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Joshua Tree National Park ("Joshua Tree") has been described as a living fabric, as pristine as any site in the California desert today or ever will be in the future.  Joshua Tree's history elucidates the level of significance placed on the Park by the American people.  The lands omitted from Joshua Tree National Monument in 1950 were to be used to mine the minerals first and foremost and if not, the Highest and Best Use is to return the land to the Public, i.e. Joshua Tree National Park, since that is where it originated.  There are no intentions to mine these lands in the future, and Kaiser relinquished all of its claims in the hopes of building the world’s largest dump.  The old Kaiser Mine and campsite/townsite will be designated a National Historic Landmark, managed by National Park Service (“NPS”) for its superlative interpretive value, and its unique role in American culture in the creation of the steel industry on the West Coast. Secretary of the Interior Gayle Norton proposed a Superfund Garbage Dump in Fresno for National Historic Landmark designation in 2002. Here in the desert, we have a National Historic Landmark that the Department of the Interior want to turn into a superfund site!

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK HISTORY

August 10, 1936 President Roosevelt established Joshua Tree National Monument by Presidential Proclamation to protect and preserve the area's historic, prehistoric, and scientific features.

September 25, 1950, Congress deleted 265,340 acres from Joshua Tree National Park by enacting Public Law 837.  The President ordered a survey of minerals to “determine to what extent said area is more valuable for minerals than for National Monument purposes”.

July 8, 1952 Congress enacted Private Law 790 (“PL790“) granting certain rights-of-way and issuing patent to 465 acres of land to Kaiser Steel Corporation for campsite/millsite purposes.  PL790 included the expressed condition that “said property shall revert in fee to the United States in the event that said property is not used for a continuous period of seven years as a camp site or mill site or for other incidental purposes in connection with mining operations of said corporation or its successors in interest”.  It was fully intended by Congress and the President that this land would go back to public ownership if not used for the purposes of which the Acts were created, “the development of the Steel industry on the West Coast” (Source: House Report No. 398 that accompany PL790).

In 1976, Joshua Tree was given federal wilderness designation and in 1977 Joshua Tree received Class I Wilderness Airshed status.

In 1984 the United Nations designated Joshua Tree as an International Biosphere Reserve as one of the last examples of a pristine desert ecosystem.  According to the Park's former Superintendent Ernest Quintana, the chief reason for the Park's designation as an International Biosphere Reserve is that it "offers the most refuge for the greatest number of species from human impacts of any area in southern California."

On October 31, 1994 Congress added 234,000 acres to the monument, designated an additional 163,000 acres as wilderness, reaffirmed that Joshua Tree is "a public wildland resource of extraordinary and inestimable value for this and future generations" and, affirmed Joshua Tree's status as a national significant area by designating it a National Park.

The Southeastern Wilderness areas of Joshua Tree National Park are threatened by the proposed development of the World’s largest garbage dump.  Plans for the Eagle Mountain townsite include, but is not limited to smelters, fabrication plants, asphalt batch making plant, recyclable sales and a recycling center.  All of these facilities are inappropriate when surrounded like an amphitheater by Joshua Tree National Park Wilderness.  29,775 acres of land omitted from the Monument in 1950 including the land slated for the dump, must be returned to the Park or the results will be an irretrievable commitment to natural resources, and death to one of our nation’s premier National Parks.

TWO SONGS

Eric Neil and J. T. Shakers of Joshua Tree have recorded two songs (Raw Trash Cannonball and Big Money Man) that express their opposition to L. A. County garbage being hauled to Eagle Mountain.  You can download and listen to those songs by going to the Web site at http://www.new-moon-records.com/16wordsweb.html.