(Note: From the 'too crazy to believe' -- but TRUE -- file. If you're an inholder, this won't make you feel 'safe:' "Securing many of the inholdings was a priority of conservationists after Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the 1994 Desert Preservation Act." Feinstein is patting herself on the back, big time, over this " ... largest conservation acquisition in U.S. history.")

March 14, 2003

By Paul Rogers

San Jose Mercury News

408-920-5045 or progers@sjmercury.com

To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@sjmercury.com

Wrapping up the largest purchase of private property for conservation in American history, the final steps of a deal closed Thursday on a $63 million campaign to preserve 602,000 acres of land sprawling across the Southern California desert.

The immense checkerboard of sand dunes, mountain ranges and Joshua trees, owned by railroads since 1864, make up an area twice the size of the city of Los Angeles.

The lands, dotting the map from Barstow across the Mojave National Preserve to the Nevada border, were purchased starting in 1999 by the non-profit Wildlands Conservancy, an environmental group based near San Bernardino. The seller, Catellus Development, based in San Francisco, is the former real estate arm of Southern Pacific Railroad.

Over the past four years, the properties have been transferred in stages to the National Park Service and to the Bureau of Land Management.

On Thursday, the final 62,847 acres were conveyed to the BLM. Those lands, in Imperial County, stretch from the Salton Sea to the Colorado River. They are home to bighorn sheep, golden eagles, desert tortoises, extinct volcanoes and ancient petroglyphs.

"The desert has always been a place where the poets, prophets and redeemers of humanity have sought solitude and inspiration,'' said David Myers, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy. "It is a great place.''

Much of the land is isolated, and did not face imminent development. Some, however, especially those parcels along Interstate 40 and the old Route 66, could have become private homesites, subdivisions or mining claims.

"In 1999, there was a big billboard up with a for sale sign right across from the southern entrance of Mojave National Preserve,'' Myers said.

In some ways, the land sale's purpose was to fill in hundreds of tiny gaps in Mojave National Preserve and in BLM areas listed as potential federal wilderness.

Consisting of 640-acre squares, the parcels are the legacy of America's zeal to complete the transcontinental railroad in the 19th century. In 1864, to encourage westward expansion, Congress and President Lincoln gave the railroads millions of acres of public land.

The railroads received every other section of land over a 50-mile-long corridor between Needles and Barstow. In Washington state, similar old railroad checkerboard patterns have been clear-cut by timber companies. In Arizona, they have been subdivided into 40-acre ranchettes.

Securing many of the inholdings was a priority of conservationists after Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the 1994 Desert Preservation Act.

That law established Mojave National Preserve, enlarged and upgraded Death Valley and Joshua Tree national monuments to national park status and protected 7.7 million acres of BLM and park lands, much of it as roadless wilderness.

"This marks the culmination of a long process to preserve and protect one of North America's great natural treasures -- the 7.7 million acres of California desert,'' said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who wrote the 1994 desert bill. "In fact, this acquisition expands on what was already the largest conservation acquisition in U.S. history.''

To buy the railroad lands, the Wildlands Conservancy raised $45 million in private donations. Congress approved spending an additional $18 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, drawn from royalties from offshore oil drilling.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/5390503.htm