We recently learned that the Interior Board of Land Appeals granted our stay request. This means there will be no construction in the Sheephole Valley Wilderness until IBLA rules on the merits of our appeal, which can often take a couple years.

The California Department of Fish & Game (DFG) is seeking approval from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to construct an extensive system of artificial water sources called "guzzlers" throughout a portion of the California Desert. Currently, DFG has identified 93 new guzzler sites in a region known as the Northern and Eastern Colorado Desert. Several dozen of these would be in designated Wilderness.

DFG hopes to undertake this desert plumbing project on faith that the presence of more water will substantially increase populations of desert bighorn sheep and deer for recreational hunting (see "Stalking the Desert Holstein," Wilderness Watcher Winter 2002/2003).

This June, the BLM issued approval to construct the first big game guzzler in DFG’s vast proposed network. The approved site, named the S.D. guzzler, is within the Sheephole Valley Wilderness. Installation of the S.D. guzzler is planned for this fall. Construction consists of a 50-foot-wide, low concrete diversion dam across an ephemeral desert wash, excavation for installation of a 30-foot long 10,000-gallon water storage tank, a 16-foot-wide 2,500-gallon "drinker" tank, and associated plastic pipelines, and a concrete wildlife "drinker" apron to funnel rainwater into the tank.

In addition to these permanent structures, the project will establish new motor vehicle intrusions into the Wilderness for purposes of maintaining and re-filling the guzzler. BLM estimates that there will be motor vehicles driving through the Sheephole Valley Wilderness on 45 days each year. This will increase substantially if DFG gains approval to construct the other five new guzzlers it has proposed for the Wilderness!

Although the Sheephole Valley Wilderness has no known permanent surface water, evidence indicates that bighorn sheep have been surviving in this area for decades, with no need for artificial water sources. Even if guzzlers become abundant, there is no evidence that the vegetation will be adequate to support a larger population of bighorn sheep.

In an effort to put a permanent plug in this plumbing project, Wilderness Watch joined with the California Wilderness Coalition and Desert Survivors to co-write an appeal and petition for a stay of the S.D. guzzler decision. The Center for Biological Diversity and Natural Resource Defense Council have joined the petition. The Department of Interior Board of Land Appeals is expected to rule on the stay request in early September. Although the appeal is specific to the S.D. guzzler, our arguments emphasize that it is not a singular project but rather part of a vast plumbing network that will have widespread permanent cumulative impacts on the desert ecosystem and the wilderness character of many areas in the California Desert.