Threats to Our Desert Parks
Joshua Tree | Death Valley | Mojave
The California desert parks face an overabundance of threats driven by national, regional, and local policies. Nationally driven threats include insufficient funding for National Park Service operations and land purchases, efforts by San Bernardino County to use an antiquated mining law to claim over 2,500 miles of rights-of-way through the Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park, and poor air quality that would be made worse if the Bush administration's "Clear Skies Initiative" becomes law.
Locally, many challenges result from the impacts that the sprawling southern California and Nevada population centers are having on the region's limited resource base and fragile ecosystems. Eagle Mountain Landfill, the world's largest ever proposed trash dump, would receive 708 million tons of garbage over 117 years while being surrounded on three sides by Joshua Tree's wilderness. South and east of Death Valley National Park, over-allocated aquifers are threatened with further depletion by growth in the Amargosa and Pahrump Valleys that would increase the probability of drying up seeps, springs, and caverns crucial for sustaining park plant and animal life. Similar water depletions are concerns at Joshua Tree and Mojave. In addition, near Mojave's border, a proposed new international airport, if built, would bring light and noise pollution to this peaceful desert environment. At Joshua Tree, large development projects including hundreds of homes, golf courses, and commercial development are proposed along the park's borders.
- Joshua Tree at Risk:
Serious threats endanger the resources that Joshua Tree National Park was designated to protect. These threats include a proposal to build the world's largest landfill proposed abutting the park's wilderness and unhealthy air pollution that disrupts the park's ecosystem and frequently impacts visitors. In addition, Joshua Tree has too few rangers, scientists, interpreters, and maintenance workers to fully protect and manage the park's natural and cultural treasures and infrastructure or ensure a quality visitor experience.
- Threats to Mojave:
Serious threats endanger the resources that the Mojave National Preserve was created to protect. These threats include a proposal to build a new international airport that would disrupt the park's solitude with light and noise pollution and efforts by San Bernardino County to secure rights-of-way that crisscross the Preserve. In addition, Mojave has too few rangers, scientists, interpreters, and maintenance workers to fully protect and manage the park's natural and cultural treasures and infrastructure or ensure a quality visitor experience.
- Issues Facing Death Valley:
Serious threats endanger the resources that Death Valley National Park was designated to protect. These threats range from poorly planned growth and increased groundwater pumping that imperil park wildlife to efforts that would let modified vehicles wench their way up scenic waterfalls and a rare stream in a lush desert canyon. In addition, Death Valley has too few rangers, scientists, interpreters, and maintenance workers to fully protect and manage the park's natural and cultural treasures and infrastructure or ensure a quality visitor experience.
