A California-based land trust has arranged to put
almost 500,000 acres of mountaintop forests, sand dunes and
volcanic cinder cones into public hands.
The
$61.5 million deal now awaits a decision by Congress to release $36
million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The Wildlands
Conservancy, based in Yucaipa, Calif., will pay the
remainder.
“If we don’t buy now, the parcels will
ultimately be sold off, and we may end up with as many as 700
landholders,” says Shelton Douthit of the conservancy.
The group has already bought threatened lands in
and between Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National
Preserve and preserved them for the public, but this is their
largest acquisition yet.
The lands, owned by
Catellus Development Corp., are important habitat for the desert
tortoise as well as valuable for access to the parks. Catellus has
agreed to sell the lands for $126 an acre; the lands will then be
split between the National Park Service and Bureau of Land
Management.
* Juniper Davis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Land deal links desert parks.
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