Introduction to the Eastern Mojave Desert

The Eastern Mojave Desert contains high-quality habitat that supports "hotspots" of biodiversity, as well as areas especially critical for bird conservation. This map displays the Important Bird Areas of the Eastern Mojave as well as points identified as hotspots for biodiversity by partners who live and work here.

According to the global Human Influence Index, there is currently relatively little human influence on the Eastern Mojave landscape. This map shows low influence (green) throughout most of the area, with higher influence (red) around Las Vegas, Pahrump, and roads.

The Human Influence Index is a global-scale score system of the amount of human influence on the landscape. Learn more about the index here:

The Eastern Mojave Desert area of interest covers 12,494,789 acres in southeast California and southern Nevada.

The majority of land in the Eastern Mojave area of interest is managed by federal agencies; federal lands account for approximately 94.5 percent of the area. Six U.S. federal agencies manage lands in the Eastern Mojave area:

• Bureau of Land Management
• Department of Defense
• Department of Energy
• Fish and Wildlife Service
• Forest Service
• National Park Service

The colored areas on the map are federally managed areas. Click on the map to identify the management agency.

State lands account for approximately 1.0 percent of the Eastern Mojave area, and municipal lands comprise approximately 0.2 percent. The major municipal lands are located in the greater Las Vegas metropolitan area and the towns of Henderson, NV and Pahrump, NV.

State land parcels are scattered within larger areas of federal lands - Death Valley National Park, Mojave National Preserve, and Bureau of Land Management lands. Most of the state land in the Eastern Mojave area is owned by California.

In the map opposite, state lands are colored red and municipal lands are dark gray.

Less than one percent of the Eastern Mojave area are tribal lands. The tribal lands are property of the Timbi-Sha Shoshone band.

One contributor to the low human influence index is the amount of lands managed for conservation. The map opposite illustrates lands that are required to be managed for sustaining natural and/or cultural resources. These areas include:

• One National Conservation Area: Red Rock NCA
• One National Monument : Tule Springs Fossil Beds
• One National Park: Death Valley
• One National Preserve: Mojave National Preserve
• One National Recreation Area: Lake Mead NRA
• Two National Wildlife Refuges: Ash Meadows, Desert
• 22 Wilderness areas: Black Canyon, Death Valley, Eldorado, Funeral Mountains, Hollow Hills, Ibex, Ireteba Peaks, Kingston Range, La Madre Mountain, Mojave, Mount Charleston, McCollough, Mesquite, Mt. Charleston, Mt. Irish, Pahrump Valley, Rainbow Mountain, Resting Spring Range, Nopah Range, Stateline, Soda Mountains, and Wee Thump Joshua Tree
• Conservation easements (see map for locations)

Very little agricultural activity occurs in the Eastern Mojave Desert. Agricultural areas active in 2016 are pictured in yellow.

Areas managed to prioritize utility-scale energy development include:

• Amargosa Valley and Gold Point Solar Energy Zones (NV)
• Ivanpah Solar Energy facility (CA)

Major urban areas include the greater Las Vegas area and Pahrump, NV. Click on the polygons to view information on the larger cities.

The Eastern Mojave Conservation Collaborative (EMCC) began as a sub-portion of the Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative in 2016. This federally-funded effort helped initiate a Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) process to identify, develop and strengthen large-scale collaborative relationships. The EMCC is comprised of partners carrying the LCD process forward by identifying shared management challenges and developing tools and strategies for collaborative action.  

The overall goal of this collaborative is to promote long-term conservation in the Eastern Mojave Desert. This will be done through successful collaboration and pooling of resources. The EMCC supports coordinated action across multiple jurisdictions, increases shared learning and knowledge sharing, and supports the work and objectives of partners.

Partners of the EMCC have worked to collaboratively develop objectives, which include:

1.Develop critical information to support management actions

2.Implement an action-oriented process that focuses on implementation rather than simply producing more planning documents

3.Strengthen and/or develop ongoing forums and partnerships for coordination and collaboration

Work for shared leadership and the development of shared funding 

–The EMCC has begun accomplishing its objectives through various collaborative activities

-Selected as a pilot area for the Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative (2016)

–- Conducted outreach through webinars, workshops, presentations

–- Established the Coordinating Team, which directs the activities of the EMCC

–- Defined goals, objectives and focal resources with key partners

–- Identified indicators of ecological integrity and developed an analysis process

–- Discussed and developed tools for partners

Focus areas of the EMCC include Ecosystem Integrity, Biodiversity, Connectivity, and Socio-Cultural and Economic resources. Goals related to those areas are as follows:

Ecosystem Integrity - Maximize the integrity of ecological systems that characterize the diverse Eastern Mojave landscape, including both conservation areas and working landscapes. 

Biodiversity - Ensure the persistence of biological diversity of ecosystems and habitats, including the conservation of species diversity (defined through species of conservation concern in state, regional, and national conservation plans).

Connectivity - Maximize structural and functional connectivity of the landscape for the movement of genes, propagules (pollen and seeds), individuals, and populations to support the organisms that live in, and move through, the landscape. 

Socio-cultural and economic resources - Promote ecological conditions that support a thriving human community and help to sustain economic uses.

Building from the objectives and focus areas developed by partners in the region, the EMCC has created three main tools, described below.

The Collaborative Conservation Adaptation Strategies Toolbox (CCAST) is an online repository and guide to examples of work being done across the Western U.S. on key land management issues.

Five case studies are available in the Eastern Mojave Desert:

•  Widlife-Friendly Solar Energy in the Eastern Mojave Desert 
•  Highway 93 Wildlife Overpasses 
•  Plant and Topsoil Salvage Methods for Revegetation 
•  Desert Tortoise Habitat Restoration Methods 
•  Creating Refuge for Mojave Tui Chub 
•  Research and Collaboration to Improve Amargosa Vole Conservation