Activists have spurred the closure of mines, roads, grazing allotments, and ORV playgrounds on millions of acres of critical habitat creating an unparalleled opportunity for endangered species recovery.
Habitat protection is clearly the road to recovery.
The area was established in 1976 but has continued to be roaded, grazed, mined, and ORVed to death. This is all bighorn critical habitat managed by the BLM in California, including its 189,423 acre share of the recently designated Santa Rosa Mountains National Monument. A previous suit by the Center resulted in a legal settlement removing livestock from the 17,982 acres of bighorn critical habitat within the San Bernardino National Forest. Through the two legal actions, livestock have been removed from all federally managed desert bighorn critical habitat. Livestock threaten the sheep by grazing off desert grasses and spreading wildlife diseases.