Last month the Bureau of Land Management announced a $3.1 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that will seek to restore wildlife habitat in 6 western states. That’s good news for the west coast and even better news for public land loving Californians.
The first is taking place in the Santa Ana wash area of San Bernardino County – located about 50 miles west of us as the crow flies. The BLM will be focusing on restoring the habitat for the endangered slender-horned spineflower along with the San Bernardino Kangaroo Rat – which is one of the variations of the famous furry fellow that you can find scurrying around the hi-desert and sunrise and sunset.
Then just south of us in the shrinking Salton Sea – a success for another variation of the species – this one called the Stephen’s Kangaroo rat. The BLM has been protecting the habitat of the subspecies for over 30 years, and they report that they have partially recovered in population and are being reclassified from endangered to threatened – a nice little level-up for them.
And the third isn’t Morongo Basin related but definitely hits on a topic familiar to any desert resident, and that’s invasive species. The BLM will be working on removing annual invasive grasses from the Lahontan Watershed in the Great Basin Desert, which they will then reseed with native species to try and restore core sage grouse habitats and ecosystem.
Further reading:
https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-invest-31-million-restore-wildlife-habitats-p
