180,000 Acres of Desert Transferred to Public

RIVERSIDE —  The public assumed ownership Thursday of nearly 180,000 acres of desert land scattered from Needles to Barstow, an area billed as one of the most pristine areas in the California desert.

Marked with rock outcroppings, dunes and spiny cactuses, the area is home to a menagerie of threatened and endangered species, including bighorn sheep and the desert tortoise.

The title transfer from Catellus Development Corp. to the federal government is part of one of the most ambitious land-buying programs since the Louisiana Purchase, said Doran Sanchez, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The government has acquired more than 400,000 acres in the area for preservation.

The U.S. gave the land to Southern Pacific Railroad during the westward expansion of the mid-1800s. It was never developed, and ended up in the hands of Catellus, formerly the railroad’s development arm.

The nonprofit Wildlands Conservancy bought the land earlier this year with $15 million in donations, then gave it to the government.

Thursday’s land transfer includes parts of several wilderness areas, including the Dead and Chemehuevi mountains near Needles and the Piute Mountains in the southern end of Mojave National Preserve.

The government will also target smaller pockets of land in the area. The Interior Department has requested $15 million for that phase, said Jan Bedrosian, a Bureau of Land Management congressional and legislative affairs specialist.