White Mountains Potential Wilderness
 Size:
Approximately 465,844 acres.
Management Agencies: Inyo and Toiyabe National Forests, BLM Bishop Resource Area and California Desert District
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.
Description: 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 meadows of willows teeming with migratory songbirds every spring and summer.
Wilderness and Wild & Scenic River status for the White Mountains and Cottonwood Creek, respectively, would protect this diverse ecosystem and ensure that habitat connectivity, ecosystem health and outstanding recreational opportunities are preserved for this unparalleled wildland.
The steep topography of the Whites, combined with a high variety of soil types, yield amazing biological diversity over a relatively small area. Once can move quickly from desert alkali shrubs at the base of wide alluvial fans, up through pinyon-juniper woodlands 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.
For additional information, please contact:
Sally Miller
The Wilderness Society
Phone: (760) 647-1614
Email: sally_miller@tws.org
Or contact:
Paul McFarland
Friends of the Inyo
P.O. Box 64
Lee Vining, CA 93541
(760) 647-0079
Email: pmcfarland@qnet.com
Web site: www.friendsoftheinyo.org |
Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
