Inyo Register
Published April 11, 2006

Inyo, mono counties lands and waterway tapped for protection

By Joe Klusmire

Congress will consider some wet and wild action to increase the amount of mountain wilderness in Mono County and provide federal protection for Inyo County's premiere desert river.

Bills have been introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate to expand the Hoover Wilderness Area and make the Amargosa River the nation's newest Wild and Scenic River.

Word of the Congressional action reached Inyo County last week, said Third District Inyo County Supervisor Ted Williams. He said Congressman Buck McKeon introduced legislation to add 38,000 acres to the Hoover Wilderness and make the Amargosa a Wild and Scenic River. Similar legislation was introduced in the Senate by senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, Williams said. The bills were introduced just before Congress headed into its Easter recess.

The Hoover addition and Amargosa Wild and Scenic designation were two ideas that garnered widespread support in both counties after about a year of debate concerning what lands in the Eastern Sierra would be beneficial, and non-controversial, choices for additional federal protections.

Last year, McKeon (R-Santa Clarita)  asked residents, interested organizations and groups and Inyo and Mono counties' governments to come up with specific suggestions about what areas should be granted additional Congressional protections or new designations.

The debate over the Hoover Wilderness was the most controversial. A group consisting of Mono County supervisors and representatives from recreation and wilderness groups eventually agreed to target the 50,000-acre Hoover Wilderness Study Area as an appropriate choice for a change in federal status.

The plan for the Hoover WSA, which won that designation in 1984, includes letting about 7,660 acres revert to Forest Service land and take it out of the WSA. That area is the most popular and accessible for snowmobilers, and is also defined by natural boundaries, such as ridgelines and canyons.

In addition, another 3,200 acres would also become regular Forest Service land and be open to winter recreationalists.

With those two areas deducted, the 39,000 acres of remaining land in the WSA clearly meet all the criteria for a Wilderness Area, the group concluded, and that's the area it suggested become permanently designated as wilderness and added to the existing Hoover Wilderness Area.

The Hoover WSA is in the far northern reaches of Mono County with the closest major highway being State Route 108 over Sonora Pass, although access from Bridgeport is also available, especially in winter for snowmobilers.

The Amargosa River project has been pushed for decades by Brian Brown, who comes from a pioneering family in the Shoshone/Tecopa area and runs the China Ranch Date Farm.  

Those efforts got a boost when the Bureau of Land Management determined the Amargosa met the criteria for Wild and Scenic designation in 2001.

The Inyo County Board of Supervisors has endorsed placing the Wild and Scenic River designation on the Amargosa ever since, and now it looks like that effort could bear fruit.

The 23-mile stretch of river being considered for the Wild and Scenic designation runs from just south of Shoshone north through Tecopa and onto the Dumont Dunes.

The designation would not affect any private land along the river, and would only apply to the public land, administered by the BLM, that the river runs through.

The stretch from below Shoshone to just outside Tecopa would be earmarked for "scenic river" uses, which would allow hikers, walkers and mountain bikers to meander along the river.

From Tecopa downstream, a "wild river" set of uses would be allowed, which would bar bikers and other vehicles, and leave the river to be enjoyed by those traveling on foot. The final stretch of river, which runs toward the Dumont Dunes, and which is typically a dry wash since the water heads underground to beat the summer heat, is earmarked as the "recreational river segment," and is currently managed by BLM as a designated Off-Road-Vehicle Area. That would not change.

Williams said he was pleased and excited that Congressional action is finally being taken on the two issues. He said additional, more specific information on the bills in the House and Senate, and whether they match exactly what has been proposed locally, will be forthcoming.

© Copyright 2006 by Inyo Register