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Mojave Desert - Overview

The vast Mojave Desert’s more than 32 million acres extend into four states: California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Within California, the Mojave region’s 20 million acres cover one-fifth of the state, spanning an area larger than the counties of San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Imperial, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo combined.

About 80 percent of the Mojave Desert in California is managed by federal agencies. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the largest land manager of the region, oversees 8 million acres, or 41 percent, of the federally owned sector. The National Park Service manages the Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks, which account for another 26 percent of the region. The Department of Defense manages five military bases that cover about 13 percent of the region. State Parks and Fish and Game wildlife areas account for just 0.32 percent of the region. About 18 percent of the region belongs to private landowners or municipalities (CRA 1998, 2004).

Lying in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada and Southern California’s Transverse and Peninsular Ranges, the dry Mojave landscape is highlighted by dramatic geologic features, encompassing peaks, cliffs, canyons, dry washes, sand dunes, and large playas. Variations in elevation and soil composition and different orientations to the wind and sun, along with desert springs, moist seeps, and two major riparian corridors, all provide isolated microclimates and ecosystems throughout the region. The harsh yet diverse environment of the Mojave has facilitated the evolution of numerous endemic and specially adapted species of plants and wildlife on islands of unique habitat in a sea of creosote bushes, the most widespread plant community of the state.

From 282 feet below sea level in Death Valley to altitudes of 11,000 feet in the Panamint Mountains, the range of habitats supports 130 different plant alliances. However, the landscape is mostly a moderately high plateau at elevations between 2,000 and 3,000 feet. The common habitats of the region are creosote bush scrub, desert saltbush, Joshua tree scrub, desert wash, alkali scrub, and juniper-pinyon woodlands. Although limited in area, springs, seeps, perennial streams of the Panamint Range’s Surprise Canyon and Cottonwood Creek, and the Amargosa and Mojave rivers are vital wet habitats supporting wildlife diversity in the region.

The Mojave Desert is home to extraordinary plants and wildlife. The Joshua tree, barrel and prickly pear cacti, and pinyon pine highlight the desert landscape, home to prairie falcons, burrowing owls, desert tortoises, rosy boas, desert horned lizards, collared and leopard lizards, Mohave ground squirrels, kangaroo rats, Mojave River and Amargosa voles, bobcats, kit foxes, mountain lions, and bighorn sheep. It is the vastness of the Mojave Desert that has given some the impression that it is a wasteland which can endure unlimited adverse impacts to its species, habitats, and ecosystems. Thirty years ago, however, the fragile nature of the desert was well recognized.

"The vast natural resources of the California desert are today severely threatened by the extent of adverse human intrusion, combined with the natural fragility of the desert ecosystem."

- The Fragile Balance: Environmental Problems of the California Desert (Ginsberg et al. 1976)

"The impact of accelerated human and vehicle activity cannot be overstated. Careless mining operations and improper grazing practices have scarred the land. Unplanned construction and road-building have played a destructive game of tic-tac-toe across the desert’s face. Excessive and uncontrolled recreational use are undermining the concept of multiple use and removing the desert from the dwindling list of sanctuaries for many rare and endangered species."

U.S. Senator Alan Cranston, preface to Fragile Balance, 1976

"The California desert environment is a total ecosystem that is extremely fragile, easily scarred, and slowly healed. . . and its resources, including certain rare and endangered species of wildlife, plants, and fishes, and numerous archeological and historic sites, are seriously threatened by air pollution, inadequate Federal management authority, and pressures of increased use, particularly recreational use, which are certain to intensify because of the rapidly growing population of Southern California."

Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, Title VI

Since the enactment of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the major threats to wildlife populations continue, and new threats have emerged. Wildlife species are at risk, and ecosystems are degraded from the cumulative impact of urban growth, off-highway vehicle activity that adds thousands of miles of dirt roads and trails, cattle and sheep grazing, overdrawn groundwater, and dominance of invasive plants.

These activities, events, and conditions have and are continuing to fragment the landscape, degrade wildlife habitat, and disrupt desert ecosystems. Only with sufficiently large protected ecosystems and coordinated, strategic, and well-funded conservation actions will wildlife recovery be achieved.Numerous public agencies, private organizations, and landowners are involved in wildlife conservation efforts in the Mojave. Since the early 1980s, private conservation organizations such as the Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and Preserving Wild California have protected thousands of acres of essential habitat for the Mojave Desert’s unique plants and animals.

Since 1994, the Desert Managers Group (DMG), an interagency group, has served the role of coordinating desert conservation, visitor services, public outreach, and public safety in the region. Initially representing state and federal land management, recreation and wildlife agencies, and the Department of Defense, in 2005 the DMG expanded to include participants from the desert counties. Fish and Game participates in and contributes funds to the DMG. The DMG provides an important regionwide forum for facilitation of conservation efforts. It is involved in identifying research needs, conservation planning, restoration projects, and conservation programs and helps to secure funding for these efforts.