West Mojave Plan FEIR/S - Desert Managers Group

percentage of public land ownership within each. For a detailed description of each wildernessarea, see Appendix E.WILDERNESSNUMBERTable 3-2Wilderness Areas Within TheWestern Mojave Planning AreaWILDERNESS PERCENT PUBLIC LANDAREA PUBLIC LAND ACRESTOTAL ACRES55 Argus Range 95.8 17,493 18,26223 Bighorn Mountain 99.6 26,681 26,79039 Black Mountain 98.2 20,542 20,92944 Bright Star 97.3 7,824 8,04222 Cleghorn Lakes 82.6 32,857 39,79863 Coso Range 94.2 49,295 52,32065 Darwin Falls 92.0 7,935 8,62043 El Paso Mountains 97.5 23,675 24,27841 Golden Valley 99.9 36,487 36,51540 Grass Valley 91.1 29,904 32,83545 Kiavah 87.9 18,201 20,70335 Newberry Mountains 73.2 20,300 27,74651 Owens Peak 95.4 46,733 49,00931 Rodman Mountains 86.8 29,782 34,31554 Sacatar Trail 99.8 33,078 33,13220 San Gorgonio 61.2 25,403 41,52821 Sheephole Valley 96.3 32,625 33,891TOTAL 90.1 458,814 508,715The purpose of wilderness, as defined in section 2(a) of the Wilderness Act, is “...toassure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growingmechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas in the United States ... leaving no landsdesignated for preservation and protection in their natural condition....”. Further, wilderness isdefined in Section 2(c) of the Wilderness Act to be areas “...where the earth and its communityof life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area ofwilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retainingits primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation,which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions…”Section 4(c) of the Wilderness Act prohibits certain uses of wilderness. Theseprohibitions include commercial enterprise, permanent roads, temporary roads, use of motorvehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, landing of aircraft, use of other forms ofmechanical transport, and structures or installations. There are three classes of exceptions tosome or all of the prohibitions. These include private existing rights (e.g., rights associated witha lease for a microwave tower that existed at the time of wilderness designation), actionsnecessary to meet the minimum requirements for the administration of the area, (e.g., use ofmotorized equipment to remove hazardous materials), and “Special Provisions” (e.g., livestockgrazing that was established prior to designation).Chapter 3 3-9