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<br /> <br />3. <br /> <br />Slide 1. <br /> <br />Slide 2. <br /> <br />Slide 3. <br /> <br />Slide 4. <br /> <br />Slide 5. <br /> <br />Slide 6. <br /> <br />Slide 7. <br /> <br />"t. . <br /> <br />Most of the early settlers and immigrants looked upon the <br /> <br /> <br />California Desert as a forbidding, hostile wasteland. <br /> <br /> <br />John F. Fremont once referred to it as "the most sterile <br /> <br /> <br />and dismal desert he had seen". <br /> <br /> <br />Today many people look upon the desert as a "priceless <br /> <br /> <br />heritage", storehouse of natural historic and cultural <br /> <br />resources" . <br /> <br />Public values change, but most people will still agree that <br />the California Desert is a huge area. It encompasses 25 <br />million acres, about 1/4 of the state of California and <br />about the size of the entire state of Ohio. <br />Ecologically the California Desert is part of the Great North <br />American Desert which is divided into 3 sub-types, the Great <br />Basin, Mojave and Sonoran, portions of each of these sub-types <br /> <br /> <br />are included in the California Desert and account for the <br /> <br /> <br />tremendous diversity found there. <br /> <br /> <br />450,000 people live witbin the desert boundaries. They are <br /> <br /> <br />dispersed over approximately 1/4 of the desert areal the <br /> <br /> <br />remaining 3/4's isbasioally unoccupied and mostly public- <br /> <br /> <br />land managed by Federal or state agencies. <br /> <br /> <br />The Bureau of Land Management is responsible for about 1/2 <br /> <br /> <br />of these lands (over 12 million acres). <br /> <br /> <br />The Military, inclUding all branches of the service manage <br /> <br /> <br />about 12' of the desert. <br /> <br />C-lO <br />