The Rock Bag April 2011 Volume 49 Issue 4
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California Vegetation Map in Support of the DRECP
CALIFORNIA VEGETATION MAP IN SUPPORT OF THE DESERT RENEWABLE ENERGY CONSERVATION PLAN (2014-2016 ADDITIONS) John Menke, Edward Reyes, Anne Hepburn, Deborah Johnson, and Janet Reyes Aerial Information Systems, Inc. Prepared for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Renewable Energy Program and the California Energy Commission Final Report May 2016 Prepared by: Primary Authors John Menke Edward Reyes Anne Hepburn Deborah Johnson Janet Reyes Report Graphics Ben Johnson Cover Page Photo Credits: Joshua Tree: John Fulton Blue Palo Verde: Ed Reyes Mojave Yucca: John Fulton Kingston Range, Pinyon: Arin Glass Aerial Information Systems, Inc. 112 First Street Redlands, CA 92373 (909) 793-9493 [email protected] in collaboration with California Department of Fish and Wildlife Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program 1807 13th Street, Suite 202 Sacramento, CA 95811 and California Native Plant Society 2707 K Street, Suite 1 Sacramento, CA 95816 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Funding for this project was provided by: California Energy Commission US Bureau of Land Management California Wildlife Conservation Board California Department of Fish and Wildlife Personnel involved in developing the methodology and implementing this project included: Aerial Information Systems: Lisa Cotterman, Mark Fox, John Fulton, Arin Glass, Anne Hepburn, Ben Johnson, Debbie Johnson, John Menke, Lisa Morse, Mike Nelson, Ed Reyes, Janet Reyes, Patrick Yiu California Department of Fish and Wildlife: Diana Hickson, Todd Keeler‐Wolf, Anne Klein, Aicha Ougzin, Rosalie Yacoub California -
Birds of the California Desert
BIRDS OF THE CALIFORNIA DESERT A. Sidney England and William F. Laudenslayer, Jr. i INTRODUCTION i \ 1 The term, "California desert", as used herein, refers to a politically defined region, most of i which is included in the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) designated by the Federal Land ; and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). Of the 25 million acres in the CDCA, about one-half are i public lands, most of which are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) according to the "980 P California Desert Conservation Area Plan mandated by FLPMA. The California desert encompasses those portions of the Great Basin Desert (east of the White and lnyo Mountains and A south of the California-Nevada border), the Mojave Desert, and the Colorado Desert which occur " within California; it does not include areas of riparian, aquatic, urban, and agricultural habitats . adjacent to the Colorado River. (Also see chapters on Geology by Norris and Bioclimatology by E3irdsI4 are the most conspicuous vertebrates found in the California deserts. Records exist for at least 425 species (Garrett and Dunn 1981) from 18 orders and 55 families. These counts far exceed those for mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish, and they are similar to totals for the entire state -- 542 species from 20 orders and 65 families (Laudenslayer and Grenfell 1983). These figures may seem surprisingly similar considering the harsh, arid climates often believed characteristic of I desert environments. However, habiiats found in the California desert range from open water and h marshes at the Salton Sea to pinyon-juniper woodland and limber pinelbristlecone pine forests on a few mountain ranges. -
The California Desert CONSERVATION AREA PLAN 1980 As Amended
the California Desert CONSERVATION AREA PLAN 1980 as amended U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Desert District Riverside, California the California Desert CONSERVATION AREA PLAN 1980 as Amended IN REPLY REFER TO United States Department of the Interior BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT STATE OFFICE Federal Office Building 2800 Cottage Way Sacramento, California 95825 Dear Reader: Thank you.You and many other interested citizens like you have made this California Desert Conservation Area Plan. It was conceived of your interests and concerns, born into law through your elected representatives, molded by your direct personal involvement, matured and refined through public conflict, interaction, and compromise, and completed as a result of your review, comment and advice. It is a good plan. You have reason to be proud. Perhaps, as individuals, we may say, “This is not exactly the plan I would like,” but together we can say, “This is a plan we can agree on, it is fair, and it is possible.” This is the most important part of all, because this Plan is only a beginning. A plan is a piece of paper-what counts is what happens on the ground. The California Desert Plan encompasses a tremendous area and many different resources and uses. The decisions in the Plan are major and important, but they are only general guides to site—specific actions. The job ahead of us now involves three tasks: —Site-specific plans, such as grazing allotment management plans or vehicle route designation; —On-the-ground actions, such as granting mineral leases, developing water sources for wildlife, building fences for livestock pastures or for protecting petroglyphs; and —Keeping people informed of and involved in putting the Plan to work on the ground, and in changing the Plan to meet future needs. -
