evidence of volcanic activity (domes, lava flows, cinder cones). Plant and animal life complement the geological features. The preserve contains the finest Joshua tree forest in the world. Providence Mountain State Recreation Area (Mitchell Caverns), the University of California’s Granite Mountains Natural Reserve, and California State University’s Desert Studies Center at Soda Springs are also within the boundaries. 

Mojave is bounded to the north and south by major interstate highways, I-15 and I-40. The Nevada-California state line makes up most of the eastern boundary. Located about half way between Las Vegas and Joshua Tree National Park, it is an area that many people have seen through their windshields but few have taken time to explore.

Of the preserve’s 1.6 million acres, about 700,000 acres are legislated wilderness. In addition, about half is designated as critical habitat for the federally listed threatened desert tortoise. 

Evidence of the early human uses includes archeological sites, possibly dating back to 12,000 years. Historic features, such as mail and trade/travel routes, ranching, farming and mining, are abundant and often well preserved. The old Union Pacific train depot at Kelso serves as a wonderful reminder the railroading hey-days of the 1920s’. The collection of buildings at Soda Springs, called Zzyzx, built by "Doc" Springer also has a remarkably interesting tale to tell of this most unusual man. These two features and many more, such as Fort Piute, Government Holes, and Ivanpah town sites add to the very rich history of the preserve. 

PURPOSE OF THE UNITS

Unit purpose, significant features and agency mission and mandates (laws) form the basis for management decisions and planning. Decisions about the management of resources will generally be measured against these elements to determine activities that may be acceptable in a unit.

An essential part of the planning process is understanding the purpose and significance of the land for which the plan is being prepared. In the case of federal lands, Congress provides the purpose(s) of the unit and the mission of the agency charged with managing the area. Significance is usually determined by experts familiar with the natural and cultural resources of the region, although some significant elements are often recognized in the enabling legislation. 

All federally owned land is managed for a specific purpose as provided for by Congress. Several federal agencies have been established over the last century to implement the various laws that provide direction for the management of these public lands. The National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management are the primary federal land management agencies administering public lands in the planning area. The management direction, policies and mandates for administering these lands are derived from laws provided by Congress. 

Death Valley National Park, Mojave National Preserve and the BLM public lands each have a distinct and separate purpose for their existence. Even within each unit, there are distinctions between the purposes for wilderness and non-wilderness lands. For each unit, the Congressionally mandated purpose provides a "cornerstone" on which a management plan is built. Legal mandates (laws and regulations) and significant features are other elements that must be considered in the planning process to ensure that the plan meets the goals of the legislation. It is an important part of the planning process to understand and clearly identify the purpose and significance of each unit to provide a basis for determining what activities should be allowed within the unit. These statements are the basic building blocks of the planning process providing direction to the planning effort when the scoping process begins to generate dozens of issues. 

To understand the purpose and significance of the various land units in the Northern and Eastern Mojave planning area, a group of area specialists and managers from the NPS and BLM met in Barstow in July 1995 to identify and discuss purpose and significance statements for the entire planning area and for each separate unit. The group found that the statements of purpose and significance had to be distinct for each unit, but there were also some elements that were common across the planning area regardless of agency jurisdiction. These common elements are referred to here as "umbrella" statements. 

UMBRELLA PURPOSES FOR PARKS AND WILDERNESS AREAS 

The California Desert Protection Act identified some unique and special elements on federally owned lands in the Mojave Desert that were facing adverse pressures that threatened to " impair, dilute and destroy their public and natural values." Therefore, Congress directed the establishment of wilderness and parks to secure for the American people of this and future generations an enduring heritage of wilderness, national parks and public land values in the California Desert. In so doing, the Congress identified the following "umbrella" purposes for wilderness and national park lands in the California Desert (CDPA, Sec. 2b1). 

