|
The SouthwestBlend.com guide to the National Parks in the Desert Region of California. |
 |
|||
|
|
Established in 1919, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) is the only private, nonprofit, advocacy organization dedicated to educating the public about our national parks and protecting, preserving, and enhancing the U.S. National Park System. With more than 300,000 members and 65,000 activists nationwide, NPCA protects national parks by identifying problems and generating support to resolve them. NPCA's major programs include: - Park Resource Protection, using science-based efforts to identify park threats and anticipate future needs; - Visitor Experience, ensuring that people who visit parks have access to a quality experience through education and interpretation and by protecting the natural quiet that is an integral part of the park experience; - Park Funding and Management, identifying funding shortfalls and improving the operational capacity of the National Park Service; and - Public Advocacy, educating and mobilizing the American public on behalf of the parks and ensuring that diverse audiences participate in the recreational, educational, economic, and career opportunities offered in the national parks. The California desert national parks - Joshua Tree National Park, Death Valley National Park, and Mojave National Preserve - make up the largest concentration of National Park Service lands in the lower 48 states. Consisting of 5.8 million acres, these desert parks overflow with cactus gardens and Joshua Tree forests, hidden springs and palm oases, towering sand dunes, rugged mountain ranges, fields of wildflowers, multihued canyons, and some of our hemisphere's lowest and hottest valleys. This landscape also presents us with colorful and complex geology lessons that span 1.8 billion years. The plants and animals of these parks - dozens of which occur nowhere else in the world - reveal amazing stories of life adapted to extremes. Humans have also been drawn to this region for thousands of years and the landscape tells countless stories of survival, renewal, and ingenuity. Although these three parks reside in the same region and together provide a treasure-trove of scenic wonders and biological richness, the desert ecosystems and resources they protect are quite different and unique. NPCA's California Desert Field Office seeks to inform local communities about issues concerning the desert parks, and encourages public involvement and sustainable use of park lands. In 1994, Congress took steps to protect these unique areas by passing the California Desert Protection Act, the largest parks and wilderness legislation in the history of the continental United States. This act transferred over 3.1 million acres of the California desert from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to the National Park Service (NPS). These transferred lands expanded Death Valley and Joshua Tree national monuments by 1.3 million and 234,000 acres, respectively, and also created the 1.6 million-acre Mojave National Preserve. In addition, the act re-designated Death Valley and Joshua Tree as national parks, and also designated nearly eight million acres of NPS and BLM lands as wilderness. Death Valley National Park Death Valley is world renowned for its extremes, home to our nation's driest, hottest, and lowest place, but also sporting mountains over 11,000 feet high that experience below-zero weather and snow. To survive in these adverse conditions, the park's plants and wildlife have developed an amazing series of evolutionary adaptations, giving rise to a surprising diversity of life. Over 600 plants species have been found in Death Valley, with at least 55 endemic to the park. In addition, 17 species of mammals, fish, and snails that live in Death Valley occur nowhere else in the world. Also found in this park are desert tortoise, coyote, kit fox, ringtail cat, bighorn sheep, and a diversity of lizards, snakes, bats, squirrels, and birds, including red-tailed hawk and roadrunner. Within Death Valley's 3.4 million acres lay one of the largest expanses of protected warm desert in the world. Its dramatic mountains, valleys, fans, and dunes are world renowned for their exposed, complex, diverse, and unique geology and geomorphology. This desert has been the continuous home of Native Americans from prehistoric time to the present. As such, the park contains an unusually high number of well-preserved archeological sites, including rock art and alignments. And finally, since 95% of park is designated wilderness, yet accessible by an extensive road network, it provides unique opportunities for solitude and primitive backcountry adventure. Joshua Tree National Park Joshua Tree National Park's 794,000 acres preserve portions of two desert ecosystems, the Mojave and Colorado deserts of Southern California. Below 3,000 feet, the Colorado Desert encompasses the eastern part of the park and features natural gardens of creosote bush, ocotillo, and cholla cactus. The higher, moister, and slightly cooler Mojave Desert is the special habitat of the Joshua tree and Mojave yucca. The Little San Bernardino Mountains, above 4,000 feet in the park's western-most area, host a third ecosystem: California juniper and pinyon pine. The western part of the park also includes some of the most interesting geologic displays found in California's deserts and is a mecca for rock climbers from around the world. In addition, five fan palm oases dot the park, indicating those few areas where water occurs naturally and wildlife abounds. The plant diversity of these three ecosystems is matched by their animal diversity, including healthy herds of bighorn sheep, desert tortoise, small mammals, 18 species of lizards and 25 species of snakes. In addition, Joshua Tree lies astride the Pacific flyway, and hosts over 200 species of birds throughout the year. Humans have occupied the area encompassed by Joshua Tree for at least 5,000 years, leaving a rich cultural history. As a result, the park protects 501 archeological sites, 88 historic structures, and 19 cultural landscapes, and its museum collection houses 123,253 items. Mojave National Preserve Mojave National Preserve's vast expanse of desert lands includes one of the most diverse desert environments in the world, representing three of the four major North American deserts: the Mojave, Great Basin, and Sonoran. The Preserve is a land of old mountain ranges, sand dunes, great mesas and volcanic features such as cinder cones, domes, and lava flows. The most ancient rocks in the preserve, found in the Clark Mountains, are 2.5 billion years old. The Preserve's remarkable geology and geography contributes to its unique ecology. Changes in elevation and soil type, combined with dozens of seeps and springs create a wide range of microhabitats that support a rich diversity of plants and animals, including several endemic species. Over 800 plant species have been documented at the preserve, including the world's largest and most dense Joshua Tree forest and relict plant communities of white fir and chaparral. This diverse ecology has produced 35 wildlife habitat types that support about 300 wildlife species, including the gila monster, Mohave tui chub, Mojave fringe-toed lizard, prairie falcon, golden eagle, mule deer, mountain lions, and bighorn sheep. A large portion of the Preserve, 48%, is critical habitat for the endangered desert tortoise. |
About the
National Parks Conservation Association and their Programs to protect our
California 
Resource
Guide