Inventory of Amphibians and Reptiles at Death Valley National Park
Inventory of Amphibians and Reptiles at Death Valley National Park Final Report Permit # DEVA-2003-SCI-0010 (amphibians) and DEVA-2002-SCI-0010 (reptiles) Accession # DEVA- 2493 (amphibians) and DEVA-2453 (reptiles) Trevor B. Persons and Erika M. Nowak Common Chuckwalla in Greenwater Canyon, Death Valley National Park (TBP photo). USGS Southwest Biological Science Center Colorado Plateau Research Station Box 5614, Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 May 2006 Death Valley Amphibians and Reptiles_____________________________________________________ ABSTRACT As part of the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program in the Mojave Network, we conducted an inventory of amphibians and reptiles at Death Valley National Park in 2002- 2004. Objectives for this inventory were to: 1) Inventory and document the occurrence of reptile and amphibian species occurring at DEVA, primarily within priority sampling areas, with the goal of documenting at least 90% of the species present; 2) document (through collection or museum specimen and literature review) one voucher specimen for each species identified; 3) provide a GIS-referenced list of sensitive species that are federally or state listed, rare, or worthy of special consideration that occur within priority sampling locations; 4) describe park-wide distribution of federally- or state-listed, rare, or special concern species; 5) enter all species data into the National Park Service NPSpecies database; and 6) provide all deliverables as outlined in the Mojave Network Biological Inventory Study Plan. Methods included daytime and nighttime visual encounter surveys, road driving, and pitfall trapping. Survey effort was concentrated in predetermined priority sampling areas, as well as in areas with a high potential for detecting undocumented species. -
Mojave Preserve Herps Final Report April 2007
Inventory of Amphibians and Reptiles at Mojave National Preserve Final Report Study # MOJA-00129; Permit # MOJA-2003-SCI-0071 and MOJA-2005-SCI-0013; Accession # MOJA-32 Trevor B. Persons and Erika M. Nowak Sidewinder on Kelso Dunes, Mojave National Preserve (TBP photo). USGS Southwest Biological Science Center Colorado Plateau Research Station Box 5614, Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 April 2007 Mojave National Preserve Amphibians and Reptiles___________________________________________ ABSTRACT As part of the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program in the Mojave Network, we conducted an inventory of amphibians and reptiles at Mojave National Preserve in 2004- 2005. Objectives for this inventory were to use fieldwork, museum collections, and literature review to document the occurrence of reptile and amphibian species occurring at MOJA. Our goals were to document at least 90% of the species present, provide one voucher specimen for each species identified, provide GIS-referenced distribution information for sensitive species, and provide all deliverables, including NPSpecies entries, as outlined in the Mojave Network Biological Inventory Study Plan. Methods included daytime and nighttime visual encounter surveys and nighttime road driving. Survey effort was concentrated in predetermined priority sampling areas, as well as in areas with a high potential for detecting undocumented species. We recorded 31 species during our surveys. During literature review and museum specimen database searches, we found records for seven additional species from MOJA, elevating the documented species list to 38 (two amphibians and 36 reptiles). Based on our surveys, as well as literature and museum specimen review, we estimate an overall inventory completeness of 95% for Mojave National Preserve herpetofauna; 67% for amphibians and 97% for reptiles. -
A Historical Context and Archaeological Research Design for Mining Properties in California
Mining Cvr FINAL.indd 1 Cover Photos: Woman Miner at the Kendon Pit, Mono County, 1930; African American Miners at the Andrade Dredge Mine, California; Cornish Miners on Skip at the Empire Mine, Grass Valley, 1900 (used with permission, California State Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey). Cite as: California Department of Transportation. Historical Context and Archaeological Research Design for Mining Properties in California. Division of Environmental Analysis, California Department of Transportation, Sacramento, CA. 2008. For individuals with sensory disabilities, this document is available in alternate formats upon request. Please call: (916) 653-0647 Voice, or use the CA Relay Service TTY number 1-800-735-2929 or write: Caltrans Division of Environmental Analysis P.O. Box 942874, MS-27 Sacramento, CA 94274-0001 Mining Cvr FINAL.indd 2 12/10/08 4:48:58 PM MANAGEMENT SUMMARY The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, California Division, and the California State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), prepared this thematic study to assist with evaluating the information potential of mining properties in California, that is, for their eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D. To be eligible under Criterion D, National Register guidance states that a property must have, or have had, information to contribute to our understanding of human history or prehistory, and the information must be considered important. An integral part of this study is the development of a research design. The archaeological research design explicitly demonstrates the connection between the information a property contains and important research issues or questions associated with a particular property. -