Preserve unrivaled scenic, geologic, and wildlife values associated with these unique natural landscapes; 

Perpetuate in their natural state significant and diverse ecosystems of the California Desert; 

Protect and preserve historical and cultural values of the California Desert associated with ancient Indian cultures, patterns of western exploration and settlement, and sites exemplifying the mining, ranching and railroading history of the Old West; 

Provide opportunities for compatible outdoor public recreation, protect and interpret ecological and geological features and historic, paleontological, and archeological sites, maintain wilderness resource values, and promote public understanding and appreciation of the California desert; and 

Retain and enhance opportunities for scientific research in undisturbed ecosystems.

"...take all steps necessary to protect the rights reserved by this section, including the filing by the Secretary of a claim for the quantification of such rights in any present or future appropriate stream adjudication in the courts of the State of California in which the United States is or may be joined..." 

NATIONAL PARK UNIT PURPOSES 

Death Valley National Park and Mojave National Preserve, as units of the National Park System, must be managed by the NPS in accordance with the NPS Organic Act of 1916, which provides that the primary purpose of parks is: 

"...to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." 

"...these areas, though distinct in character, are united through their inter-related purposes and resources into one national park system as cumulative expressions of a single national heritage; ...and that it is the purpose of this Act to include all such areas in the System and to clarify the authorities applicable to the system." 

"The authorization of activities shall be construed and the protection, management, and administration of these areas shall be conducted in light of the high public value and integrity of the National Park System and shall not be exercised in derogation of the values and purposes for which these various areas have been established, except as may have been or shall be directly and specifically provided for by Congress." 

Death Valley National Park Purpose

Death Valley first became a unit of the National Park System in 1933 when President Herbert Hoover exercised his authority under the Antiquities Act and signed a Presidential Proclamation creating Death Valley National Monument. With passage of the California Desert Protection Act of 1994 (CDPA), Congress recognized the significance of the Monument and threats occurring to lands surrounding it. In one action, they more than doubled the size of the Monument, redesignated it a national park (now the largest national park in the contiguous 48 states) and designated about 95% of it as wilderness.

As a national park unit, Death Valley National Park must be managed by the NPS in accordance with the agency's preservation mission as provided in legislation establishing the National Park System (Organic Act of 1916; 16 USC 1), which provides that the primary purpose of parks is:

"...to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

Congress also provided more specific direction for the new California desert parks and wilderness areas in section 2 (b(1) of the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA). From statements contained there and in the original Monument proclamations, the overall purpose for which Death Valley is to be managed can be summarized as follows:

• Preserve the unrivaled scenic, geologic and natural resources of these unique natural landscapes, while perpetuating significant and diverse ecosystems of the California Desert in their natural state. Ensure the maximum protection of wilderness values provided by law.
• Preserve the historical and cultural resources of the California Desert associated with ancient Indian cultures, patterns of western exploration and settlement, and sites exemplifying the history of the Old West.
• Provide opportunities for compatible public outdoor recreation and promote the public’s understanding and appreciation of the California desert by interpreting the natural and cultural resources.
• Retain and enhance opportunities for scientific research in undisturbed ecosystems.

MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE PURPOSE

In addition to the purposes outlined in the NPS Organic Act, specific purposes may also be provided in each unit's establishing or enabling legislation. Certain activities may be authorized that would otherwise be contrary to the NPS Organic Act (i.e. hunting, grazing, mining, etc.). In the case of Mojave National Preserve, for example, hunting is an activity not normally found in national park units. Where hunting is permitted in NPS units, the area is called a preserve rather than a park.

Title V of the CDPA provides the specific enabling legislation that established Mojave National Preserve. As pointed out under Umbrella Purposes, Congress provided purposes for parks and wilderness areas throughout the California desert in Section 2 of the Act. In creating Mojave National Preserve, the Congress recognized that both Death Valley and Joshua Tree already protected "unique and superlative desert resources," but these units did not:

"embrace the particular ecosystems and transitional desert type found in the Mojave Desert area lying between them on public lands." (CDPA, Title V, Sec. 501). 

