NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: December 27, 2002

Contact:  Doran Sanchez (909) 697-5220 or Jan Bedrosian (916) 978-4616

CA-CDD-03-17

 

Record of Decision Approving Coachella Valley Plan Amendment Released by BLM

 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has issued the record of decision approving the California Desert Conservation Area Plan amendment for the Coachella Valley (Coachella Valley Plan).  The planning area encompasses 1.2 million acres in central Riverside County and a small portion of San Bernardino County, of which 337,000 acres are BLM-administered public lands.

 

The Coachella Valley Plan was developed in coordination with the Coachella Valley Association of Governments in support of local efforts to prepare a Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. The Coachella Valley Plan includes goals, objectives, and management prescriptions for comprehensive management of public lands, including actions supporting recovery of 10 species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

 

The Coachella Valley Plan will amend the BLM's 1980 California Desert Conservation Area Plan, and fulfill the BLM's responsibilities under the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act and the 1973 Endangered Species Act. 

 

State Director Mike Pool added that his signature of the record of decision lifts a number of interim restrictions on public access and use of the BLM-managed lands that resulted from the lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in March of 2000.  BLM will be publishing notices in the Federal Register of the specific stipulations in the lawsuit settlement that have now expired.

 

Copies of the record of decision are being mailed to those who received a copy of the proposed plan and final environmental impact statement or submitted a letter protesting the plan.  The record of decision is now available on line at http://www.ca.blm.gov/cdd/landuseplanning.html.  The approved plan will be available soon and will also be mailed and posted on line.

 

For more information or to request copies of the documents, contact Elena Misquez at BLM's Palm Springs-South Coast Field Office at (760) 251-4810 or via e-mail at emisquez@ca.blm.gov.

 

-BLM-

 

California Desert District Office - 6221 Box Springs Blvd, Riverside, California - (909) 697-5220