Paleontological Resources
Draft DRECP and EIR/EIS CHAPTER III.10. PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES III.10 PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES A paleontological resource is defined in the federal Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA) as the “fossilized remains, traces, or imprints of organisms, preserved in or on the earth’s crust, that are of paleontological interest and that provide information about the history of life on earth” (16 United States Code [U.S.C.] 470aaa[1][c]). For the purpose of this analysis, a significant paleontological resource is “considered to be of scientific interest, including most vertebrate fossil remains and traces, and certain rare or unusual inverte- brate and plant fossils. A significant paleontological resource is considered to be scientifically important for one or more of the following reasons: It is a rare or previously unknown species It is of high quality and well preserved It preserves a previously unknown anatomical or other characteristic It provides new information about the history of life on earth It has identified educational or recreational value. Paleontological resources that may be considered not to have paleontological significance include those that lack provenance or context, lack physical integrity because of decay or natural erosion, or are overly redundant or otherwise not useful for academic research” (Bureau of Land Management [BLM] Instruction Memorandum [IM] 2009-011; included in Appendix R2). The intrinsic value of paleontological resources largely stems from the fact that fossils serve as the only direct evidence of prehistoric life. They are thus used to understand the history of life on Earth, the nature of past environments and climates, the biological mem- bership and structure of ancient ecosystems, and the pattern and process of organic evolution and extinction. -
Late Cenozoic Crustal Extension and Magmatism, Southern Death Valley Region, California
Geological Society of America Field Guide 2 2000 Late Cenozoic crustal extension and magmatism, southern Death Valley region, California J.P. Calzia U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025 USA O.T.Ramo Department of Geology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 11, FTN-00014, Finland ABSTRACT The late Cenozoic geologic history of the southern Death Valley region is characterized by coeval crustal ex tension and magmatism. Crustal extension is accommodated by numerous listric and planar normal faults as well as right- and left-lateral strike slip faults. The normal faults dip 30°-50°W near the surface and flatteri and merge at depth into a detachment zone at or near the contact between Proterozoic cratonic rocks and Proterozoic and Pa leozoi_c miogeoclinal rocks; the strike-slip faults act as tear faults between crustal blocks that have extended at dif ferent times and at different rates. Crustal extension began 13.4-13.1 Ma and migrated northwestward with time; undef'ormed basalt flows and lacustrine deposits suggest that extension stopped in this region (but continued north of the Death Valley graben) between 5 and 7 Ma. Estimates of crustal extension in this region vary from 30-50 per cent to more than 100 percent. Magmatic rocks syntectonic with crustal extension in the southern Death Valley region include 12.4-6.4 Ma granjtic rocks as well as bimodal14.~.0 Ma volcanic rocks. Geochemical and isotopic evidence suggest that the granjtic rocks get younger and less alkalic from south to north; the volcanic rocks become more mafic with less evidence of crustal interaction as they get younger. -
Mineral Resources of the Nopah Range Wilderness Study Area, Inyo County, California
Mineral Resources of the Nopah Range Wilderness Study Area, Inyo County, California U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1709-C Chapter C Mineral Resources of the Nopah Range Wilderness Study Area, Inyo County, California By AUGUSTUS K. ARMSTRONG, COLE L. SMITH, and GEORGE L. KENNEDY U.S. Geological Survey CHARLES SABINE and RONALD T. MAYERLE U.S. Bureau of Mines U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1709 MINERAL RESOURCES OF WILDERNESS STUDY AREAS: NORTHEASTERN CALIFORNIA DESERT CONSERVATION AREA, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR DONALD PAUL MODEL, Secretary U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Dallas L. Peck, Director UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1987 For sale by the Books and Open-File Reports Section U.S. Geological Survey Federal Center, Box 25425 Denver, CO 80225 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mineral resources of the Nopah Range Wilderness Study Area, Inyo County, California. (U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1709-C) Bibliography Supt. of Docs. No.: I 19.3:1709-C 1. Mines and mineral resources California Nopah Range Wilderness. 2. Geology California Nopah Range Wilderness. 3. Nopah Range Wilderness (Calif.) I. Armstrong, Augustus K. II. Series. QE75.B9 No. 1709-C 557.3 s 86-600386 [TN24.C2] |553'.09794'87] STUDIES RELATED TO WILDERNESS Bureau of Land Management Wilderness Study Area The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (Public Law 94-579, October 21, 1976) requires the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines to conduct mineral surveys on certain areas to determine the mineral values, if any, that may be present. Results must be made available to the public and be submitted to the President and the Congress. -