• Preserve and protect the natural and scenic resources of the Mojave Desert, including transitional elements of the Sonoran and Great Basin deserts.
• Preserve and protect cultural resources representing human use associated with Native American cultures and westward expansion.
• Provide opportunities for compatible outdoor recreation and promote understanding and appreciation of the California desert.

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT PURPOSE

Like other land managing agencies, the BLM receives direction for the management of public lands under their jurisdiction from several sources. In the case of the Mojave Desert, the specific purpose of wilderness areas administered by the BLM is provided in Sec. 2(b)(1) of the CDPA. These areas must be managed in accordance with these purposes and the Wilderness Act. 

Non-wilderness public lands in the Mojave Desert are administered by the BLM in accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) and the BLM Mission Statement. 

Sec. 103(c) of FLPMA provides the following direction: 

Provide for a combination of uses that best meets present and future needs of the American people 

Sustain in perpetuity renewable resources 

Provide for a wide variety of public land uses without compromising the long-term health and diversity of the land and without sacrificing significant natural, cultural and historical values. 

U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE PURPOSE 

Although the FWS does not manage any land within the planning area, it is an integral part of the planning effort because of its responsibility for implementing portions of the Endangered Species Act. The desert tortoise is listed as a threatened species and portions of the planning area are within designated critical habitat. The FWS's participation in the planning effort will assist federal agencies and others in meeting their responsibilities under the Act for the recovery of the desert tortoise. The FWS will also provide advice during the development of management strategies for other sensitive species of wildlife and their habitats. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE UNITS

Another major element in the planning process are the significant features that make the unit distinct from other units or surrounding lands. These significant features, along with the purpose of the unit and legal mandates, form the basis for future decisions regarding management direction, policies and development activities. They also provide a foundation for developing interpretive themes and messages that the land manager should attempt to convey to visitors. 

Significance in this context is the importance of a feature or an outstanding value. It may be locally, regionally, nationally or globally significant or important to our national and cultural heritage. It may be a feature that is unique or extraordinary. Significance is not used here in a legal sense, such as with the National Environmental Policy Act or the National Historic Preservation Act.

Significance statements were developed by the planning team in consultation with NPS and BLM area specialists. As with purpose, some elements are "umbrella" statements that apply to the Northern and Eastern Mojave planning area as a whole, while some are unit specific.

UMBRELLA SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTS FOR THE PLANNING AREA

ECONOMICS/ENERGY 
• The Mojave Desert region is recognized worldwide, attracting international, national and regional visitors that come specifically to see this unique desert region. The area is an easily accessible desert region and is becoming increasingly popular with international visitors, even during the intense summer months. 
• The region is a highly mineralized area containing several large and significant mineral deposits. The area has a long history of mineral extraction and even today continues to provide local economic and employment opportunities.
• The Mountain Pass MolyCorp mine is the only "rare earths" mine in the western hemisphere, producing very rare chemical elements such as yttrium, cerium, neodymium.and europium. 
• The planning area is bisected by several regionally significant arteries of commerce, such as two major railroads, two major interstate highways, huge utility corridors carrying pipelines and several massive high voltage transmission lines. These corridors are economic lifelines to millions of southern California residents and surrounding states, carrying commerce and millions of people annually through this desert region. 

 

 

GEOLOGY/PALEONTOLOGY

• The planning area contains one of the most extensive sequences of volcanic forces represented on the surface of the earth providing a convenient and highly accessible window into the geologic past. These volcanic areas are billions of years old and are easily visible due to their sparse vegetative cover. 
• Three major continental plates converge in the planning area along the Garlock fault, San Andreas fault and Great Basin fault, resulting in something geologists call a "triple junction". The tectonic history includes multiple phases of continental collision and separation which helps geologists understand global geology. 
• The planning area has an extensive fossil history, perhaps the most continuous and complete record of life found anywhere, representing over a billion years of life on this planet. This fossil record provides exceptional potential for scientific study and expansion of knowledge of extinct plants and animals. 

