The high desert landscape
surrounding Mono Lake has moved one large
step toward remaining unspoiled with a
3,748-acre gift from The Wilderness Land
Trust. The Trust purchased the acreage
from a developer in 2005 and donated it
July 13th to the Bureau of Land Management,
which administers nearby land as Wilderness
Study Areas. To further assure that the
land will continue in its natural state,
the Trust placed deed restrictions on
the property and donated the parcel’s
mineral rights to The
Eastern Sierra Land Trust.
Cedar Hill, as the donated land is
known, was the largest privately-owned
tract in the Mono Basin. It ranges in
elevation from 6,800 to 8,500 feet above
sea level and includes Pinyon-Juniper
woodlands, sagebrush steppe, perennial
streams, and meadows. The entire area
offers other outstanding qualities including
nationally significant historic and
prehistoric cultural resources, and
opportunities for solitude and primitive
recreation.
During the past three years The Wilderness
Land Trust has donated some 10,000 acres
within California to the BLM or the
Forest Service in 55 different transactions.
Based in Carbondale, Colorado, and with
offices in California, Oregon and Washington
State, the Wilderness Land Trust protects
wilderness by purchasing private parcels
within wilderness areas and transferring
them to public ownership. Since its
founding in 1992 the Trust has purchased
264 parcels totaling over 21,000 acres
in more than 64 western wildernesses.
