White Mountains Wilderness and Cottonwood Creek Wild & Scenic River Citizens' Proposal
Return to Proposals Overview
 Proposed Acreage:
Approximately 235,000 acres of Wilderness and 22 miles of Wild & Scenic River
Land Management Agencies:
Inyo National Forests, BLM Bishop and Ridgecrest Field Offices
Location:
East of Highway 6 from the town of Bishop to Benton, west of Nevada route 3A, north of Highway 168, south of Highway 6.
Proposal Summary:
As America's highest desert mountain range and the second largest Inventoried Roadless Area in the Lower 48, the White Mountains are long overdue for Wilderness. Nominated as a National Natural Landmark by the Department of the Interior, the range's high peaks and rolling ridges represent a rare alpine island rising above a sea of sagebrush desert. An extremely fragile landscape, the White Mountains are home to the oldest living trees in the world, the nearly 5,000 year old bristlecone pines, and the highest peak in the Great Basin, 14,246 foot White Mountain peak. Cottonwood Creek cascades down a steep canyon on the east face of the Whites, past aspen thickets and through cottonwood and willow woodland teeming with migratory songbirds. Wilderness and Wild & Scenic River status for the White Mountains and Cottonwood Creek, respectively, would protect this unique ecosystem and ensure that habitat connectivity, ecosystem health and outstanding recreational opportunities are preserved for future generations.
 Natural Values:
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The highest range in the Great Basin, the steep topography of the Whites, combined with a high variety of soil-types, yields amazing biological diversity over a relatively small area. One can move quickly from desert alkali shrubs at the base of wide alluvial fans, up through pinyon-juniper woodland into the high barrens of the gnarled bristlecones, and out onto windswept alpine fell barrens, an ecological journey equivalent to walking north from the Mojave Desert to the polar arctic.
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Along the gentle ridges of the Whites runs the largest expanse of alpine steppe/ tundra in western North America. Once disturbed, it will take this rare and fragile ecosystem over 100 years to recover from damage done by vehicles and other disturbances.
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Herds of desert bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope and mule deer wander this transitional range at the western edge of the Great Basin.
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The large expanse of undisturbed land and diversity of habitats make the White Mountains an ideal living laboratory for research into many fields of ecology. 8,700 years of tree-rings taken from ancient bristlecone pines provide an extraordinary record of our planet's changing climate.
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With beautiful canyons of banded marble and striated peaks of fossil-rich quartzite, the rocks of the White Mountains cover over 600 million years of our earth's history. Trilobites and their trails, coral mounds, and a host of other Paleozoic life are preserved in these rocks.
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If designated a Wild & Scenic River, Cottonwood Creek would become the only river in the Great Basin to be protected from its source to its terminus at the mouth of the canyon.
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Evidence of human use of the White Mountains extends back over 10,000 years. Traces of seasonal campsites, some as high as 11,000 feet, mark annual migration routes where families stopped for pinyon nut collection, to gather bulbs and greens and hunt for game.
Recreational Values:
- Unlimited opportunities for backpacking and day hiking can be found along the rolling ridges and deep canyons of the Whites.
- A rich variety of habitat, from alpine-fell field to spring fed, aspen-lined creeks to sagebrush plateaus, makes the range perfect for nature study. The White Mountains draw botanists, geologists, paleontologists and other naturalists from around the world.
Land Ownership:
Nearly all the land within the proposed Wilderness is publicly owned and managed by the Inyo National Forest. Land along the eastern and western flanks is managed by the BLM, Bishop and Ridgecrest Field Offices.
Access:
All major access routes, including the road to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, roads to the Barcroft and Crooked Creek labs, and the east-west Silver Canyon and Wyman Canyon roads, would remain open. Roads to McCloud Camp, Deep Springs Cow Camp, the Molly Gibson Mine, Grandview Mine, and Dead Horse Meadow would continue to remain open. The roads to the Trail Canyon Saddle trail head or up along Cottonwood Creek on the eastside of the Whites are not affected. Hang gliding take-off points, mountain bike trails, working mines, and car camping and hunting campsites have been excluded. Water diversion and development facilities along the western slope have been excluded from the proposal. The Spark Plug Mine, and access to it, is cherry-stemmed out of the potential wilderness.
 Threats:
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Mining is a continuing threat to the integrity of the White Mountains, especially in the northern and western portions of the range.
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Protection of the range as Wilderness would prevent new mining claims from being filed, and would require that existing claims undergo a rigorous "validity examination" before mining could proceed.
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Damage from a growing network of illegal off-road vehicle trails also threatens the Whites. The fragile soils and many riparian corridors, both vital to wildlife, are currently being damaged by inconsiderate ORV users. Wilderness status would restrict ORVs to cherry-stemmed roads, preventing the destruction of these fragile mountain habitats, while still maintaining motorized access to popular locales.
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