 

 

NATURAL RESOURCES 

• The planning area contains a very specific and unique "assemblage" of plants and animals associated with the intersection of three major deserts creating a transitional desert zone where elements of these different deserts can be viewed in a relatively short distance. 
• Most of the elevation life zones, as described by the early naturalist C. Hart Merriam in 1890, are represented within the planning area. They provide a unique study opportunity for visitors and researchers. Merriam's life zone concept, equating elevational zones in the southwest with biogeographic habitats, has been used for over 100 years in general descriptions of habitats.
• The planning area is home to the world's oldest living plants, such as creosotebush clones and bristlecone pines. 
• A great number of endemic plants and animals have adapted to the harsh desert environment creating many unique species for visitors to enjoy. Also, isolated high elevation areas create so called "islands in the sky", unique environments where plant and animal populations have become isolated since the last ice age resulting in unique species. 
• Many "living fossils" are ice age relicts that have survived in springs and high elevation areas. For instance, several species of desert pupfish and riffle beetles find refuge from the harsh arid desert in small pools scattered throughout the planning area. 
• Riparian/water systems are of vast importance to the desert ecosystem since the presence or absence of water is critical to the survival of most desert species, including humans. These areas are significant elements to both the prehistoric and historic settlement patterns. Identifying, restoring and protecting these significant resources is of critical importance.

 

 

CULTURAL RESOURCES 

• The area's diverse array of archaeological and historic sites, including mining "ghost" towns, prehistoric village sites, petroglyphs, historic railroads, trails and roads, and evidence of approximately 12,000 years of human presence, provides exceptional opportunities for the scientific study of the past and expanding our knowledge about prehistoric and historic settlement and lifeways. The area contains many sensitive sites and features which are important to Native American's religion, culture and world view.
• The planning area contains portions of the historic World War II Desert Training Center, historic sites which are a tangible reminder of General George Patton's efforts to prepare more than 2 million GIs for the challenge of desert warfare in North Africa. 

 

 

RECREATIONAL RESOURCES 

• The northern and eastern Mojave Desert is within a four hour drive for more than twenty million people in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. The area is readily accessible providing a wide variety of recreational opportunities, including hiking, biking, horseback riding, hunting, off-highway vehicle play (Dumont Dunes and Rasor OHV areas), auto touring, wilderness and backcountry exploration, camping and many others.
• The huge expanses of open desert provide unconfined opportunities and freedom for dispersed activities. 

 

 

WILDERNESS 

• The planning area has the highest concentration of designated wilderness of any region in the contiguous U.S. creating a tortoise shell-like mosaic. At the same time, this protected area provides the most accessible mass of wilderness anywhere in the world because of the extensive network of roads that bisect the area. 

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK SIGNIFICANCE

• Death Valley contains the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. The valley floor receives the least precipitation in the U.S. (average 1.5 inches per year) and is the site of the nation’s highest recorded temperature (134 degrees Fahrenheit).
• Death Valley is world renowned for its exposed, complex and diverse geology and tectonics, and for its unusual geologic features, providing a natural geologic museum representing a substantial portion of the earth’s history.
• The extremely colorful, complex, and highly visible geology, and steep, rugged mountains and canyons, provide some of the most dramatic visual landscapes of any location in the United States.
• Death Valley contains one of the nation’s most diverse fossil records and most continuous volcanic histories.
• Death Valley contains five major sand dune systems representing all types of dune structures, making it one of the only places on earth where this variety of dune types occurs in such close proximity. It also contains the highest dunes in California, Eureka Sand Dunes.
• Death Valley is one of the largest expanses of protected warm desert in the world. Ninety-five percent of the park is designated wilderness, providing unique opportunities for quiet, solitude and primitive adventure in an extreme desert ecosystem.
• Contrary to many visitors’ first impression, the biodiversity of Death Valley’s natural resources is extremely diverse, containing a large variety of plant species and community types. The area preserves large expanses of creosote bush valleys and other vegetation typical of the Mojave Desert. Extreme conditions and isolation provide habitat for an unusually high number of plant and animal species that are highly adapted to these conditions.
• Death Valley has an extensive and well preserved mining history representing over 100 years of mining technology.
• Death Valley contains an unusually high number of well preserved archeological sites, including rock art and alignments associated with ancestors of contemporary Native American communities.
• Scotty’s Castle, with its architectural style, quality and priceless collection of antiques and art objects, built in a remote, isolated desert location in the early 1900’s is an icon that has immense public appeal.

MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE SIGNIFICANCE

• Mojave National Preserve is the best place to experience the extensive variety of habitats, species and landforms unique to the Mojave Desert.
• Mojave National Preserve provides for outstanding scenic resources, rich in visual diversity containing a varied landscape of sand dunes, mountain ranges, dry lake beds, lava flows, cinder cones, Joshua tree forests and far reaching vistas.
• The Mojave has a long cultural history as a traveled corridor across a harsh and foreboding desert, linking the Southwest with the coast of California. Native Americans moved trade goods and later guided missionaries, explorers and pioneers through the desert. During the 19th Century, freight wagons hauled goods from the coast to the mines and settlements of the Southwest; until the coming of the railroads ended the historic use of this corridor.
• The Joshua tree forest of Cima Dome and Shadow Valley is the largest and densest population in the world.
• Mojave National Preserve contains an extensive variety of habitats and species representative of the Mojave Desert.
• Lands within the Preserve are internationally known as a place to conduct desert research and are known for their geological features such as Cima Dome, the Cinder Cones and the Kelso Dunes.
• Historic Kelso Depot is associated with the early 20th century heyday of the great steam locomotives and establishment of the final major rail crossings of the Mojave Desert. Built in 1924, the depot stands as one of the two remaining depots in the United States built in a Spanish mission revival architectural style.

BLM PUBLIC LANDS SIGNIFICANCE

• Dinosaur Trackway paleontological sites have fossilized tracks representing three species of two-legged ostrich-like dinosaurs and four species of four-legged reptiles. 
• Designated wilderness areas created by the CDPA encompass 3.6 million acres of BLM land on 69 separate areas of the California desert. These wilderness areas are some of the most accessible wilderness in the U.S., since most points in the wilderness areas are within five miles from existing roads. 
• With many lands in the desert now included in parks or wilderness areas, the remaining BLM non-wilderness public lands provide some of the only remaining opportunities for exploration and development of important locatable minerals. 
• BLM non-wilderness public lands provide opportunities for sand and gravel extraction, which is especially important for the long-term maintenance and resurfacing of the two interstates and other major roads passing through the plan area. These roads provide key links between southern California and states to the east. 
• BLM non-wilderness public lands provide opportunities for transportation and utility corridors through the planning area, from points east to the southern California region. These corridors provide additional facilities to support the continued economic development of southern California. 
• Wild horses and burros provide a living link to historic mining/cultural heritage. BLM public lands provide an easily accessible opportunity in the planning area to maintain herds of wild horses and burros. 
• A small stand of white fir in the Kingston Range is one of only three of these relict populations that exist in the planning area. 
• The rugged Kingston Range provides a regionally recognized challenge for climbers. 
• The Kingston Range provides the oldest evidence of eukaryotic or mitotic cells and one of the few places on earth where rocks spanning the Pre-Cambrian and Cambrian periods are exposed. 
• The presence of water in Amargosa Canyon has attracted human use for several thousand years for hunting and camping. This area provides unique opportunities for study of human occupation of the region. Early European immigrants used the Old Spanish Trail which followed Amargosa Canyon. 
• Permanent flowing water in Amargosa Canyon and associated wetland habitat provide food, cover and nesting space for a great variety of birds. Several fish, mammals, insects and mollusks in the Amargosa River drainage have very limited distribution or low population numbers.