A History of Gila Monster (Heloderma Suspectum Cinctum) Records from California with Comments on Factors Affecting Their Distribution Jeffrey E
Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences Volume 106 | Issue 2 Article 1 2007 A History of Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum cinctum) Records from California with Comments on Factors Affecting their Distribution Jeffrey E. Lovich Kent R. Beaman Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.oxy.edu/scas Recommended Citation Lovich, Jeffrey E. and Beaman, Kent R. (2007) "A History of Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum cinctum) Records from California with Comments on Factors Affecting their Distribution," Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences: Vol. 106: Iss. 2. Available at: https://scholar.oxy.edu/scas/vol106/iss2/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by OxyScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences by an authorized editor of OxyScholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Lovich and Beaman: A History of Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum cinctum) Bull. Southern California Acad. Sci. 106(2), 2007, pp. 39–58 ᭧ Southern California Academy of Sciences, 2007 A History of Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum cinctum) Records from California with Comments on Factors Affecting their Distribution Jeffrey E. Lovich1 and Kent R. Beaman2 1U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, 2255 North Gemini Drive, MS-9394, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001 jeffrey[email protected] 2Ichthyology and Herpetology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90007 [email protected] Abstract.—The Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum), widely distributed in parts of the Mojave, Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, is rare in California. -
2014 State of the Basin Report Amargosa River Basin
2014 STATE OF THE BASIN REPORT AMARGOSA RIVER BASIN, Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California & Nye County, Nevada June 28, 2014 Prepared For: The Nature Conservancy │ 1450 Arroyo View Drive │ Pasadena, California 91103 Photo by Nancy Good ANDY ZDON & ASSOCIATES, INC. Phone: (925)974-3680 2121 N. California Blvd., Suite 290 Fax: (925)974-3506 Walnut Creek, California 94596 [email protected] 2014 State of the Basin Report, Amargosa River Basin Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California & Nye County, Nevada June 28, 2014 LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ iii LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................v 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1-1 1.1 Current Scope of Work ............................................................................................. 1-2 Discharge, Groundwater Level, and Seepage Run Monitoring ............................. 1-2 Water Chemistry Data Collection .................................................................... 1-2 Data Assessment and Reporting .................................................................... -
Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan Land Use Plan
190 Nevada 3 178 88 127 4 59 70 39 103 60 40 56 6 108 76 51 113 112 36 15 14 127 33 117 1 69 98 89 73 64 18 ACEC Boundaries Kingston - Amargosa CDNCL Boundaries DRECP Ecoregion Ecoregion 7/28/2016 DRECP Boundary CDCA Boundary BLM California State Office LLPA 0 10 20 Land Status Kilometers Bureau of Land Management Miles Department of Defense 0 10 20 239 Kingston-Amargosa Subregion ACEC Units Map Unit Name Page Number for Special Unit Management Plan # Amargosa North 3 241 Amargosa South 4 249 Halloran Wash 51 260 Ivanpah 56 267 Kingston Range 59 274 Kingston Range WSA 60 279 Mesquite Lake 70 282 Mountain Pass/Dinosaur Trackway 76 287 Shadow Valley 108 292 240 Amargosa North California Desert National Conservation Lands Ecoregion: Kingston‐Amargosa Description/Location: Located between Funeral Mountain Wilderness, Resting Spring Range Wilderness, Death Valley National Park, and Nevada Stateline. Encompasses all of Amargosa Desert. This designation incorporates and subsumes part of the existing Amargosa River unit. Nationally Significant Values: Ecological: The Amargosa River North unit is marked by permanent flowing water and wetlands in one of the driest desert areas on the continent, and includes a broad range of habitat types, serving as a magnet for a diversity of plant and wildlife species, including many special status species. Carson Slough is habitat for the federally endangered Amargosa niterwort (Nitrophila mohavensis) and the federally threatened Ash Meadows gumplant (Grindelia fraxino‐pratensis). The area also provides habitat for several narrowly endemic species, some of which may not have been described yet by scientists.